Madaba Map

Annotated reproduction of the Madaba Map (19k×12.5k pixels)

The Madaba Mosaic Map depicts Jerusalem with the New Church of the Theotokos, which was dedicated on 20 November 542. Buildings erected in Jerusalem after 570 are absent from the depiction, thus limiting the date range of its creation to the period between 542 and 570.[1] The mosaic was made by unknown artists, probably for the Christian community of Madaba, which was the seat of a bishop at that time.

In 614, Madaba was conquered by the Sasanian Empire. In the eighth century, the ruling Muslim Umayyad Caliphate had some figural motifs removed from the mosaic. In 746, Madaba was largely destroyed by an earthquake and subsequently abandoned.

The mosaic in the process of being uncovered

The mosaic was rediscovered in 1884, during the construction of a new Greek Orthodox church on the site of its ancient predecessor.[2] Patriarch Nicodemus I of Jerusalem was informed, but no research was carried out until 1896.[3][4]

In the following decades, large portions of the mosaic map were damaged by fires, activities in the new church, and by the effects of moisture. In December 1964, the Volkswagen Foundation gave the Deutscher Verein zur Erforschung Palästinas (lit. "German Association for the Exploration of Palestine") 90,000 DM to save the mosaic. In 1965, the archaeologists Heinz Cüppers and Heinrich Brandt undertook the restoration and conservation of the remaining parts of the mosaic.[5]

^ Keyser, Paul T.; Scarborough, John (2018). The Oxford Handbook of Science and Medicine in the Classical World. Oxford: Oxford UP. p. 937. ISBN 978-0-19-973414-6. Retrieved 21 February 2022. ^ Meimaris, Yiannis. "The Discovery of the Madaba Mosaic Map. Mythology and Reality". Archived from the original on 3 October 2013. Retrieved 9 June 2011. ^ Donner, 1992, p.11 ^ Piccirillo, Michele (21 September 1995). "A Centenary to be celebrated". Jordan Times. Franciscan Archaeology Institute. Retrieved 18 January 2019. It was only Abuna Kleofas Kikilides who realised the true significance, for the history of the region, that the map had while visiting Madaba in December 1896. A Franciscan friar of ltalian-Croatian origin born in Constantinople, Fr. Girolamo Golubovich, helped Abuna Kleofas to print a booklet in Greek about the map at the Franciscan printing press of Jerusalem. Immediately afterwards, the Revue Biblique published a long and detailed historic-geographic study of the map by the Dominican fathers M.J. Lagrange and H. Vincent after visiting the site themselves. At the same time. Father J. Germer-Durand of the Assumptionist Fathers published a photographic album with his own pictures of the map. In Paris, C. Clermont-Gannau, a well known oriental scholar, announced the discovery at the Academie des Sciences et belles Lettres. ^ Donner, Herbert (1992). The Mosaic Map of Madaba: An Introductory Guide. Kampen: Pharos. p. 12. ISBN 9789039000113. Retrieved 21 February 2022.