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acanthus leaf placed at the bottom of the mosaic,
flanked by youths holding peacocks in both hands.
The scrolls are filled with scenes of vintage activities,
hunting episodes, pastoral scenes, animals,
birds, and objects. All suffered damage in the
iconoclast crisis.
Group V characterizes several mosaic pavements
with a diagonal inhabited scroll design; the vine
scrolls arise out of four amphorae or four acanthus
leaves set in the four corners of the floor
(Biebel 1938: 302, type 1; Dauphin 1976a: 121)
(Table VI-2).
This design is found in a room mosaic in Caesarea
(Lehemann 1999: 147-8, figs. 3,9-10, colour
pl. 11; room floor 11020 in front of vault 12).
Two of the corner vases survived and the existing
medallions, containing various animals, birds, a
vintager, and a flute player, show, as usual for this
group, no special order or symmetry (fig. VI-17).
The Caesarea floor is thought to be that of a room
in a luxurious seaside villa, dated perhaps to the
5th-6th century.
Comparable mosaic floors with inhabited
scrolls issuing from four corner vases are found
in Jordan: the remains of the Cathedral Chapel
mosaic at Gerasa show a vine scroll design with
the vine-trellis emerging from four amphorae, one
in each corner (Biebel 1938: 312, pls. LIXa, b,
mid-6th century). Of the central square panel in
the St John the Baptist church, Gerasa (529-539)
(Biebel 1938: 324-333) only parts of three of the
four vases have survived. Two other pavements
with similar designs, the Chapel of Anastasius
and the Chapel of Khirbat al-Kursi, are almost
completely destroyed (Piccirillo 1993: 265,308;
chapter six
Figure VI-16. Gerasa, church of Elias, Maria, and Soreg.
figs. 476,478, 610, 612). At the bottom of the
Khirbat al-Kursi mosaic two gazelles face each
other in the central scrolls. In another scroll a
soldier confronts a wounded lioness.
A similar design with inhabited vine scrolls issuing
from four corner vases appears on 6th-century
church pavements in coastal Phoenicia (Lebanon)
at Qabr Hiram (fig. VI-18) (Stern 1965: fig. 3;
Donceel-Voute 1988: 411-414, fig. 403, pl. h.-t.
17) and Zaharani I (Donceel-Voute 1988: pls. L,
LI). The nave of St. Christoph’s church, Qabr
Hiram, has an elaborate beautiful mosaic panel
with inhabited vine scrolls arising from four
corner vases; the scrolls show farming, animal
chase, and hunting scenes.
The other compositions of group V consist
of pavements rendered with an acanthus leaf in
each of the four corners, from which vine scrolls
emerge. These mosaics are found on two mosaic
pavements in Jordan. One of them, in the church
of the Holy Martyrs Lot and Procopius at Khirbat
al-Mukhayyat, Mt. Nebo, dated to 557 (Saller
and Bagatti 1949: 55-61; Piccirillo 1993: 164-5;
figs. 201-207), consists of four columns and six
rows. The medallions contain vintage, hunting
and pastoral scenes, animals, and birds (pl. VI.11;
Table VI-2).
The other Jordanian pavement is in the church
at al-Khadir, Madaba. The central panel design
of the mosaic shows inhabited vine scrolls issuing
out of four acanthus leaves in the four corners,
consisting of six columns and six rows (Piccirillo
1993: 129-130; figs. 142, 146-7). The medallions
contain vintage, hunting, and pastoral scenes, animals,
and birds. Many of the inhabited images
were destroyed by iconoclasts.