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(Ovadiah 1987: 68): A cross within a medallion,
with the letters I X A W between the arms, and
another cross flanked by two birds (pl. XI.2d, e).
A cross (with the Greek letters AWIX) flanked by
a pair of crudely rendered animals possibly lions is
depicted at the western side of the nave pavement
of the church at Ozem (pl. XI.2f). The letters I X
A W are an abberivation of the name Jesus Christ
and the first and last letters of the alphabet. An
isosceles cross surrounded by a circle is depicted in
front of the altar in the eastern church at Kurnub,
and another cross within a rectangular frame was
rendered at the main entrance (Tzaferis 1971:
62, figs. 83,84). At the Magen churches, crosses
are depicted on the mosaic pavements in church
C (4th century) and building A (6th century)
(Tzaferis 1993: 285); the large crosses flanked by
birds were placed next to the threshold in the
prayer hall dominating the entrance in a setting
where people would be forced to walk on it. Two
crosses with inscriptions are rendered on the vestibule
mosaic pavement of a burial crypt at Khirbet
ed-Deir (Hirshfeld 1990: 256-7). Several crosses
are found on the pavements of partly preserved
between synagogue and church 225
Figure XI-2. Cross representations on church pavements.
mosaics on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, one
in a basin and the other in the apse; another is
in the apse of the church in the Jerusalem Musrara
quarter, and at Umm er-Rus (Avi–Yonah
1933: 63, nos. 110, 114, 133, 237, 271, 326).
Some crosses appear on mosaic pavements discovered
in Jordan.
A large isolated braided cross is depicted on
the lower mosaic in a room on the south side of
the vestibule of the Siyagha first church at the
Memorial of Moses on Mt. Nebo, dated to the
second half of the 4th century (Piccirillo 1993:
21,144, fig. 175; 1998: 268). Two crosses rendered
flank two Christological monograms in
the eastern part of the plain border of the lower
floor, below the marble pavement, of the sanctuary
of the central basilica of Pella (Piccirillo
1993: 330, fig. 706). A cross is rendered on the
Glass Court at Gerasa, possibly dating to the 4th
century (Biebel 1938: 309, pl. LVIIIb). A cross
inscribed with telos kalon (good end) is flanked by
two lambs in the centre medallion of the inhabited
vine scroll pavement of the 7th-century church of
St. Lot at Zoara (Gohr al-Safy) (Piccirillo 1993: