06 — The Archaeology of Hierapolis
The collection’s rare hard evidence: the 2011 discovery at Hierapolis (Pamukkale, Turkey), directed by Francesco D’Andria of the Università del Salento, of a first-century Roman tomb and the octagonal fifth-century martyrium identified — cautiously — as the shrine of the Apostle Philip. These files set out what was actually excavated: the octagon on the hill, the basilica built directly around an earlier tomb, the pilgrimage wear and the bread-stamps and inscriptions invoking Philip, and the conditional, evidence-weighing language the excavators themselves used.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle)
For most of the Twelve the tradition of a tomb or shrine is a matter of texts alone. Philip is the unusual case in which a named, excavated site has been put forward as the very place the early sources meant — Hierapolis, where Polycrates and Clement (in Eusebius) said a Philip was buried. The 2011 announcement drew worldwide notice, and it is exactly the kind of claim the repository methodology is built to handle: it is reported here with the excavators’ own caution intact, neither inflated into proof of the apostle’s bones (the relics, the tradition says, had long since been translated away) nor dismissed. What the spades found — a martyrium, a tomb, a pilgrimage complex, and the epigraphic invocation of “the Apostle Philip” — is set out plainly, and the identification is presented as the careful, conditional judgment of the excavation, not as established fact.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Martyrium Found 2011 | The 2011 discovery: D’Andria’s decades at Hierapolis; the announcement; the basilica found ~40 m from the octagon, built around a first-century Roman tomb; the bread-stamps, seals, and inscriptions invoking St. Philip; the pilgrimage wear; and the cautious, conditional identification. |
| The Tomb and the Octagon | The two structures: the octagonal fifth-century martyrium on the hill (long known) and the newly excavated tomb-church below it; how they relate; the translation of the relics (to Constantinople, then Rome, Santi Apostoli) that explains the empty tomb; and what the architecture says about the cult. |
See Also
- The Mission — the textual tradition the site is set beside
- The Martyrdom — the death the martyrium commemorates
- Iconography and Cult — the relics and the wider cult of the apostle
- Reception and Legacy — the find weighed in the larger historical question
- Pre-Schism Church — the early Christian Asia the site belongs to
References
- D’Andria, Francesco. “Conversion, Crucifixion and Celebration: St. Philip’s Martyrium at Hierapolis Draws Thousands over the Centuries.” Biblical Archaeology Review 37, no. 4 (2011): 34–46.
- D’Andria, Francesco. “The Sanctuary of St. Philip the Apostle at Hierapolis in Phrygia.” OrthoChristian.com (English account), originally in Italian. (D’Andria’s own narrative of the discovery, the tomb, the martyrium, and the translation of the relics.)
- Huttner, Ulrich. Early Christianity in the Lycus Valley. Leiden: Brill, 2013. (Hierapolis and the Philip sanctuary.)