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al-Khadir church at Madaba (Lux 1967: 170, pls.
30D,31A, 32A; Piccirillo 1993: 129-130, figs. 142,
148). A hunter with a Phrygian cap seated on an
elephant and holding a trident chases a fleeing
tiger, disfigured by iconoclasts, in the second register
at the first panel in the same church.
Archer Shooting an Arrow at a Beast
Hunting archers are illustrated on Jordanian
pavements with inhabited scroll mosaics. The
archer, usually wearing a tunic, standing, or in
one case mounted, holds the bow in his left hand
in the left medallion while the hunted beast is seen
in the right medallion. An archer raises his right
hand above his head having shot an arrow from
the bow in his left at a lion: each is in a separate
medallion of the vine rinceau at the Church of the
Holy Martyrs Lot and Procopius at Mukhayyat on
Mt. Nebo (pl. VI.11). The lion is portrayed frontally,
his paw trying to remove the arrow that has
pierced his mouth (Saller and Bagatti 1949: 61,
fig. 7, pls. 14,2; Piccirillo 1993: 164-5, figs. 201,
202, 213). In a similar scene, at the Church of
the Deacon Thomas at #Uyun Musa on Mt. Nebo
(pl. VI.10), a hunter has a bow in his left hand
and his quiver hangs on his left thigh. His right
arm is still raised above his shoulder after he has
shot a lion, seen with frontal face and the arrow
sticking out of him. Archer and lion are in separate
medallions of a vine rinceau mosaic (Piccirillo
1993: 187, fig. 263; 1998, fig. 183). An archer
shooting an arrow and striking a seated lioness
appears in the acanthus rinceau border mosaic of
the Hippolytus Hall at Madaba (Piccirillo 1993:
66, figs. 3, 12). A (disfigured) archer shooting an
arrow and a beast struck by it appear in two medallions
of the inhabited vine scrolls mosaic nave
panel at al-Khadir church at Madaba (Lux 1967:
pl. 34C,D; Piccirillo 1993: 131, fig. 147).
In an octagon on the pavement of Hall A at
the Beth She"an monastery (fig. XII-6) (Fitzgerald
1939: 9, pl. VI) a mounted archer shoots an arrow
at a beast. The animal, wounded by two arrows,
appears upside-down in the next octagon. At St.
George’s church at Mukhayyat on Mt. Nebo a
mounted archer wearing a long tunic, boots, and
a chlamys flying behind him, is seen seated on a
horse with an ornamented harness. He shoots an
arrow, wounding a lioness with her cub. Each is
in a separate medallion of an acanthus rinceau;
the lioness, with her cub approaching, is wounded
by an arrow in her mouth, which she is trying to
chapter seven
remove (Saller and Bagatti 1949: 71, fig. 8, pls.
24,3; 25, 1; Piccirillo 1993: 178, figs. 244-5). A few
fragments survive of a hunting scene with hunters
on horseback and on foot, and equipped with
lance and bows, attacking their prey, on the central
nave panel mosaic of the Theotokos Chapel, a
lateral chapel inside the Basilica of Moses on Mt.
Nebo (early 7th century) (Piccirillo 1986: 80-81;
1993: 151; 1998: 304).
Felines and Their Cubs
Hunting scenes involving felines and their cubs
pursued by archer, or hunter on foot or mounted
(pl. VII.14), appear on several mosaic pavements,
probably representing the actual hunting and capture
of cubs (Roussin 1985: 260-263): A mounted
hunter pointing his spear at a lioness with two
cubs is rendered in the upper left medallion of the
inhabited vine scroll at Beth She"an monastery
Room L. At Nahariya, a hunter aiming his spear
at a leaping tigress with a small cub behind her
appears in two medallions of inhabited acanthus
scrolls (Dauphine and Edelstein 1984: pl. XXIa,
b; 1993: 52). A mounted archer who has shot an
arrow at a lioness which holds the arrow, and
whose cub is trying to suckle, appears in two medallions
of inhabited acanthus scroll pavement at
St. George’s church at Mukhayat on Mt. Nebo
(Saller and Bagatti 1949: 71, pl. 24, 3; 6. 7; Piccirillo
1998: 326, figs. 145-146). Similar scenes of
hunting cubs appear on earlier pavements at the
Piazza Armerina Great Hunt mosaic. A hunter
attacks a tigress with two cubs running next to her
on the Megalopsychia Hunt pavement from Antioch
(fig. VII.7). On the Antioch Worcester Hunt
mosaic, a mounted hunter holds a cub while the
tigress and her two cubs race after him (fig. VII.8)
(Levi 1947, II: figs. 136, 151; Lavin 1963: 187,
189-190; figs. 2,6).
A number of scenes portray a lioness or leopardess
with cubs suckling or running alongside
her, but not in hunting scenes. This probably indicates
that they were rather chosen as decorative
motifs (pl. VII.14). A lioness suckles her cub in
a medallion on the Gaza inhabited vine scroll.
The leaping lioness followed by her cub portrayed
on the pavement of the Diakonikon at Jabaliyah
might have been in an attitude of attack on an
animal on the left, later destroyed. A standing
lioness with her cub is rendered in a panel in the
north aisle mosaic at Kissufim. On the inhabited
vine scrolls pavement at Ma#on a leopardess is