South Church Complete

ID: 5

Building type: church

Context:

rural; monastic

Site:

Inscriptions:

8

Description:

An elaborate mosaic program dominates the church interior, combining geometric motifs with the Greek letters alpha and omega, and featuring animals such as a peacock and an eagle, as well as a lion confronting an ox and a dog pursuing a gazelle. The same mosaic pavement carries an inscription in Christian Palestinian Aramaic. Architecturally, the complex comprises a vestibule and nave, a chancel screen, and an elevated presbytery terminating in an apse. The building belongs to the latter half of the sixth century and was restored at a later date. Plan: published in Piccirillo and Qudah 2003, p. 310, fig. 2. Further reading: - Hoyland, R. 2010. “Mount Nebo, Jabal Ramm, and the status of Christian Palestinian Aramaic and Old Arabic in Late Roman Palestine and Arabia,” in M.C.A. Macdonald (ed.), The Development of Arabic as Written Language, Oxford, 29–46. - Piccirillo, M.; Qudah, Z. 2003. “L’eremitaggio nel Wadi Rajib Sulla Montagna di Ajlun in Giordania,” in G.C. Bottini, L. di Segni, and L.D. Chrupcala (eds.), One Land–Many Cultures. Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 309–316. - Puech, E. 2003. “L’inscription christo-palestinienne du Ouadi Rajib-Ajloun et de nouvelles inscriptions christo-palestiniennes de Jordanie,” in G.C. Bottini, L. di Segni, and L.D. Chrupcala (eds.), One Land–Many Cultures. Jerusalem: Franciscan Press, 317–325.