Chapter I

Introduction

by Thomas Lepaon, Nizar Turshan & Thomas M. Weber-Karyotakis


Geographically Gerasa lies between the two ancient Arabian metropoleis Bosra and Petra. Its fame bases on its reputation as one of the Ten Greek Cities in northern Jordan, bearing the Hellenistic dynastic name of Antioch at the Chrysorrhoas. It became one of the most flourishing cities of Roman Northwest-Arabia after the establishment of the province in the year 106 AD. Its prominent status owes this inland city, for various reasons, due an outstanding preservation of its Roman monuments. For this reason it has been often praised as a “Pompeij of the Middle East.”

The project inaugurated in 2016 with generous funding by the Gerda Henkel-Foundation (Düsseldorf) and le ministère des affaires étrangères et du développement international (MAEDI – Paris) appeals the study and conservation of an exceptional, but still un-explored monument of ancient Gerasa: It concerns the largest public complex of the ancient city, the so-called Great Eastern baths. From this thermal complex, covering in its entire extension some 25.000 m2 of the city’s topography, a sequence of large bathing halls covered by barrel vaults up to a height of 12 m dominates the skyline of the eastern fringe of the Hashe-miyeh plaza along the shore of the Wadi Jerash (Fig. I. 1). The building has been first reported with great precision on the maps by William John Bankes and Charles Barry in 1818 (Fig. II. 1) indicating the full extension of the building as it was preserved in the early 19th century. To the north of the compact bath building adjaces the pillared northern hall. It displays the central semicircular exedra with niches at its northern façade. During the gradual Circessian re-settlement of the ruined Roman city from the late 19th century onward, the eastern sector has been overbuilt by modern dwellings and shops. During the post-WWII 20th century, the compound came into private property of a Circessian farmer who cultivated fruit groves. In the 1970s, the land has been acquired by the municipality of Jerash in order to establish a bus station and use the northern sector as a garbage dump.

Fig. I. 1 The Great Eastern Baths in the center of Jerash on the eastern shore of the Wadi, today the only larger monument of Roman origin located outside of the fenced Antiquities site.
Fig. I. 2 General map of Jerash: The Great Eastern Baths in the center of modern Jerash on the eastern shore of the Wadi (red circle).

In 1986 and later in 2004, the local Department of Antiquities prevented illegal looting by carrying out limited salvage excavations. During these interventions, a part of the northern hall has been excavated down to the paved floor. This work produced, apart from the architectural structures, rich finds of marble sculpture associated with some 30 partly inscribed bases which were only selectively published by Thomas M. Weber-Karyotakis, and restudied by the American archaeologist Elise S. Friedland. Apart from three historically outstanding specimen, the epigraphic monuments remained widely ignored. By initiative of the senior director of the Mission Archéologique Française de Jerash (MAFJ) Jacques Seigne, who produced important notes and sketch drawings during the otherwise scarcely recorded Jordanian salvage excavation, study on the complex has been resumed in the early 2000 by the French epigraphist Sandra Agusta-Bularot and the architect Thomas Lepaon. The research of the later resulted in his doctoral thesis on the baths in 2012 submitted to the Université François Rabelais at Tours.

After the displacement of the bus garage to the northern suburb in 2010, the municipality organized the plaza in front of the bath ruin as a public ambulatory with parking lots at its northern side. This was the precondition to reconsider the historical and cultural importance of ancient Gerasa for the benefit of the local community. Therefore, the present authors developed the idea to resume a systematic archaeological exploration of the Great Eastern baths at Jerash with the aim to increase knowledge about the building’s history and to preserve the most outstanding ancient monument in the center of the modern city.

The 2016 excavation was made possible through the support of the two French and German funding institutions. The Directorate General of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan kindly issued the excavation permit no. 9/2016 to resume the actual field work.

We further address our sincere thanks to the following institutions and personalities for their support:

Institutions (alphabetical order):

The Department of Antiquities of Jordan, General Di-rectorate Amman and Jerash Branch; The Embassy of the French Republic; The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany; The Gerda Henkel Foundation, Düsseldorf; The German Archaeological Institute, Central Branch, Berlin; The German Protestant Institute for Archaeology, Amman; The Holy Land Institute for the Deaf, Salt; The Institut Français du Proche-Orient Amman; Le ministère des affaires étrangères et du développement international (MAEDI – Paris); The Laboratoire Archéologie et Territoires (UMR 7324 – CITERES), France); The Municipality of Jerash, The University of Jordan Amman; 

Persons (alphabetical order)

 Al-Abadi, Mr. Aktham  (Director of Sureys and Exca-vation of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan); Al-Atoum, Akram, Mr. (Inspector of Antiquities, Department of Antiquities, Jerash); Bani Ata, Hana, MA (The University of Jordan), Al-Ghawghashi, Dr. ‘Ali (Major of the Jerash Municipality); Al-Hebashan, Abd al-Ke-rim, MA (freelance Archaeologist, Salt), Hidjazi, Ghazi (Coordinator at the Institut Français du Proche-Orient, Amman), Al-Jamhawi, Professor Dr. Monther (H.E., Director General of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan); Al-Khraishat, Hareth, BA (Yarmuk University, Irbid), Khayyat, Dr. ‘Ali (Director of the Department of Antiquities Jerash branch); Al-Kho-khon, Khairiyeh, BA (freelance Archaeologist and Conservator, Amman), Lagorsse, Katia, MA (freelance Archaeologist, Mansac, France), Melhem, Dr. Ismael (Inspector Department of Antiquities of Jor-dan); Mujjali, Mr. Abd al-Majeed (former Project Manager of the Department of Antiquities at Jerash); Naghawi, Ms. ‘Aïda (former Director of the Department of Antiquities at Jerash), Al-Nahar, Maysoon, Professor Dr. (Dean of the Faculty of Archaeology and Tourism, The University of Jordan); Al-Tantawi, Mohannad, MA (The University of Jordan), Simon Gaël, MA (Archaeologist, Thoré-la-Rochette, France), “Umm Ibrahim” (Fatmeh Bishara, Cook, Gaza-Camp Jerash), Al-Waked, Salam, MA (Yarmuk University, Irbid).

The local workmen were recruted from the cities of Jerash and Suf, and a major part of them lives in the nearb-by refugee camps.

Our thanks to all of them!

Fig. I. 3 The three excavation directors of Mission Archéologique Française de Jerash (MAFJ) and The University of Jordan receive the arms of honor by Dr. ‘Ali Ghawghashi, the Major of the Jerash Municipality by the conclusion of the 2016 campaign on May 19th.
Fig. I. 4 Local workmen and Jordanian archaeologists with the marble torso of Aphrodite retrieved from the excavation trench on May 12th.
Fig. I. 5 The director and the team members of Mission Archéologique Française de Jerash (MAFJ) with one the co-directors of The University of Jordan with the marble torso of Aphrodite retrieved from the excavation trench on May 12th.
Fig. I. 6 The Jordanian and French team of Archaeologists working at the Great Eastern Baths at Gerasa in the 2016 campaign at their breakfast brake in the camp on the Jerash Antiquity Site. [Bildquelle: T.L]