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Figure VII-2. Hare eating grapes: a. three episodes, el-Hammam, Beth She"an; b. Room L, Monastery Beth She"an;
c. Petra Church.
quite similar, but at Sts. Lot and Procopius the
scene develops from left to right through four
medallions while on the St. George mosaic it
develops from right to left through three medallions.
A Hare Eating Grapes
A hare eating grapes is quite a common occurrence
on several Byzantine inhabited vine scroll
mosaic pavements (fig. VII. 2a-c). An early example
of this image appears in late Roman mosaics
in Israel: on a panel of the mosaic in the
Public building north of the decumanus at Sepphoris,
dated to the Severan period, and in one
of the squares of the central panel of the northern
carpet at Lod (Rousin 1996: 123, fig. 55; Talgam
and Weiss 2004: 1-2, 12, figs. 2, 13).
A hare eating grapes appears between the
medallions in the bottom and the second row of
the inhabited scroll mosaic in Room L at Beth
She"an (fig. VII. 2b) (Fitzgerald 1939: 9, pl. XVI,
XVII, 3); also in two medallions in row 2 and in
a medallion in row 6 of the vine rinceau mosaic
at el-Hammam at Beth She"an (fig. VII. 2a) (Avi-
Yonah 1936: 14, 16, pl. XIV). A hare placed
on top of a basket and eating grapes is seen in
a medallion on the inhabited scroll mosaic at
Hazor-Ashdod (fig. VI-2). A hare eating grapes is
depicted on the mosaic border in the Beth She"an
small synagogue (Bahat 1981: 83). A similar episode
appears in a medallion of the inhabited acanthus
mosaic border at Nahariya (Dauphin and
Edelstein 1984: volute 60, pl. XXXVa), in row
2 of the inhabited scroll mosaic of the church
narthex at Ma#ale Adummim (pl. VI.9b) (Khirbet
el-Murassas: Magen and Talgam 1990: 113,
fig. 32). A seated hare reaching up for a bunch
of grapes is rendered in row A8 on mosaic I at
Petra (fig. VII. 2c) (Waliszewski 2001: 228, fig. 9)
and in a vine scroll medallion at the church of
Elias, Maria, and Soreg at Gerasa (Piccirillo 1993:
296, fig. 513). The same episode of a hare eating
grapes appears on the presbyterium of a newly
discovered church at Umm al-Rasas (Piccirillo
2006: 380-382, foto 23). A hare eating grapes is
seen in a medallion on the 6th-century inhabited
vine scroll mosaic of Qabr Hiram in Phoenicia
(fig. VI-18) (Donceel-Voute 1988: 411-412,
fig. 403, pl. n-t.17).
A fox eating grapes from a basket is depicted in
a medallion in the vine rinceau pavement of the
church of the Deacon Thomas (pl. VI.10) (Piccirillo
1993: 187, fig. 255).