Roman fort, Umm er-Rasas
Umm er-Rasas photo tour, part 3: the military fort at the Limes Arabicus, built end of the 3rd / beginning of the 4th century, converted into a civil quarter.
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In the mosaic floor there are personifications of rivers, a common motif in the Byzantine period. Rivers, springs, lakes and the sea are often personified as half-naked reclining figures with a reed in one hand and, in the other, a cornucopia from which water flows. Such a figure appears in a corner of the border.
The church was paved with mosaics, possibly by the same mosaicists who worked in the Church of Bishop Sergius, as they used the same patterns and the same style. The inscription in the Bishop Sergius Church yields a date of A.D. 587/88. Therefore, the 12th indiction year, still readable in the destroyed dedicatory inscription near the door in the Church of the Rivers, may be A.D. 579 or A.D. 594, as both correspond to the given indiction year during the episcopacy of Sergius.
(From: Michele Piccirillo)
© Photo: Haupt & Binder
Umm er-Rasas photo tour, part 3: the military fort at the Limes Arabicus, built end of the 3rd / beginning of the 4th century, converted into a civil quarter.
By Michele Piccirillo
A large format, cloth-bound volume with 383 pages, 874 illustrations, including aerial views of many of the sites and plans of most of the structures which have mosaics.
American Center of Oriental Research, Amman, Jordan. First edition in 1993.
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