revealing antiquity 16 ■ ■ G.W.Bowersock,GeneralEditor G . W. B O W E R S O C K Mosaics as History THE NEAR EAST FROM LATE ANTIQUITY TO ISLAM THE BELKNAP PRESS OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge,Massachusetts London,England 2006 Copyright©2006bythePresidentandFellowsofHarvardCollege Allrightsreserved PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Bowersock,G.W.(GlenWarren),1936– Mosaicsashistory:theNearEastfromlateantiquitytoIslam/ G.W.Bowersock. p.cm.—(Revealingantiquity;16) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN-13:978-0-674-02292-8(alk.paper) ISBN-10:0-674-02292-0(alk.paper) 1.Mosaics,Ancient—MiddleEast. 2.MiddleEast—Antiquities. 3.MiddleEast—History—To622. I.Title. II.Series. NA3780.B69 2006 738.509394—dc22 2006041140 Preface T hechaptersthatfollowderive,withtheexceptionofthelast,froma series of lectures delivered in March 1997 at the Collège de France in Paris under the general title of Le Mystère de Grégoria: Mosaïques du Proche-Orient dans l’Antiquité Tardive. I am indebted to my friend Marc Fumarolifortheinvitationtodelivertheselectures,andtohisassistant Catherine Fabre for making the arrangements so efficiently. I am in- debtedaswelltoanotherfriend,GilbertDagron,whointroducedseveral ofthelecturesandprovidedimportantsupportthroughoutmymonthin Paris.Amongthefaithfulauditorswerestillmorefriendswhohavelong helped me in various ways: Janine and Jean-Charles Balty, Jean Leclant, Georges Le Rider, the much-missed Jeanne Robert, and Jacqueline de Romilly. Withthetorrentofdiscoveriesandpublicationsonlate-antiquemosa- icsfromtheNearEastinrecentyears,thepreparationofthisbooktook more time than anticipated. In addition I was agreeably diverted into a projectwithmyPrincetoncolleaguesandfriendsPeterBrownandOleg Grabartoproduceasubstantialreferencevolumeonlateantiquity.Har- vardUniversityPresspublishedthisin1999.Afterthatcameanotherdi- versionintheformofavolumeofselectedpapersonlateantiquitythat appearedinItaly(publishedbyEdipuglia)in2000. The lengthy process of revising and augmenting my text for publica- tion, together with compiling apposite illustrations, led to a decision to offerthebooknowinEnglish.Ihavegreatlybenefitedfromextensivedis- cussionwithcolleaguessince1997,especiallywithZeevWeiss(wholed meonanunforgettabletourofSepphoris),withGuyStroumsa,andwith Garth Fowden. I have presented some of my material, at various stages of development, in Oxford, Jerusalem, and Budapest. A quarter-hour segmentonNationalPublicTelevision’sfour-partseriesontheInstitute for Advanced Study (Big Ideas; 2003) was devoted to this work on Near Easternmosaics.MyimmensegratitudetoFatherMichelePiccirilloOFM willbeapparenteverywhereinthisbook.HisexcavationsinJordanhave produceddiscoveriesthatarefundamentaltomyargument.Iamequally indebtedtoZeevWeissforhisunfailingcooperationinsupplyingimages ofthemagnificentmosaicsatSepphoris. IamalsoindebtedtoChristopherJonesatHarvardforacriticalread- ingofthepenultimatedraftoftheentiremanuscript,andtoPegFulton andMariaAscheratHarvardUniversityPressforinvaluableeditingand support throughout. I am grateful to JaÏ Elsner for very helpful sugges- tions. IthasbeeninevitablefromthestartthatIwouldnotbeabletosupply illustrations for every one of the images I discuss. I have tried to intro- duce images as historical documents in much the same way as inscrip- tions, coins, papyri, and literary texts. Where the full document cannot be examined here, there should nevertheless be enough information to justifyitsrelevanceandtoguidetheinterestedreader.Thisisessentially ahistoricalinquiry,notastylisticoraestheticone.Itismeanttoevokea rich and varied fabric of society, religion, and culture that could legiti- matelybeclaimedaslateantiquity’smostpotentlegacytoIslam. preface vi Contents 1 Maps 1 2 Myths 31 3 Cities 65 4 Iconoclasms 91 5 Contexts 113 Bibliography 125 ListofIllustrations 135 Index 141 mosaics as history