Madaba Map: Difference between revisions

[[File:Madaba map.jpg|thumb|300upright px1.2|[[Jerusalem]] on the Madaba Map]]

The '''Madaba Map,''' also known as the '''Madaba Mosaic Map,''', is part of a floor [[mosaic]] in the [[Byzantine architecture|early Byzantine]] [[Church (building)|church]] of [[Saint George]] in [[Madaba]], [[Jordan]].

The Madabamosaic Mapmap depicts partan ofarea from [[Lebanon]] in the Middlenorth Eastto the [[Nile Delta]] in the south, and from the [[Mediterranean Sea]] in the west to the [[Eastern Desert]].

It contains the oldest surviving original [[cartography|cartographic]] depiction of the [[Holy Land]] and especially [[Jerusalem]]. ItThe map dates to the sixth century CEAD.

[[File:MadabaPalmer Map& reproductionGuthe image of the Medaba map.jpg|thumb|250px|ReproductionAnnotated reproduction of the Madaba Map]]

The Madaba Mosaic Map depicts Jerusalem with the [[New Church of the Theotokos]], which was dedicated on 20 November 542. Buildings erected in Jerusalem after 570 are absent from the depiction, thus limiting the date range of its creation to the period between 542 and 570.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Keyser |first1=Paul T. |last2=Scarborough |first2=John |title=The Oxford Handbook of Science and Medicine in the Classical World |date=2018 |publisher=Oxford UP |location=Oxford |page=937 |isbn=978-0-19-973414-6 |url=https://wwwbooks.google.com/books/edition/The_Oxford_Handbook_of_Science_and_Medic/NfxdDwAAQBAJ?hlid=en&gbpv=1NfxdDwAAQBAJ&dq=Madaba+Mosaic+Map+542+and+570+dating&pg=PA937&printsec=frontcover |access-date=21 Feb 2022}}</ref> The mosaic was made by unknown artists, probably for the [[Christianity|Christian]] community of Madaba, which was the seat of a [[bishop]] at that time.

[[File:Madaba map mosaic, Jordan LOC matpc.09320.tif|thumb|OldThe photographnewly fromrediscovered themosaic "[[Americaninside Colony, Jerusalem|Americanthe Colony]]modern PhotoOrthodox Department"church]]

TheElements of the inscribed mosaic waswere noticed and reported to the Jerusalem rediscoveredPatriarchate in 1884 and 1886, during the preparation work for the construction of a new [[Greek Orthodox Church|Greek Orthodox]] church on the site of its ancient predecessor.<ref name=YM>{{cite web |last= Meimaris |first= Yiannis |title= The Discovery of the Madaba Mosaic Map. Mythology and Reality: The Madaba Map Centenary. 1897-1997. Travelling through the Byzantine Umayyad Period |editor1= Eugenio Alliata|editor2=[[Michele Piccirillo]] |publisher= Franciscan Printing Press |location= Jerusalem |year= 1999 |pages= 25–36 |series= Collectio Maior (40) |via= ChristusRex.org (Franciscan Cyberspot), 2000 webpage expanding on 1999 book |url= http://www.christusrex.org/www1/ofm/mad/articles/MeimarisMap.html |access-date=9 June 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131003025644/http://www.christusrex.org/www1/ofm/mad/articles/MeimarisMap.html |archive-date=3 October 2013 |url-status= dead |df=dmy-all}}</ref> Patriarch [[Nicodemus I of Jerusalem]] was informed, the church building erected and roofed over (summer 1895-August 1896), but the full mosaic was only noticed during clearing work for a new cement-slab floor in October 1896, and no research was carried out until 1896December of that year, after the floor had already been laid around the mosaic by local workers under the supervision of a Greek architect.<ref name=YM/><ref>Donner, 1992, p.11</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Piccirillo |first1=Michele |title=A Centenary to be celebrated |url=https://archive.org/stream/JordanTimes1995JordanEnglish/Sep%2021%201995%2C%20Jordan%20Times%2C%20%236026%2C%20Jordan%20%28en%29#page/n14/mode/1up |access-date=18 January 2019|work=Jordan Times |agency=Franciscan Archaeology Institute |date=21 September 1995 |language=en|quote=It was only Abuna Kleofas Kikilides who realised the true significance, for the history of the region, that the map had while visiting Madaba in December 1896. A Franciscan friar of ltalian-Croatian origin born in Constantinople, Fr. Girolamo Golubovich, helped Abuna Kleofas to print a booklet in Greek about the map at the Franciscan printing press of Jerusalem. Immediately afterwards, the Revue Biblique published a long and detailed historic-geographic study of the map by the Dominican fathers [[Marie-Joseph Lagrange|M.J. Lagrange]] and [[Louis-Hugues Vincent|H. Vincent]] after visiting the site themselves. At the same time. Father J. Germer-Durand of the [[Assumptionists|Assumptionist Fathers]] published a photographic album with his own pictures of the map. In Paris, [[Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau|C. Clermont-GannauGanneau]], a well known oriental scholar, announced the discovery at the [[Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres|Academie des Sciences et belles Lettres]].}}</ref>

