Focus of this project was on the structure of the residence, on some palaces and neighbouring buildings, on the infrastructure as well as on questions concerning the water-management and the historic land-use of the archaeological site Resafa in North-Syria.
Research
The archaeological site Resafa in North-Syria consists of the 400m x 600 m large fortified city erected in Late Antiquity and the residence of Umayyad calif Hisham b. Abd a-Malik (724 – 743 AD), measuring about 3 qkm and lying south of it. Since the 5th/6th century Resafa has been destination of a famous pilgrimage, dedicated to St. Sergios. In the second quarter of the 8th century the place became as residence of caliph Hisham the centre of the Islamic world. Archaeological researches have been conducted since 1950s. Since 2006 the project “Resafa-Sergiupolis – Rusafat Hisham. Pilgrimage City and Caliphal Residence” with five subprojects has been launched to understand the development of the whole settlement of Resafa – intra and extra muros – as a joint process. Researches in subproject 2 “The residence of Caliph Hisham b. Abd al-Malik” related to TOPOI focused on the structure of the residence, on some palaces and neighbouring buildings, on the infrastructure as well as on questions concerning the water-management and the historic land-use.