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232<br />

traditions and general repertoire of the Graeco-<br />

Roman calendars.<br />

Diversity of synagogue and church is perceived<br />

in the order of the months and their effect on<br />

the calendar, namely when the year begins or<br />

which is the first month of the year. The Jewish<br />

year began in the spring, the Christian year in<br />

autumn or the winter.<br />

In the ancient (biblical) Israelite tradition<br />

months are indicated by ordinal numbers in<br />

which the ‘First month’ is the first spring month<br />

(Ex. 40.2, 17; Lev. 23.5; Num. 28.16), sometimes<br />

named ‘the month of the spring’ (Ex. 13.4; 23.15;<br />

34.18; Deut. 16.1). The Babylonian month names<br />

are alleged to have been brought back by the<br />

returnees from the Babylonian exile and occur<br />

predominantly in the post-exilic books, which<br />

refer to Nisan (the first month of the spring) as the<br />

first month of the year (Zec.1.7; Est. 3.7, 13; Neh.<br />

2.1). The Jewish calendar continued to allude<br />

to Nisan as the month which begins the year.<br />

This is further proved by the ‘En Gedi mosaic<br />

inscription noted above, which lists the Hebrew<br />

names of the months and the zodiac signs in the<br />

same order, beginning with Nisan and the corresponding<br />

zodiac sign Taleh/ram/Aries (pl. III.4c;<br />

fig. XI-4b).<br />

On church mosaics the calendar order is different.<br />

The year begins either in January or in<br />

autumn. January as the first month appears on<br />

the El-Hammam mosaic pavement with a figure,<br />

almost completely destroyed, but the inscription<br />

survived (pl. VIII.7) (Avi-Yonah 1936: 22).<br />

The months’ representations (destroyed) on the<br />

Gerasa mosaics in St. John church and the cathe -<br />

dral chapel indicate that the year apparently<br />

began with Audnaeus, which corresponds to<br />

January. Wells (1938: 468-469, 480, inscriptions<br />

nos. 274, 295, 307) maintains, ‘The texts shows<br />

either that the Gerasene year did not begin with<br />

Hyperberetaeus, or that Hyperberetaeus was<br />

not equated with October. There seems no possibility<br />

at present of certainly resolving Gerasene<br />

month dates into Julian equivalents. Possibly the<br />

Macedonian year and the indiction had become<br />

coextensive’. The order of these months’ depiction<br />

possibly follows the calendar used in Antioch.<br />

The first month on the mosaic of Elias, Mary, and<br />

Soreg church is Gorpiaios, which corresponds to<br />

2 The seasons on the mosaic of El Maqerqesh chapel<br />

at Beth Guvrin are not arranged according to the order<br />

chapter eleven<br />

September. According to Saller (Saller and Bagatti<br />

1949: 288-9), in the province of Arabia this<br />

month was from the 19th of August the 17th of<br />

September, which means the year according to<br />

this mosaic began in autumn. 2<br />

Personifications of Earth, Sea, Ocean, Nilus,<br />

the Four Rivers of Paradise, a country, or a city<br />

are depicted on secular mansions and church<br />

pavements but not on any of the synagogue pavements.<br />

On synagogue mosaics only the personifications<br />

of the zodiac elements, the four seasons,<br />

the zodiac signs, and the Sun-God appear.<br />

Inscriptions<br />

Short inscriptions usually accompany various<br />

personifications and biblical narratives. Hebrew<br />

inscriptions identify the biblical and the zodiac<br />

renditions on synagogue pavements, consisting<br />

of identifying names and short sentences explaining<br />

biblical scenes; on the synagogue mosaics the<br />

Hebrew names of the zodiac signs, and at Sepphoris<br />

the addition of the names of the months in<br />

Hebrew, accompany the images; the seasons on<br />

the zodiac design are identified by the Hebrew<br />

name of the first month of each of the four seasons.<br />

On Christian mosaics of Beth She"an the<br />

depictions of months are accompanied by their<br />

Latin names and number of days inscribed in<br />

Greek letters, whereas the Gerasa mosaics have<br />

the months with their Macedonian names written<br />

in Greek. Greek names identify personifications,<br />

such as Earth, Sea, rivers and seasons on church<br />

pavements.<br />

The dedicatory inscriptions found in synagogues<br />

and churches are mostly set in mosaic<br />

floors (though some can be found on lintels and<br />

doorposts, columns and capitals, and on chancel<br />

screens). These architectural and ornamental parts<br />

were donated by a private donor or by the community.<br />

Most church inscriptions are in Greek (a<br />

few are in Arabic, Armenian, Christo-Palestinian<br />

Aramaic, Latin, and Syriac). Inscriptions found<br />

in synagogues are in Aramaic, Hebrew (about<br />

90, published by Naveh 1978; 1989: 302-310),<br />

and Greek (about 36, published by Roth-Gerson<br />

1987). The common form of the inscription frame<br />

was the tabula ansata; other forms were circular<br />

and rectangular. The location of the inscriptions<br />

of the year, so they cannot indicate the calendar order or<br />

the month which begins the year.

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