In the following decades, large portions of the mosaic map were damaged by fires, activities in the new church, and by the effects of moisture. In December 1964, the [[Volkswagen]] Foundation gave the ''Deutscher Verein zur Erforschung Palästinas'' (lit. "German Association for the Exploration of Palestine") 90,000 [[Deutschmark|DM]] to save the mosaic. In 1965, the archaeologists Heinz Cüppers and Heinrich Brandt undertook the restoration and conservation of the remaining parts of the mosaic.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Donner |first1=Herbert |title=The Mosaic Map of Madaba: An Introductory Guide |date=1992 |publisher=Pharos |location=Kampen |page=12 |isbn=978-90-390-0011-3 |url=https://wwwbooks.google.com/books/edition/The_Mosaic_Map_of_Madaba/DD_Vt16eKnAC?hlid=en&gbpv=1DD_Vt16eKnAC&dq=Madaba+Mosaic+Map+cuppers+1965&pg=PA99&printsec=frontcover |access-date=21 Feb 2022}}</ref>

The floor mosaic is located in the [[apse]] of the church of Saint George at Madaba. It is not oriented northward, as modern maps are, but faces east toward the [[altar]] in such a fashion that the position of places on the map coincides with the compass directions. Originally, it measured 21 by 7 m and contained more than two million ''[[tesserae]]''.<ref>[http://www.uni-bonn.de/Aktuelles/Publikationen/forsch/forsch_4_November_2005/bilder/Kultur.pdf Ute Friederich: ''Antike Kartographie''] {{dead link|date=May 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Ute Friederich: ''Antike Kartographie''</ref> Its current dimensions are 16 by 5 m.

The mosaic map depicts an area from [[Lebanon]] in the north to the [[Nile Delta]] in the south, and from the [[Mediterranean Sea]] in the west to the [[Eastern Desert]]. Among other features, it depicts the [[Dead Sea]] with two fishing boats, a variety of bridges linking the banks of the [[Jordan (river)|Jordan]], fish swimming in the river and receding from the Dead Sea; a [[lion]] (rendered nearly unrecognisable by the insertion of random tesserae during a period of [[iconoclasm]]) hunting a [[gazelle]] in the [[Moab]] desert, [[palmtree|palm]]-ringed [[Jericho]], [[Bethlehem]], and other [[bible|biblical]]-Christian sites. The map may partially have served to facilitate pilgrims' orientation in the Holy Land.{{Citation needed|date=August 2018}} All landscape units are labelled with explanations in [[Greek language|Greek]]. The mosaic's references to the tribes of Israel, toponymy, as well as its use of quotations of biblical passages, indicate that the artist who laid out the mosaic used the ''[[Onomasticon (Eusebius)|Onomasticon]]'' of [[Eusebius]] (fourth-century AD) as a primary source. A combination of folding perspective and an aerial view depicts approximately 150 towns and villages, all of them labelled.

