Mosaics as History: The Near East from Late Antiquity to Islam

158 Pages·2006·11.929 MB·English

by  G. W. Bowersock, Professor Emeritus of Ancient History G W Bowersock

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