"Restore the Body, Soothe the Soul: The Water Systems of the Jordanian Monasteries" in Rosapat - Studies on the Archaeology of Palestine & Transjordan (12), 2017, pp. 29-41. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Holy Water in the Hierotopy and Iconography of the Christian World, 2017
This paper looks at the depiction and display of water at the early Islamic site of Qusayr Amra, in modern Jordan. The bathhouse was built during the 720s under the patronage of the Umayyad prince al-Walid ibn Yazid, later Caliph al-Walid II (743-744), and consists of a triple-aisled audience hall with a three-room bathing suite attached, of apodyterium, tepidarium and calidarium. The walls and vaults of both the audience hall and the bathhouse proper are covered with paintings, with subjects including music-making, lovemaking, hunting, fighting, dancing and bathing, images of the patron and other rulers, mythological and Quranic characters, and a range of female personifications. As a bathhouse in a semi-arid area of the Jordanian steppe, the building is itself a display of water, embodying and exemplifying the control of this resource by the Umayyad elite. Beyond this, the details of the representations suggest that engagement with water held a range of more complex symbolic associations for the original viewers. In particular, the images present water as a regenerative element in a spiritual as well as a physical sense. Despite the secular function of the building, a transcendental current runs through the painted cycle. Without explicitly casting the space as sacred, the paintings present the waters of the bathhouse as transformative. The engagement of early Islamic art with the earlier traditions of their newly-conquered empire, in particular with Greco-Roman and Sassanian motifs, has often been noted. However, the extent to which Umayyad artists and patrons engaged with Christian themes is less studied. The paper considers the influence of Christian imagery on the paintings of Jonah and of the Nile at Qusayr Amra, and the significance of the adaptation of these motifs in a secular Islamic building, with reference to concepts such as the Rivers of Paradise, baptism and the Water of Life. Finally, the images of bathing at Qusayr Amra are discussed. The paintings of bathers in the bathhouse appear to contain Dionysiac references, again presenting water, and the act of bathing, as transformative. In the audience hall, the central image in the west aisle is a semi-naked woman standing by a pool of water. She has previously been interpreted as a portrait of a specific woman associated with al-Walid’s court, or as a generic pin-up. However, the ways in which both women and water are represented elsewhere in the paintings at Qusayr Amra support a re-investigation of this lady, on the assumption that she is more ideal than real, with the status of a goddess or a personification. The paper concludes with an assessment of the role of bathing in late Umayyad courtly ceremonial, and the presentation of water as a feminised and semi-mythological zone, with the potential to transport the bather far beyond the everyday world.
The societal impact of water system development in the world of the Old Testament
Pharos Journal of Theology, 2019
Looking at water availability and systems developed around it invariably leads to a better understanding of the roles it played throughout the different periods as reflected in the Old Testament. Both religion and societal development form part of the history of ancient Palestine. Importantly, water is a major part of both these pillars. The Bible is a significant source of information when it comes to answering questions regarding what exactly the role of water was for daily life in times of peace and war, to the elite and to the poor. As such, for this study, the biblical text is combined with extra-biblical manuscripts to complete the picture. Along with religious practices that involved water, which includes purification rituals, we also find evidence of practices dependent on social development reliant on hierarchical structures. The changing extent to which water would be manipulated throughout the Old Testament would have contributed to a division between social classes as it...
Ancient Water System in Tel Mar Elyas during the Byzantine Period: A Study
Recent archeological survey and excavations conducted in Tel Mar Elyas (Bethany Beyond the Jordan) confidently provide explicit answers about early ecology and history of Christian community east of Jordan. Churches, caves, prayer halls and water system installations were recovered in and around Tel Mar Elyas. The discovered remains of elaborate water system include pools, cisterns, wells and aqueducts refer to skilled engineering water system built during the Byzantine period. The author of this paper with his team systematically surveyed and excavated some 20 sites along both banks of the perennial Wadi Kharrar, covering an area of several square kilometers east of the Jordan River. This work has confirmed the location of the main settlement of Bethany at the head of the Wadi Kharrar, about 1.5 kilometers east of the river. Here, the team uncovered a 1 st century AD settlement with plastered pools and water systems that were almost certainly used for baptism, and a late Byzantine settlement (5 th-6 th century AD) with churches, a monastery and other structures that probably catered to religious pilgrims. The present study includes also the results of field survey which has documented the ancient pilgrimage route that linked Jerusalem, via the Jordan River and Bethany in Jordan, to Mt. Nebo. Several Byzantine churches and other structures have been identified between the river and Bethany and are under publication. Some of them commemorate Jesus' baptism while other structures were monasteries for ascetic monks. The paper concluded with conclusion and recommendations aiming to preserve the remaining fragile water system installations.
Kaptijn, E. (2019): Surviving the summer. Ancient water management in the Southern Jordan Valley as compared to the Central Jordan Valley. In M. Peilstöcker & S. Wolfram, Life ate the Dead Sea, Proceedings of the International Conference held at the State Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz (smac), February 21–24, 2018, Chemnitz, Ägypten und Altes Testament 96, Zaphon Verlag: Münster, 105-119.
Journal of Islamic Archaeology, 8(2), 2021
Shivtiel, Y., Frumkin, A. and Bar-Matthews, M., 2021. Mitigating Water Scarcity in the Medieval and Islamic Periods: The Example of Safed, Israel. Journal of Islamic Archaeology, 8(2). Abstract During the intermediate Islamic period, the settlement of Safed was transformed from a small unknown village in Upper Galilee to an important stronghold and administrative center, aggravating the problem of the town's water supply. Lacking natural springs, Safed depended on cisterns fed by gutters that channeled seasonal rainwater from the roofs and on distant springs in the Nahal Amud ravine. As the town's population grew, its rulers were required to install public water systems. Our field study of the region reveals several Mamluk water systems whose outstanding features are an aqueduct that channeled water by force of gravity from ʿAyn Bīriyyā to the Crusader/Mamluk citadel in Safed, and a spring tunnel flowing beneath the town that was accessible via shafts in the houses. The composition of the water in the tunnel is similar to that of a famous ritual bath in one of these houses, indicating a probable connection. The water systems were dated using Uranium-Thorium analysis and by radiocarbon dating. An ancient spring tunnel at the nearby site of ʿAyn al-Zaytun that may have inspired the construction of Safed's water systems is also discussed. The archaeological finds and dating are consistent with several historical sources describing the construction of water systems in Safed.