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scenes signify the earth, its produce, and its inhabitants
(Dunbabin 1999: 197-199).
Another subject matter popular throughout the
6th–8th centuries on church floors and absent
from synagogue pavements is architectural representations
such as walled cities, edifices, and buildings.
These are found in the Jordanian churches
(Duval 1986, 2003a, b; Ellern 1989). The most
famous is the Madaba map, illustrating five main
architectural types: several plans of walled cities,
smaller cities with a number of buildings and colonnaded
streets, large villages, small villages, and
simple renditions of a gate or a church. Especially
noteworthy is the rendition of the Holy
City of Jerusalem. Many pilgrimage churches are
depicted. The map is apparently a contemporary
chart of 6th-century sites (Avi-Yonah 1954; Piccirillo
1993: 26-34, 94, figs. 61-77; Piccirillo and
Alliata 1999). Other such architectural images
appear on pavements in Sts. Lot and Procopius
church on Mt. Nebo, churches at Gerasa, St. John
church at Khirbat al-Samra, the the Acropolis
church at Ma‘on, Umm al-Manabi church, the
churches of Bishop Sergius, of Priest Wa’il, of
the Lions, and of St. Stephen at Umm al-Rasas,
and the church at Zay al-Gharby (Piccirillo 1993:
26-37). Worthy of note are the two depictions of
the city plan of Kastron Mefaa (Umm al-Rasas),
one in the north intercolumnar space in the 6th
century Church of the Lions, the other, more
schematic, in the east intercolumnar space in the
8th century St. Stephen’s church (Piccirillo 1993:
37, figs. 337, 347). The rendition in both pavements
describes a walled castrum, a church and
another building inside the castrum, and a quarter
outside the walls.
Two buildings are rendered on the corners of
the border mosaic pavement in El Maqerqesh
chapel at Beth Guvrin (fig. VIII-5). Similar structures
appear on the corners of a border at Caesarea
(unpublished).
A similar image of seven church structures decorates
the pavement of the Holy Martyrs church
at Tayibat al-Imam in Hamah in Syria (Zagzug
and Piccirillo 1999: 446-447, plan 1, figs. 15-17).
Cities representations, especially of Alexandria,
are a part of Nilotic scenes (see Chap. V, pp).
The structures shown on the Madaba Map are
interpreted as important sites for Christianity and
many pilgrimage churches; Avi Yonah (1954: 9)
maintains that these sites were chosen for three
reasons: ‘a. their intrinsic importance as cities; b.
their significance as sites of events mentioned in
the Old Testament, the Gospels or church history;
chapter eleven
c. their suitability for filling the empty spaces of
the map’. However, images of walled cities, edifices,
and buildings, on many of the other mosaic
pavements reproduce the actual plan or illustrate
the actual contemporary structures themselves.
Mosaicists
Establishing the identity of artists and workshops
is one of the most interesting subjects. Artists or
builders may be identified by inscriptions in which
they are mentioned, as well as through an analysis
of the stylistic character of a given part of architecture
or ornamentation and an examination of
motifs and patterns (for a detailed discussion on
artists and mosaicists see Chap. XII; Balmelle and
Darmon 1986: 235-249; Donderer 1989). Only
a few inscriptions survived on church and synagogue
pavements that mention artists generally
or by name.
Christian inscriptions mentioning craftsmen
who worked on the pavements are found on
several church and chapel mosaic pavements in
Israel and Jordan. These inscriptions support the
assumption that on most occasions Jewish artists
were employed in building synagogues and
laying mosaic pavements, and Christian artists
laid mosaic floors in churches. Some inscriptions
mention two or three artists who paved church
mosaics; two synagogue inscriptions in Beth
"Alpha and Beth-She"an refer to two generations
of mosaicists of the same family.
Stylistic characterization, the use of the same
motifs and patterns, and similarity in style and
execution might sometimes help identify artists.
The same workshop teams or mosaicists might
have produced the pavements of churches and
synagogues in the Beth-She"an area and the Gaza-
Negev region. This would suggest that occasionally
Jewish and Christian artists and mosaicists
worked for a mixed clientele: pagan, Jewish and
Christian.
Sources of Repertory, Patterns, and Motifs
The use of similar compositions, iconographic program,
themes, patterns and motifs in both Jewish
and Christian ancient art suggests the existence
of some common sources, perhaps in the form of
pattern books or sketch books (Avi-Yonah 1981:
375; Kitzinger 1965: 7; Dauphin 1978: Hachlili
1988: 391-395). These pattern books were probably
handed down through the artists’ families,
and were accordingly used over long periods of