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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Like so many houses of cards, recently constructed buildings throughout Western Turkey collapsed -- many instantly -- when the region was rocked by an earthquake measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale during the wee hours of Aug. 17.
But when the new day dawned in Istanbul, it was apparent that the architectural survivors of the seismic activity included some of the city's oldest and most historic structures. Among them is a 12th century Byzantine church, which University of Illinois architectural history professor Robert Ousterhout and a team of Turkish researchers have been documenting and restoring since 1996.
"Most of the historic structures have suffered little apparent damage, but many are nonetheless in need of careful examination and restoration," Ousterhout said. When the quake hit, Ousterhout was in Istanbul overseeing work on the former church, now a mosque known as the Zeyrek Camii. On Sept. 14, the World Monuments Fund named the Zeyrek Camii to its 2000 Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites.
The Aug. 17 quake was just one of many the Turkish structure has survived since it was constructed eight centuries ago as a church and dynastic mausoleum by the Emperor John II Komnenos and his Hungarian wife Eirene. Originally known as the Church of the Pantokrator ("the judge of all"), the structure was converted for use as a theological school, and subsequently as a mosque, by Mehmet the Conqueror following the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.
Ousterhout and colleagues from the Istanbul Technical University uncovered evidence of previous earthquake damage and subsequent restorations to the complex last summer while undertaking the first major phase of the current restoration. The project included removing concrete roofing and replacing it with lead sheeting -- a daunting task considering the complexity of the roof, which includes five domes.
Stripping away materials, "we found fragments of architectural sculpture and mosaic cubes had been thrown in as fill in the roof," Ousterhout said. Even more interesting was the recovery of 40 Byzantine amphoras, also wedged in as filler. The amphoras were studied and restored, then relocated to a nearby museum. As a late 20th century nod to the original construction methods, one of Ousterhout's colleagues went to a local market and purchased similar jugs, which were substituted for the originals.
The next major project will be the replacement of the structure's 99 windows. Following that, the team will remove plaster from interior walls to uncover early Byzantine or Ottoman decoration. From there, Ousterhout hopes to initiate "archaeological interventions" -- determining where the emperor and his descendents are entombed. "I have documents with names of about 20 people buried there," he said. "And by understanding burial practices of the time, we should be able to locate them.
"Who knows what we'll find? That's one of the interesting things about archaeology. To some, I realize, it sounds like treasure-hunting, but the important thing is to get an accurate documentation of life in the 12th century."
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