The paper addresses a recently discovered rock-hewn chapel in the Davitgareji Desert, which has preserved late twelfth-early thirteenth century wall paintings dominated by a cycle of St Demetrios. The cycle, which finds no parallel in Georgia, is remarkable in many regards and raises important questions as to the chronology and geographical spread of such cycles, the provenance of unknown iconographical redactions, the history of the relics of St Demetrios, the function of the chapel dedicated to the saint, and the interaction between Georgian and Byzantine artistic and cultural traditions, in general.

This volume on the archaeology and ethnology of sacred space includes the following essays: Louis Daniel Nebelsick, Joanna Wawrzeniuk and Katarzyna Zeman-Wiśniewska: Preface Marta Kaczmarek: Settlements of the Brześć Kujawski Group of the Lengyel Culture –places of sacrum or profanum? Christine Winkelmann: Places of ritual activity in pre-Bronze Age Cyprus Katarzyna Zeman-Wiśniewska: The space above. Sacred sky in Prehistoric Cyprus Louis Daniel Nebelsick and Grzegorz Łyszkowicz: Copper artefact deposits in waters and wetlands during the later 5thand 4th millennium BC in the territory of Poland Laerke Recht “Asses were buried with him”. Equids as markers of sacred space in the third and second millennia BC in the Eastern Mediterranean Nicola Scheyhing: Fossilising the Holy. Aniconic standing stones of the Near East Antonia Flontaș: Jewelry depositions from the end of the 2nd millennium BC from the Romanian Carpathian Basin Imke Westhausen: Early Iron Age hoards between Brittany and the Carpathian basin – a preliminary review Krzysztof Narloch: The largest European area of the sacred Zbigniew Kobyliński: Sacred space of the Iron Age enclosed sites in north-eastern Poland Roman Szlązak: Towards a sacred topography of Early Byzantine Thessaloniki Edvard Zajkovski: The Central European Watershed as a part of the space of the pagan sacred Adriana Ciesielska: Selected concepts of power and sacral space Zbigniew Kobyliński and Kamil Rabiega: The symbolic role of boats and ships in pagan and Christian Medieval Northern Europe Bożena Józefów-Czerwińska: Sacred environment and sacred communication process according to ethnographic field research in the Nadbuże Region

During a recent journey to Iceland, a mysterious ruin that could provide much needed information regarding the belief systems of pre-conversion Norse settlers has been observed. This paper is a serious attempt to bring the remarkable state of this site's preservation to the attention of archaeologists and historians, as well as its current vulnerability. On May 19th of 2015, while seeking a camping site in the upper Fnjóská vale, my wife and I encountered a strange rock wall at the base of a gravel hill crowned with a geothermal well and pumping station. At first, the ruins were dismissed as some sort of sheep pen common to rural Iceland. But upon closer inspection, certain readily apparent characteristics made this conclusion instantly untenable. Sheep-pens previously viewed had been circular; this was a series of immense rectangular spaces. Instead of ample drove-ways, there were narrow and man-sized doorways. Numerous large boulders were observed within the walls, something which strongly suggested group effort during construction. The sheer scale of the stone work just seemed completely unnecessary for the construction of an isolated livestock paddock. The ruin was centered on what remained of a hot spring, and to my knowledge, sheep-pens are not built around such physical features. However, pre-Christian shrines and sacred groves were often found around springs on the continent, especially geo-thermal springs. 1 This possibility was reinforced when the southern end of the enclosure was examined. The timing of the visit was perfect, for the grass was pressed flat to the ground by the winter snows; this allowed a peculiar feature to be readily discerned. The clear outlines of two concentric squares under the grass instantly reminded me of other structures that I had observed elsewhere in Europe. These low, grooved patterns are the unmistakable traces of a wooden building that was likely comprised of a central cella, perhaps surrounded by some manner of an enclosed or arcaded ambulatory, reminiscent of certain stave churches in Norway. Considering the location, a thermal spring, it is highly unlikely that the square patterns derive from horse stalls. 2 These stone walls and cubic outlines are not the remains of some corral or farm-stead; the massive and unique ruin most certainly demarcates the boundaries of pre-Christian sacred space. 3