The largest and most detailed element of the topographic depiction is Jerusalem ({{lang-gr|ΙΕΡΟΥΣΑ[ΛΉΜ]}}), at the centre of the map. The mosaic clearly shows a number of significant structures in the [[Old City of Jerusalem]]: the [[Damascus Gate]], the [[Lions' Gate]], the [[Golden Gate (Jerusalem)|Golden Gate]], the [[Zion Gate]], the [[Church of the Holy Sepulchre]], the [[Nea Ekklesia of the Theotokos|New Church of the Theotokos]], the [[Tower of David]], and the [[Cardo#Jerusalem|''Cardo Maximus'']]. On Jerusalem's southwest side is shown ''Acel Dama'' (lit. "field of blood"), from Christian liturgy. The recognisable depiction of the urban topography makes the mosaic a key source on Byzantine Jerusalem. Also unique are the detailed depictions of cities such as [[Nablus#Flavia Neapolis|Neapolis]], [[Askalon]], [[Gaza City|Gaza]], [[Pelusium]], and [[Kerak|Charachmoba]], all of them nearly detailed enough to be described as [[street map]]s. Other designated sites include: [[Emmaus Nicopolis|Nicopolis]] ({{lang-gr|ΝΙΚΟΠΟΛΙΣ}}); [[Khirbet Beit Zakariyyah|Beth Zachar[ias]]] ({{lang-gr|ΒΕΘΖΑΧΑΡ[ΊΟΥ]}}); [[Bethlehem]] ({{lang-gr|ΒΗΘΛΕΕΜ }}); Socho ({{lang-gr|Σωχω}}), now ''Kh. Shuweikah'' (southwest of [[Hebron]]); [[Innaba|Beth Annaba]] ({{lang-gr|ΒΕΤΟΑΝΝΑΒΑ}}); [[Tell es-Safi|Saphitha]] ({{lang-gr|CΑΦΙΘΑ}});<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kallai-Kleinmann|first=Z.|title=The Town Lists of Judah, Simeon, Benjamin and Dan|journal=[[Vetus Testamentum]]|publisher=Brill|location=Leiden |volume=8|issue=2 |page=155 |year=1958|jstor=1516086|language=en }}</ref> [[Jericho]] ({{lang-gr|Ίεριχω}}); [[Deir Hajla|Beit-ḥagla]] ({{lang-gr|ΒΗΘΑΓΛΑ}}); [[Archelais]] ({{lang-gr|ΑΡΧΕΛΑΙϹ}}); [[Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut|Modi'im]] ({{lang-gr|ΜΩΔΕΕΙΜ}}); [[Lod|Lydda]] ({{lang-gr|ΛΩΔΗ}}); [[Bethoron]] ({{lang-gr|Βεθωρων}}); [[Gibeon (ancient city)|Gibeon]] ({{lang-gr|ΓΑΒΑΩΝ}}); [[Al-Ram|Rama]] ({{lang-gr|ΡΑΜΑ}}); [[Wadi al-Far'a (river)|Coreae]] ({{lang-gr|ΚΟΡΕΟΥΣ}});<ref>Where is now the "Old Roman Bridge" ([[Arabic]]: ''Mukatta' Damieh''), near the confluence of the watercourse ''[[Zarqa River|Naḥal Yabok]]'', not far from Wadi Fara'a, and which once marked the entry into Judea when one passes over the midland countries.</ref> [[Maresha]] ({{lang-gr|ΜΟΡΑΣΘΙ}});<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Donner |author-first=Herbert|title=The Mosaic Map of Madaba: An Introductory Guide |publisher=Kok Pharos Publishing House |series=Palaestina antiqua 7 |location=Kampen, the Netherlands|year=1995 |edition=2 |page=22|language=en |isbn=90-390-0011-5 |oclc=636083006 }}. This particular entry has inscribed in Greek uncials: "Morasthi, whence was [[Micah (prophet)|Micah]] the prophet." The text is said to have been borrowed from [[Eusebius]]' ''[[Onomasticon (Eusebius)|Onomasticon]]''.</ref> [[Ashdod-Yam|Azotos Paralos]] (Ashdod-Coast) ({{lang-gr|ΑΖΩΤΟΣΠΑΡΑΛΣ}}); The Great Plain ({{lang-gr|ΡΟΣΔΑΝ}}), literally meaning, "The Tribe of Dan";<ref>Beside which is inscribed a verse taken from Judges 5:17, "Why did Dan remain in ships?"</ref> [[Yavne|Jamnia]] ({{lang-gr|ΊΑΒΝΗΛΗΚΑΙΊΑΜΝΙΑ}}) (Lit. "Jabneel, which is also Jamnia"), among other sites. Many of these sites are marked on the mosaic map with various artistic vignettes representing the site in the Province of [[Palestina Tertia]]. For example, Jericho and [[Zoara|Zoar]] ({{lang-gr|ΖΟΟΡΑ}}) are, both, represented by vignettes of [[date palm]] orchards.<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Dalman|author-first=Gustaf |author-link=Gustaf Dalman |title=Work and Customs in Palestine |volume=I/1 |translator=Nadia Abdulhadi Sukhtian |location=Ramallah|publisher=Dar Al Nasher |year=2013 |language=en |page=65 (note 4) |url=https://www.amazon.com/Customs-Palestine-Translation-Gustaf-2013-08-02/dp/B01K3MCDFE |oclc=1040774903|isbn=9789950385-00-9}}</ref> Zoar is seen on the far south-eastern side of the [[Dead Sea]].

