habitat rupestre.pdf - Società Friulana di Archeologia

MIGRATIONS AND INVASIONSCRHIMA-CINP projectgrant this population from the other side of the Adriatic Seasuitable conditions. In some areas, where their settlementswere more stable, they preserved their language and their traditions.Tragic consequences of immigration characterized the westernhistory. Populations moved from a region to another notonly because of wars and destruction.Herodotus, the great Greek historian born in 484 b.C. anddead in 425 b.C., told about many migrations in his Stories,and they were caused by wars or natural calamities.In the first book, he wrote about the Cimmerians (an Indo-Europeanpopulation form the Asian steppes), who were chasedaway from the nomad Shiites (a population living the actualSouthern Siberia), and that reached in Minor Asia, occupyingSardis (a town in Minor Asia).Indo-European migrating population crossed the Fertile Crescentfrom 2000 to 600 b.C. The first Indo-European migrationin 2000 b.C. was performed by Persians, Achaeans (thefuture Greeks), Celts, Slavs, and Hittites. The latter populationreached Anatolia from the Central Asian steppes: theydefeated the original populations of the area and became thedominant warriors. Their contribution to history was the Artof iron and riding. In 1200 b.C., a second Indo-European migrationoccurred: the Dorians, the Peleshets and other populationsentered into Mediterranean Asia and defeated the Hittites;Hittites goldsmiths emigrated and divulgated the secretsof iron, determining the beginning of the Iron Age.One of the most famous migrations, also cited in the Bible,concerns the Hebrews. It lasted six hundreds years, from 1800to 1200 b.C. In 1800 b.C., the patriarch Abraham left Ur, inMesopotamia, with his offspring, and reached Palestine. Thenhe moved to Egypt, where the Hebrews were prisoners for 600years. In 1200 Moses, a successor of Abraham, rebelled andescaped through the Red Sea with his people, reaching theirpromised land, Palestine.The Lombards brought a model of church in Southern Italy; aprototype of this model is Sant’Ilario a Porta Aurea in Benevento:a church with apse, and a nave constituted by twosquare modules. This is a frequent model of Early Medieval(and later) rupestrian churches of Puglia, as the church in theMasseria Tamburello, Mottola.The Arab migration is very important, as it brought to thebirth of the Mozarabic culture. It included aspects of the Vandalicculture, and it was the main cause for the recovery ofGreek philosophy and science in Europe. The Arabs broughtthe horseshoe arc in Europe: it is in many rupestrian monumentsof Puglia, as in the plan of apses, and in real arcades.The influence of this arc is evident in Cappadocia, as in theChurch of Saint Joan the Baptizer (Çavusin), where the apseis horseshoe shaped, or in other rupestrian churches, as KadirKilisesi in Avicilar or Kale Kilisesi in Selime.The Arab invasions helped the diffusion of Islam in the 8 thcentury. The new religion spread in Northern Africa and wasadapted to the costumes of the local populations. Where peopleused to dig rocks for a house, the migrants did the same.In Libya, Tunisia and Algeria there is a great rupestrian heritage,especially in the hinterland, where the Berber People live.The sect of Ibadi left many known hypogeal Mosques, as theywere living in that area since the 8th century. The well knownsite of M’Zab, in Algeria, was the spiritual centre of Ibadismin North Africa since the 11th century. These Mosques arebare, as they fully represented the Ibadi approach to religion:the house of God did not need ornaments.An example of Algerian Mosque is in the oasis of UadiZouil, where, in the wonderful cave Aren nu Fighar, it wasconsidered possible to contact super-terrestrial entities. Thecave-Mosque of Daya is worshipped by women. The ChaabaMosque is from the 9th century.Other Ibadi Mosques were realized in the rocks of GebelNefusa, Libya, and in Tunisia, on the Dahar Plateau and onthe Island of Djerba. Many of these rupestrian Mosques havean external enclosure with mihrab that was used as open airMosque. The research on Mosques in Gebel Nefusa is particularlyinteresting, as there are inscriptions from the Quran andindications of the builders. These are rare elements that documentthe history of these populations, so they allow the studyof vernacular Berber architecture.The main Libyan Mosques are Jama Hwariuon (Forsatta), SidiBu Ragun (Kabao), Thnumayat, Tekut, Uazzen, and Abu Zaccaria.In Tunisia there are the rupestrian Mosques of Fig andPalm in Douiret, Ksar in Mourabtine, Iamaa Louta and Jamaal Baldawi in the island of Djerba. In Libya and Tunisia thereare also rupestrian Mosques that were not built by the Ibadi,and that follow the ancient architecture of Kairouan and Cairo.The Sicilian Mosques are connected to the Berber culture, asthey were realized during the Arab domination. The architecturalforms of Rometta seem a rupestrian adaptation of theancient Mosque of Kairouan, with the typical T plan of theFig. 2 San Marco Church , Rivolta ravine, Ginosa (TA).volumeRicerca_OK_2012-11-15.indd 32 16/11/2012 15:00:51