Ancient Earthquake Turned Mosaic Workshop into Time Capsule

An earthquake-toppled house in the ancient city of Jerash is providing archaeologists with clues on how artisans constructed mosaics during the eighth century.

The ancient house was likely undergoing a remodel when, on Jan. 18, 749, the massive earthquake struck Jerash, located in what is now Jordan, the researchers of a new study found.

Before the earthquake, artisans were putting together mosaics for the floors of the house, but they abandoned their artwork after the natural disaster struck. This abandonment turned the house into a time capsule, allowing modern-day archaeologists a chance to see how artisans from the Umayyad — the early Islamic period — assembled these decorative mosaics. ... Archaeologists have already combed through much of Jerash, an ancient walled city that flourished from the first century B.C. through the middle of the eighth century A.D., when the earthquake struck.

However, two archaeologists realized that areas within the highest part of the city, located in the northwest quarter, had yet to be studied. In particular, an extravagant house with partially completed mosaic floors caught their attention.

They dubbed it the "House of the Tesserae," named for the individual tessera pieces that make up its mosaics. The house was likely owned by wealthy people, as it had several rooms surrounding a courtyard, where a rainwater-collecting cistern sat hidden underground. The house also had a porch lined with Roman-style Corinthian columns, said study co-researcher Rubina Raja, a professor of classical archaeology at Aarhus University in Denmark.

The top floor of the two-story house had tumbled onto the ground floor — likely because of the violent earthquake, Raja said. But, curiously, both floors were barren of all furniture and daily objects, suggesting that the owners had cleared out the house for a remodel, Raja said.

"What we found in there was the preparation for new wall paintings in the house, and then these new mosaics that were about to be laid," Raja told Live Science.

The floor of the upper level was already adorned with large mosaics — all geometric in pattern, meaning they didn't show a specific scene — indicating that the house was structurally sound, at least before the earthquake hit, Raja said.1

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Mosaicists at work: the organisation of mosaic production in Early Islamic Jerash

Achim Lichtenbergerand Rubina Raja

Antiquity, Volume 91, Issue 358, August 2017 , pp. 998-1010

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2017.66

The city of Jerash in northern Jordan was badly damaged by an earthquake in AD 749. As a result of this, many parts of the city, including the Northwest Quarter, were abandoned and further construction ceased. Archaeological excavations in those parts of the city therefore reveal snapshots in time from the moment at which disaster hit. Of particular interest is the so-called ‘House of the Tesserae’, where archaeologists discovered a trough for the storage of pieces to be used in the construction of mosaics. The find, reported here for the first time, provides a unique insight into the practice of mosaic-laying during the Early Islamic Period.