This paper focuses on the remains of the Baptistery chapel within the North Church complex on the outskirts of Shivta, a fifth-seventh century Byzantine village in the Negev. Presumably a monastery, the North Church is the largest and most elaborately constructed of the three Shivta churches. After addressing general structural and chronological issues of the complex, a comparison of the North Church Baptistery to the South Church Baptistery aims to clarify the linkage between shape and ritual. The authors propose that the earlier South Church Baptistery probably served the public, while the later North Church Baptistery fulfilled the internal needs of the monastery. The remains of the Baptism of Christ wall painting, recently rediscovered in the apse of the North Church Baptistery, complements, even if partially, knowledge of the links between architecture, liturgy, and art within the space. The study offers a glimpse into the religious and cultural world of the people who lived in this arid and remote, but by no means isolated area.

中文翻译：

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Shivta 北教堂的洗礼堂：结构、仪式、艺术

本文重点关注位于内盖夫 5-7 世纪拜占庭村庄 Shivta 郊区的北教堂建筑群内的洗礼堂遗迹。北教堂大概是一座修道院，是三座 Shivta 教堂中最大、最精心建造的。在解决了建筑群的一般结构和时间顺序问题之后，将北教堂洗礼堂与南教堂洗礼堂进行比较旨在阐明形状和仪式之间的联系。作者提出，早期的南教堂洗礼堂可能是为公众服务的，而后来的北教堂洗礼堂则满足了修道院的内部需求。最近在北教堂洗礼堂的后殿重新发现的基督洗礼壁画的遗迹，即使是部分补充，了解空间内建筑、礼仪和艺术之间的联系。这项研究让人们得以一窥生活在这个干旱而偏远但绝不孤立的地区的人们的宗教和文化世界。