Untitled

192
calendar grouped with the Sun and Moon (Monastery
of Lady Mary at Beth She"an). Similar designs
of the Labours of the Months appear on
mosaics in the Greek East and at Carthage.
Examples are found at Hall A of Lady Mary
Monastery and in the narthex of the funerary
chapel at El-Hammam. Both render the Labours
of the Months but the two are of different design
(Fitzgerald 1939: 6, pls. VI-VIII; Avi-Yonah 1936:
22-26, pl. xv).
The months in the El-Hammam narthex are
depicted on a panel in two rows of six, each row
divided into two separated groups (pl. VIII-3).
The months consist of active, full-length standing
figures, each with its Latin name and number
of days inscribed in Greek; between the figures
are plants with coloured leaves (Avi-Yonah 1936:
22-26, pl. XV; Webster 1938: 24-25, no.15; Åkerström-Hougen
1974: 122, no. 3). The left part
of the mosaic with the first six months is badly
damaged. Only nine months: January, February,
April May, July, August, September, November
and December are preserved, some only in fragments,
while the inscriptions partly survived. July
is depicted as a youth dressed in a tunic holding
a big leaf full of fruit. August is a youth clad in a
decorated short tunic; he holds a fan in his right
hand and an amphora in his left. September is
a youth clad in a decorated tunic, his right arm
encircling a two-handled jar on his left shoulder
while the left hand holds a cock head downwards.
November is a figure dressed in a decorated tunic
and holding a yellow basket. December is represented
as a female (Åkerström-Hougen 1974:
122, no. 3 maintains the figure is undoubtedly a
man) clad in a robe and a mantle drawn over her
head, wearing green slippers; she holds a mattock
in her left hand; this hooded figure was probably
influenced by the representation of Winter.
In the Monastery of Lady Mary the personification
of the months appears in the centre of
the carpet in Hall A (pl. VIII-4, fig. VIII-8). The
design of the central composition is two concentric
circles, the outer divided into twelve units. Within
each unit is a single figure in frontal pose and in
full activity; at its feet appear the Latin name of
the relevant month and the number of its days in
Greek letters. The inner circle contains the personifications
of Sun and Moon, as female busts
bearing torches (Fitzgerald 1939: 6, pls. VI-VIII;
Webster 1938: 23-24, no. 18; Åkerström-Hougen
1974: 123-4, no. 4).
chapter eight
The months are personified as full-length male
figures with short curly hair; only February has a
beard. January is almost completely lost but shows
the head and a shod foot. February wears a short
tunic and carries a hoe. March is personified as
a warrior, clad in a tunic and perhaps a cuirass,
a huge mantle, and a helmet; he leans on his
shield. April is a shepherd garbed in a short tunic
and barefoot. He carries a goat in his arms and
a bucket for milk in his left hand. May is dressed
in a long tunic and trousers; a dalmatic held up
in front carries flowers. June is a partly damaged
figure, wearing in a sleeveless tunic and holding
a seed-box (?) in his left hand and a sickle (?) in
his right. July wears a short tunic and cap. He
carries a sheaf of corn over his left shoulder and a
sickle in his right hand. August is damaged, only
the head and the lower garment having survived.
September is a vintager wearing a short tunic, and
holding a bunch of grapes in his right hand and
an object in his left. October is a fowler clad in
a short sleeveless decorated tunic and barefoot.
A basket-like object or a net is slung over his left
shoulder, and he holds a stick in his right hand.
November is a man dressed in a short decorated
tunic and a mantle; a string of birds hangs down
from his right hand and some object rests on
his left shoulder. December is a sower clad in a
short decorated tunic and holding a sack in his
left hand, from which he scatters seed.
The two Christian examples from El Hammam
and the Monastery of Lady Mary at Beth-She"an
are different in their basic form but similar in the
general depiction of the personified Labours of the
Months. The emphasis in these personifications is
on the figures’ rural occupations. The attributes
for each month are different in the mosaics, but
the Latin names of the months and the number of
days written in Greek letters are identical, and are
found only in Byzantine mosaics in northern and
southern Palestine and the Negev. The inscribed
names of the months remain Macedonian until
later (Avi-Yonah 1936: 22-25).
Avi-Yonah (1936: 24) maintains that both
pavements are an independent variant of the
transition from Roman to Byzantine style, and
that the monastery mosaic anticipates the later
Byzantine tradition more than does the El-Hammam
pavement.
The Christian pavements at Beth-She"an represent
civil and agricultural calendars, probably
following earlier Roman calendar designs