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These compositions with division into three<br />
or more panels are quite common on synagogue<br />
pavements but hardly appear on church floors.<br />
The frequency of this scheme on synagogue floors<br />
possibly derives from the desire of the Jewish community<br />
to incorporate symbolic and iconographical<br />
themes into their synagogue pavements. This<br />
way they could integrate and organize various<br />
themes in balanced relations.<br />
A group of pavements presenting mythological<br />
scenes in secular buildings also are designed as<br />
separate panels, but these differ from the synagogue<br />
designs in content, composition, size, and<br />
balance. The Jewish House of Leontis at Beth<br />
She"an has a mosaic pavement divided into three<br />
panels containing mythological and Nilotic themes<br />
(fig. V-1). The Hippolytus Hall mansion mosaic at<br />
Madaba is divided into three rectangular panels<br />
surrounded by a wide inhabited acanthus scroll<br />
border (Piccirillo 1993: 66, figs. 3, 6, 9,23, 25).<br />
The upper panel shows Aphrodite sitting on a<br />
throne next to Adonis with Graces and Cupids,<br />
all identified by inscriptions. The central panel,<br />
partly damaged, portrays the story of Hippolytus<br />
and Phaedra, again with captions identifying the<br />
characters. The lower west panel is a grid filled<br />
with plants, flowers, birds, and Nilotic motifs. The<br />
Sheikh Zuweid pavement is another example of<br />
a floor with mythological scenes divided into two<br />
panels<br />
Two church pavements in Jordan are also<br />
divided into three panels; however, these are part<br />
of a similar repertoire on other church mosaics<br />
and have no special significance in the design or<br />
in the subjects of the panels. The panel design<br />
on these pavements lacks the implications of the<br />
synagogue design. The nave mosaic of the later<br />
Theotokos chapel at the Memorial of Moses on<br />
Mt. Nebo, built in the beginning of the 7th century,<br />
consists of three panels, of which the upper<br />
one is composed of a geometric carpet; the second<br />
narrow panel originally portrayed a hunting scene<br />
and is almost completely destroyed, and the third<br />
has a geometric design of squares containing fruit<br />
and animals, in which most of the animated figures<br />
were ruined by iconoclasts (Piccirillo 1993:<br />
151; 1998: 300-304, figs. 74-76).<br />
The mosaic pavement of the church of St. Paul<br />
at Umm al-Rasas, is divided into three panels<br />
(Piccirillo 1997: 384, plan 1, photos 27; 2002:<br />
548-549, figs. 7-9). The upper east panel is decorated<br />
with benefactors’ portraits among three<br />
trees. The central panel is the largest geometric<br />
between synagogue and church 221<br />
carpet, depicting the personification of Earth in<br />
the central square medallion and the Four Rivers<br />
of Paradise in corner round medallions. The<br />
severely destroyed third panel has an inhabited<br />
vine scroll design, with branches sprouting from<br />
tufts in the corners and containing vintage and<br />
hunting scenes.<br />
Many synagogues and churches decorated<br />
their floors with similar geometric carpets containing<br />
simple or even elaborate designs. A geometric<br />
design consisting of octagons with a small<br />
square or lozenge in its centre and a small meander<br />
square at each intersection appears on the<br />
Ma‘oz-Hayim synagogue’s eastern aisle (Tsaferis<br />
1982: 224, figs. 31b, 32c) and the pavement of<br />
the church at Shavei-Zion (Avi-Yonah 1967: 50,<br />
pl. III). A pattern of squares made of flowers containing<br />
various objects or fruits and heart-shaped<br />
leaves is depicted on the pavement of the Jericho<br />
synagogue (Hachlili 1988: 360, fig. XI, 13), as<br />
well as on the east floor of the beth-Midrash at the<br />
Meroth synagogue (Ilan 1989: 34-35, fig. 19). A<br />
design of interlocking hexagons creating various<br />
geometric shapes such as circles, triangles, lozenges<br />
and octagons filled with geometric patterns,<br />
artefacts, and animals is portrayed on several<br />
pavements of churches and synagogues, such as<br />
those of church at Shavei Zion (Avi-Yonah 1967:<br />
58,59, pls. xxxib-xxxiii), the north aisle of Horvat<br />
Beth Loya (Patrich and Tsafrir 1993: 269, 270),<br />
the nave of the Horvat Berachot church (Tsafrir<br />
& Hirchfeld 1979: 307-309, pl. 17), and the third<br />
panel of the synagogue nave at Na#aran.<br />
Similar compositions appear on 6th-century<br />
Christian mosaics in Jordan: the nave small carpet<br />
design of the crypt of St. Elianus at Madaba (Piccirillo<br />
1993: 124, figs. 124, 129, 132), the Martyr<br />
Theodore chapel at Madaba (Piccirillo 1993: 117,<br />
figs. 97, 109), the nave mosaic of the upper church<br />
at Massuh (Piccirillo 1993: 252, figs. 435, 437),<br />
and the nave of the 8th-century Church of the<br />
Acropolis at Ma’in (Piccirillo 1993: 200, figs. 304,<br />
307). The nave mosaic of the Sts. Cosmas and<br />
Damianus church at Gerasa–(Biebel 1938: 331-2,<br />
pl. LXXIII) displays a geometric carpet with a<br />
variation of this design, composed of alternating<br />
diamonds and squares filled with animals,<br />
birds, and geometric patterns. At the Meroth beth<br />
Midrash the mosaic of the eastern section of the<br />
hall consists of a geometric greed made of flowers<br />
filled with fruit, heart-shaped leave and shofaroth<br />
(Ilan 1989: 34-5, pl. 24: 19). A similar geometric<br />
greed filled with heart-shaped leaves and squares
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