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Отражение пространства образования беотийских Фив раннехристианского периода (IV-VI вв.) в материальной культуре
The article describes Thebes as a major regional center of Christianity in 4th-6th centuries. In addition to “industrial” success, when the city successfully developed as a center for the production of early Christian mosaics and silk, Thebes was a center of intellectual and educational activity which was carried out mainly inside church territories. S. Symeonoglou’s catalogue of archaeological excavations and recent archaeological reports, which reflect archaeological research under the guidance of V. Aravantinos and with the participation of the author of this article, suggest the possible locations of the churches on the Kadmeia, the acropolis of Thebes. The evidence for the possible locations of one of the basilicas (sites 18 and 40 in Symeonoglou’s catalogue) is a rectangular mosaic. Similar mosaics were found in site 88 of the catalogue, where a large building, which could have been a church, was supposedly located. The early Christian sacred places could also have been located in sites 218, 270, 32, 266 and 270 of the catalogue. However, at the moment there is only one most precisely localized place where the early Christian basilica was located - on the site of the central Mycenaean palace complex on the south side of Antigone street (Antigonis 27-29). Not only scattered architectural stone fragments of the basilica, a few of its walls as well as sections of the floor, but also a fountain with a mosaic floor dating back to the 4th century BC, were found here. The floor decorations are associated with marine motives and include bird images which could symbolize not only the feast, but also the communion. We assume that all this was the residence of the Bishop of Thebes. Another discovered mosaic contained an inscription saying that a teacher of theology, an intellectual from the clerical order, ordered it. In total, we have identified and described ten sites for possible educational and intellectual activity in Christian Thebes. The main ones are the above-mentioned remains of religious buildings with the mosaics on which classical themes adapted to Christian symbolism.