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in an intercolumnar space (Church of Priest Wa"il
at Umm al-Rasas). The renditions of the seasons
on these mosaics may be interpreted as symbols
of happiness and prosperity (Hanfmann 1951, I:
261).
Personifications of the four seasons appear on
several mosaics found in Israel and Jordan.
On the El-Maqerqesh mosaic (Vincent 1922;
Avi-Yonah 1932: 146-147, no. 23), the four seasons
are rendered in panels in the centre of the
design. The mosaic was found in a room consisting
of a main carpet surrounded by a border,
with all the figures turning to face south (where
the entrance apparently was). The rectangular
carpet is divided into ten octagonal panels by
various geometrical designs. The central vertical
strip of four circular medallions contains the
personification of the four seasons (fig. VIII-3). In
the two rows of five octagonal panels each, pairs
of animals face each other surrounded by plants:
stag and hunting dog, lioness and ram, boar and
bear, lion and a destroyed animal, leopard and
antelope. Each pair is a wild beast and its animal
prey. The mosaic border illustrates a hunt. The
corners picture buildings, of which only two have
survived. On the south border on the right is a
Nilotic scene with a galloping hunter, on the left
are a bear (rather than an elephant) and birds.
The west strip shows a hare, a wolf, a sheep, a
bird, a shepherd and his two sheep (pl. VII.16c),
and a hunter standing, with his horse tied to a
tree nearby. The west-north corner and part of
the border strip are destroyed. On the remaining
north strip a mounted hunter attacks a leopard
(pl. VII.13b). On the remaining east strip a hunter
on foot with his coat billowing out attacks a bear
(pl. VII.11b).
The general composition of the El-Maqerqesh
mosaic is comparable to the south aisle pavement
design in Petra church, which is much more elaborate;
both are arranged with a similar central
vertical strip of medallions filled with the seasons
(pls. XII.1,2). At Petra there are also other personifications,
flanked on both sides by two more
strips of medallions filled with animals.
The El-Maqerqesh mosaic shows four circular
medallions on a vertical axis in the centre at the
intersecting of the strips. They contain the seasons
rendered as women’s busts with attributes and
inscriptions (pl. VIII.2b): Winter is depicted outside
the field in a circular medallion in the centre
of the south part of the border. She is draped, her
head is covered, and she holds an amphora with
personification of natural forces 185
water pouring out; beside here are two ducklings.
A shrub is on the right; there is no inscription.
Spring, inscribed Έαρ, is a female bust holding a
cup with a bird perching on it. Autumn is missing:
it could have been intended for the upper circle,
now containing a geometric design. Avi-Yonah
(1932: 146-147, No. 23, note 2) suggested that
Autumn is actually the female bust inscribed Γη
(Ge, Earth); she is crowned with vine branches
and cornstalks, and holds fruit in her sash. Her
right hand is depicted with an upright finger,
which has a parallel in the Summer (Tammuz)
portrayal at Hammath Tiberias (pl. III.11).
Summer, inscribed θέρ[ος], is a female bust, the
head destroyed, holding a sickle in her right hand
and a sheaf of corn in her left. The arrangement
of Winter, Spring, Autumn, and Summer does
not accord with the order of the seasons in the
year. All the figures are stylized and have similar
frontally staring faces with firm features; the three
seasons wear similar headdress with a veil and a
similar dress (except Winter).
The seasons at Caesarea (Holum et al. 1988:
figs. 122, 124; Spiro 1992: 250, 254, figs. 12-14)
are classical images depicted in the corners of a
mosaic field in a room of a building (in Field C,
originally ‘a large central panel flanked at the east
and west by pairs of corner panels separated by
meander swastikas’: Spiro 1992: 250). The room
with the seasons mosaic was part of a mansion
which perhaps served as a reception or dining
hall; it is dated by pottery to c. 450 CE, though by
style and technique the seasons are similar to 4thcentury
representations (Spiro 1992: 257). The
seasons’ personifications, of which only winter
and spring are preserved, consist of winged female
busts (pl. VIII.2a; fig. VIII-4).
Spring, in the lower right corner panel, is
crowned with a wreath of flowers, and wears a
sleeveless blue and green garment with yellow
fibulae attached at both shoulders, and has white
earrings. Beside her is a basket filled with red
and pink flowers. Fragments of the identifying
Greek inscription survived. Winter, in the upper
left panel, is shown with brown hair, wearing earrings,
accompanied by a stalk and crown of reeds,
and her palla. The two other seasons, Summer
in the upper right corner, Autumn in the lower
left, are destroyed. The unusual arrangement of
the personifications at Caesarea, with Winter and
Summer in the top row and Autumn and Spring
in the bottom, are not in their usual chronological
order. Spiro maintains that the mosaicist created