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the pair flanking the amphora (A1, C1) stands in
one medallion (Waliszewski 2001: 222-223,310).
At Be"er Shem#a the peacocks are depicted in the
top row, flanking a fruit bowl, while the amphora
at the base is flanked by lions.
In Group I, at the Gaza synagogue peacocks
flank a Greek inscription (pl. VI-1). This is a
recurrent motif in many mosaics, and may appear
in different parts of the pavement. Various animals
flank the amphora: lions at ’Asida, a pair of
lionesses at Hazor–’Ashdod. In Group II, at Be"er
Shem#a lions flank the amphora; in Group III, at
Beth Guvrin a pair of rams flank the vase and at
the Beth She"an synagogue a pair of sheep.
At El-Hammam (Beth She"an) peacocks flank
an acanthus leave (fig. VI-14). Two youths hold
the peacocks on the pavement of the church of
St. Stephen (Umm al-Rasas), which is an unusual
depiction (Piccirillo 1993: figs. 345, fig. 358). At
the Chapel of Elias, Maria and Soreg at Gerasa
(fig. VI-15) the peacocks flank a tree.
At other Arabian mosaics, leopards flank the
amphora at the church of the Deacon Thomas at
#Uyun Musa on Mt. Nebo (pl. VI.10); lions flank
the amphora at the chapel of Suwayfiyah; lionesses
flank the amphora in the lower chapel of the
Priest John at Mukhayyat on Mt. Nebo.
From the examples discussed above, an
amphora flanked by animals was evidently a
recurrent and popular motif in inhabited scroll
pavements, and it also occurs in other types of
mosaics. It was seemingly a key motif in the pattern
book used for the execution of this type of
mosaics.
The Bird-in-Cage
One of the most common recurring motifs on
the pavements of groups I, II, and III is the birdin-cage
depicted in the central axial column
(pl. VI.13; figs. VI-1, 3-9). The cage has various
styles, usually with a bird inside and the door
closed; the cage at #Asida has an open door, as
does the one at the Petra church, but the bird is
still inside. The cage is represented in a rectangular
shape with a rounded or triangular upper
part.
A number of cages depicted on Jordanian
mosaics (Table VI-1) render one bird in the cage
the other outside in a vine rinceau medallion; so it
is on the Elias, Maria, and Soreg church mosaic at
Gerasa (pl. VI-13h) (Saller and Bagatti 1949: 237-
chapter six
238, pls. 40,3; 45; Piccirillo 1993: fig. 514) and
at the North Church mosaic at Esbus (Piccirillo
1993: fig. 422). However, the bird-in-cage motif
is missing from pavements of groups III (Beth
She"an synagogue and Beth Guvrin church).
Yet the bird-in-cage appears on other mosaics
beside those on the inhabited vine scroll compositions.
Examples are the Na#aran synagogue
mosaic (Vincent 1961: pl. 146) and the inhabited
acanthus border mosaic of the church at Nahariya
(pl. VII.19a) (Dauphin 1978a: pl. 7; Dauphin and
Edelstein 1984: pl. XXVII). On several Arabian
mosaics the cage (without birds) appears within
medallions of the inhabited acanthus or vine
scroll border mosaics: in the Baptistry Chapel at
Madaba, the Church of Bishop Sergius, and the
Church of Priest Wa"il at Umm al-Rasas (Piccirillo
1993: figs. 102, 369, 399); an open cage
within an acanthus scroll is found on the border
mosaic of the church of Deacon Thomas on Mt.
Nebo (Piccirillo 1990: 234-5, foto 36; 1998: 340,
fig. 158).
In Syria, the cage is present on an inhabited
vine scrolls pavement at the church of Qum Hartaine
and on a side carpet at Haouarte North
Church, ‘Michaelion’ (Donceel-Voûte 1988:
figs. 77, 180). It is found on the pavement of Misis
in Cilicia (Budde 1969: figs. 51, 56,58) and in the
Sabratha mosaic in Tripolitania, North Africa
(Ward Perkins and Goodchild 1953: pl. 26).
Some scholars argue that the bird-in-cage signifies
the human soul imprisoned in a body and
yearning for release; others see it as representing
the soul of the blessed (or the donors) to be read
as a funerary motif (Grabar 1966; Doncee-Voûte
1983; Maguire 1987: 65; Hunt 1994: 121). Yet,
this motif also reflected some hunting custom,
such as a bird in a cage as a decoy (Saller and Bagatti
1949: 271; Avi-Yonah 1960: 29, n.16). This
interpretation is strengthened by the content of
two medallions in the inhabited acanthus border
on the Nahariya church pavement, where birdhunting
is depicted (pl. VII.19a); the left medallion
shows a hunter with an empty cage behind
him, and a club aimed at a bird is in the adjoining
medallion (Dauphin 1978: pl. 7; Dauphin and
Edelstein 1984; volute 35-36, pl. XXVII). To
reinforce the notion that the bird-in-cage is used
as a decoy, note that the cage at #Asida, Gaza,
Jerusalem, Ma#on-Nirim and Shellal is placed in
the axial central column and is flanked by birds
on the same row.