Jerash Papers

Gerasa/Jerash and the Decapolis are located along the seismically active area of the Dead Sea Rift a point where four tectonic plates meet to create the 110 km-long fault known as the Dead Sea Transform. It was activity along this fault that led in ad 749 to a famously devastating earthquake in the region. Measuring at least 7.0 on the Richter scale this quake not only had a profound physical impact on the Decapolis Galilee Caesarea and Jerusalem causing widespread destruction and reshaping urban landscapes but also led to a clear shift in socio-economic dynamics through a combination of economic decline and population displacement. It thus stands as a clear watershed moment in Late Antiquity. In its aftermath some cities struggled to regain prominence while others declined and were abandoned. Taking the ad 749 earthquake as its starting point this volume aims to provide a nuanced understanding of the quake’s effects questioning its role as a sole watershed moment and exploring the various other factors at play that influenced urban change. The contributions gathered here which clearly recognize earthquakes as non-human actors in this process clearly highlight the diverse impacts that this seismic event had on the city life in the southern Levant and the fallout in the decades that followed.

The Decapolis city of Jerash has long attracted attention from travellers and scholars due both to the longevity of the site and the remarkable finds uncovered during successive phases of excavation that have taken place from 1902 onwards. Between 2011 and 2016 a Danish-German team led by the universities of Aarhus and Münster focused their attention on the Northwest Quarter of Jerash — the highest point within the walled city — and this volume is the sixth in a series of books presenting the team’s final results.

In this volume a wide range of miscellaneous items discovered in the Northwest Quarter are presented ranging from prehistoric lithics to Ottoman pipes. Material finds covered include stone sculpture utensils and inscriptions as well as bone objects spindle whorls and bread stamps while some scientific analyses of jewellery and terracotta figurines complement the studies. These chapters ensure that all finds from the Northwest Quarter — no matter how small — are made available to researchers with the contributions gathered here offering unique new insights into the material groups from Gerasa later Jerash and into the lives of the population of the city from a longue durée perspective.

The Decapolis city of Jerash has long attracted attention from travellers and scholars due both to the longevity of the site and the remarkable finds uncovered during successive phases of excavation that have taken place from 1902 onwards. Between 2011 and 2016 a Danish-German team led by the universities of Aarhus and Münster focused their attention on the Northwest Quarter of Jerash - the highest point within the walled city - and this is the fourth in a series of books presenting the team’s final results.

This two-part set offers a comprehensive presentation of Jerash’s rich building heritage from the Late Hellenistic period up to the city’s destruction in the mid-eighth century ad through a discussion of architectural elements together with analysis of the mosaics wall paintings and building ceramics excavated from the Northwest Quarter. As well as providing a general overview of the city’s changing patterns of habitation the contributions gathered here also include close case- studies and object biographies that shed new light on the intense use reuse and recycling of materials that testify to evolving urban practices and optimization of resources across the Roman Byzantine and Islamic periods.

The Decapolis city of Jerash has long attracted attention from travellers and scholars due both to the longevity of the site and the remarkable finds uncovered during successive phases of excavation that have taken place from 1902 onwards. Between 2011 and 2016 a Danish-German team led by the universities of Aarhus and Münster focused their attention on the Northwest Quarter of Jerash - the highest point within the walled city - and this volume is the third in a series of books presenting the team’s final results.

The contributions gathered together in this volume provide an in-depth analysis of the glass finds the lamps and the iconography of the Jerash bowls discovered in the Northwest Quarter during the excavations. Together these chapters provide both general overviews and more detailed insights into these important groups of material evidence and also examine their stratigraphic contextualization and chronological spread across the centuries.

The Decapolis city of Jerash has long attracted attention from travellers and scholars due both to the longevity of the site and the remarkable finds uncovered during successive phases of excavation that have taken place from 1902 onwards. Between 2011 and 2016 a Danish-German team led by the universities of Aarhus and Münster focused their attention on the Northwest Quarter of Jerash - the highest point within the walled city - and this volume is the first in a series of books presenting the team’s final results.

Covering different themes and categories of finds this volume focuses on the geophysical survey and other remote-sensing work undertaken in and around the Northwest Quarter and also presents an in-depth discussion of the environmental studies performed at the site. This includes the geoscientific analysis carried out in various contexts as well as radiocarbon dating studies of both human and animal bones and conclusions drawn from the archaeobotanical research.