Church E was a compact, quintuple-domed building of brick and marble constructed directly over the leveled ruins of Church EA around the thirteenth century. The mismatched, collage-like use of such materials as damaged ashlar blocks and Attic style column bases indicates that Church E was made entirely of repurposed components. Traces of thin glass and gold tesserae are evidentiary of windows and limited mosaics, although much of the walls surface seems to have been decorated with murals. A small pit in the church’s south aisle (known as the “Pseudocrypt”) was excavated in 1963, revealing two graves thought to be the reburied remains of men who were lauded as saints. It is believed that when Sardis was taken under Turkish rule in the fourteenth century, Church E was repurposed for industrial use until it was destroyed by an earthquake that leveled much of the area in 1595.
