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mosaicists, workshops, and the repertory 267
Figure XII-13. Ma#on pavement: a comparable pair of elephants and hares.
addition of the symbolic Jewish representations.
Avi Yonah further suggests that the earlier
Ma#on mosaic and the later Shellal mosaic are the
products of the same workshop, which he locates
at Gaza (see Chap. VI, pp). The similarities he
noted are the same repertory of beasts and birds,
the likeness of the amphorae (almost completely
destroyed at Ma#on), and the rings joining the
vine branches. Yet there are also differences in
the execution of the animals, birds, and objects.
The similarity in the general design scheme is
apparent, but this might indicate a similar source
rather than the same executing hands.
The nave mosaic in St. Stephen’s church at
Be"er-Shem#a (Khirbet el-Far), dated to the mid-
6th century (Gazit and Lender 1993: 275-6), contains
five columns and eleven rows of inhabited
vine scrolls issuing from a vase in the middle of
the bottom row flanked by a pair of lions, each
in two medallions (pl. VI.5). Although the design
looks symmetrical it is not as rigid and heraldic as
the other group II compositions. Only three rows
are arranged with alternating animals and birds,
similar to the Ma#on mosaic. Though the mosaic
belongs to the group of inhabited vine scrolls, the
composition is different in some aspects, notably
the medallions of the axial central column,
which are only partly filled with objects while
other medallions contain the unique addition of
humans figures. The symmetry is carefully maintained,
although almost all rows have different
flanking scenes: some animals are presented in different
poses (row 2); each bull in row 4 is rendered
in a different posture; dissimilar animals, a lioness