The mosaic map of Madaba is the oldest known geographic floor mosaic in [[art history]]. It is used heavily for the localisation and verification of biblical sites. Study of the map played a major role in answering the question of the topographical location of [[Ashkelon|Askalon]] (''Asqalan'' on the map).<ref>[http{{Cite book|url=https://www.grin.com/de/previewdocument/59736.html Jana Vogt: ''|title=Architekturmosaiken am BeispielBeispel der drei jordanischenJordanischen Städte Madaba, Umm al-Rasas und Gerasa''.|first=Jana|last=Vogt|date=19 Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-UniversitätAugust Greifswald, Greifswald 2004]2006|via=www.grin.com}}</ref>

In February 2010, excavations further substantiated its accuracy with the discovery of a road depicted in the map that runs through the center of Jerusalem.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/02/10/jerusalem.road.discovery/index.html?hpt=T2 | work=CNN | title=Archaeologists find Byzantine era road | date=11 February 2010}}</ref> According to the map, the main entrance to the city was through a large gate opening into a wide central street. Until the discovery, archaeologists were not able to excavate this site due to heavy pedestrian traffic. In the wake of infrastructure work near the [[Jaffa Gate]], large paving stones were discovered at a depth of four meters below ground that prove such a road existed.<ref>[{{Cite web|url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1149033.html |title=Dig uncovers ancient Jerusalem street depicted on Byzantine map ]}}</ref>

==Copies of the Madaba Mapmap==

* The Archaeological Institute of [[Göttingen University]] contains a copy of the map in its archive collections. This copy was produced during the conservation work at Madaba in 1965 by archaeologists of the [[Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier|Rheinisches Landesmuseum]], [[Trier]].

* The entrance lobby of the [[YMCA]] in Jerusalem has a small replica of the Jerusalem part of the map incorporated in theits floor.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Jerusalem Architecture in the British Mandate Period|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jerusalem-architecture-in-the-british-mandate-period|access-date=2021-11-13|website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}</ref> At the Byzantine Cardo in the Old City there's another copy of the Jerusalem section, with explanations.

* [[Eusebius]] of Caesarea (260/65–339/40), Church historian and geographer of the Holy Land

*"Pilgrim of Bordeaux" (333-4), who left travel descriptions in the ''[[Itinerarium Burdigalense]]''

* [[Egeria (pilgrim)|Egeria]], pilgrim to the Holy Land (c. 381-384) who left a detailed travel account

* [[Anonymous pilgrim of Piacenza]], pilgrim to the Holy Land (570s) who left travel descriptions

* {{cite journal | author = Abel, F.-M.|authorlink=Félix-Marie Abel| title = Le Sud Palestinien d'apres la carte mosaique de Madaba| url=https://digital.soas.ac.uk/AA00000665/00004/119x| journal = Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society| volume =IV | year=1924 |pages=[https://digital.soas.ac.uk/AA00000665/00004/119x 107]-[https://digital.soas.ac.uk/AA00000665/00004/129x 117]|language=French}}

* {{cite journal|title=JÉRUSALEM D'APRÈS LA MOSAÏQUE DE MADABA|last=Lagrange|first =M.-J.|authorlink=Marie-Joseph Lagrange|journal=Revue Biblique|volume= 6|issue= 3|date=July 1897| pppages=450–458|publisher=Peeters Publishers|jstor= 44101959}}

* Palmer, P.; Dr. [[Hermann Guthe (theologian)|Guthe]] (1906), [https://archive.org/details/diemosaikkartevo00deut/page/n3 Die Mosaikkarte von Madeba], Im Auftrage des Deutschen Vereins zur Erforschung Palätinas

* {{citation |last=Leal, |first=Beatrice. "|title=A Reconsideration of the Madaba Map." |journal=Gesta |volume=57, no. |issue=2 (|date=Fall 2018): 123|doi=10.1086/698839 |pages=123–143 |s2cid=194929753 |doi-143access=free }}.

* Madden, Andrew M., "A New Form of Evidence to Date the Madaba Map Mosaic," ''Liber Annuus'' 62 (2012), 495-513.

* Adolf Jacoby: ''Das geographische Mosaik von Madaba, Die älteste Karte des Heiligen Landes''. Dieterich’sche{{Ill|Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung|de}}, Leipzig 1905

* [[Kurt Weitzmann|Weitzmann, Kurt]], ed., ''[http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15324coll10/id/156533 Age of spirituality: late antique and early Christian art, third to seventh century]'', no. 523, 1979, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], New York, {{ISBN|9780870991790}}

[[Category:History6th-century of Jordanmaps]]