The Iconography of the Figural Pavements of Early Byzantine Palestine

This study of the figural pavement mosaics of early Byzantine Palestine represents the first comprehensive study of the iconography of these pavements and its relationship to mosaic decoration in other areas. Although Palestine was less important to the political and economic history of the late Roman world than other provinces, it surpassed in importance other regions of the empire in one crucial respect, Palestine was the Holy Land, the birthplace of two great religions, Judaism and Christianity. This unique status of the province of Palestine as the Holy Land to both Jews and Christians gave rise to the construction of numerous richly decorated churches and synagogues, many of which were paved with figural mosaics. Within the iconographic programs of these buildings the number of religious symbols used in pavement decoration is without equal in mosaic pavement decoration elsewhere. A comparison of the church and synagogue pavements reveals important differences in their iconographic programs. The figural pavements of Palestine also provide an almost unprecedented wealth of images for a study of the evolution of late Roman iconography. This can be seen not only in the more obvious areas such as scenes taken directly from classical mythology and the personifications of the elements of nature, but also in the genre subjects and even in the representations of flora and fauna, which can be seen as a development of the xenia motifs popular in ancient art. The chronological range of the pavements studied runs from the late third through the late sixth centuries A.D., but the majority of the figural mosaics, and most of the pavements dated by inscription, belong to the Justinianic and post-Justinianic period. The polychrome figural pavements of Palestine are thus chronologically later than those of most other Roman provinces and represent the end of this art form as it was known in the late Roman and early Byzantine world. The Palestinian pavements show simultaneously the strength of the Greco-Roman tradition and its breakdown. Their relationship to the art of major centers like Antioch, Constantinople, and Ravenna indicates that they reflect major currents in the art of the time.