Gerasa
was inhabited from as early as 4000 BCE and it became one of the great cities of
the Decapolis in the classical period. Its ruins in modern Jerash are by far the
best preserved.
The
ancient city of Gerasa, in the region of Gilead, is the present day city of
Jerash in the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan. In latitude it is midway between the
Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee about 40 kilometres north of the capital Amman
and 30 kilometres east of the Jordan River. It is situated in the well watered
valley of the Chrysorhoas River, a perennial stream flowing southwards through
the middle of the town and joining the Nahr az-Zarqä' flowing westwards into
the Jordan River. Gerasa was inhabited before the Ammonites pushed in from the
desert and settled east of the Jordan River during the Early Bronze Age, some
time before 2000 BCE. The Ammonites were closely related to the Moabites
who lived east of the Dead Sea, both being cousins of the Israelites. The
original inhabitants probably occupied Gerasa from as early as 4000 BCE
during the Palaeolithic period or Old Stone Age. Gerasa was a significant city
of the Decapolis during the Hellenistic period, when it ranked in importance
with the merchant centres of Palmyra to the north and Petra to the south. These
centres were all on the ancient trade route that headed north westwards through
the fertile
crescent of Mesopotamia from the Persian Gulf, looped around to Homs,
then heading southwards to Al Aqabah on the Red Sea. The ruins of Gerasa in
modern Jerash are by far the best preserved of the Decapolis cities, providing
ample evidence of the culture of its people over many centuries.
Although
early historians, including Appian in his Roman History, often refer to the Hellenistic founding
of the cities of the Decapolis, most if not all of them were ancient towns and
villages that underwent a process of Hellenisation,
after which most flourished for a thousand years or more and some are still in
existence. The detailed archaeological history of Gerasa begins in the
Hellenistic period, which was a direct outcome of Alexander the Great's crushing
defeat of the Persians in 333 BCE at Issus in north western Assyria. The
record continues unbroken through the Roman occupation from 63 BCE, when
General Pompey conquered Jerusalem; the Byzantine period from when
Constantine the Great established Christianity in the Roman Empire in 306 CE;
the short period of Persian suzerainty from 611-622 CE; and when Syria
became an Arab state and Islam was established as the religion after general Abu
Obaida conquered Damascus in 637 CE. The archaeological record ends when
Gerasa was deserted, soon after the great earthquake in 747 that wrought
terrible damage in Palestine. The city remained unoccupied until the Turkish
Government settled a community of Circassian refugees on the east bank of the
Chrysorhoas River in 1878, which was to become the modern Jerash. Iain Browning
graphically describes the history of Gerasa and its development as a Roman
provincial town in his book entitled Jerash
and the Decapolis.
Even
though Gerasa probably is of a more recent origin than Baalbek, the
circumstances of its earliest occupation seem to have been very similar to those
of Baalbek, which is about 180 kilometres to the north and also on the ancient
trade route. Pastoralists of Canaanite origin settled Baalbek about 8,000 years
ago. Very little archaeological work has been done in relation to the occupation
of Gerasa prior to the Hellenistic period because, as at Baalbek, the evidence
is all buried under the products of more recent occupation. Nevertheless,
Gerasa's early development can be deduced from extensive archaeological work
carried out in other nearby centres. Among these are the excavations at Amman,
which was Rabbath Ammon during the Biblical period after about 1200 BCE and
the capital of the Ammonite kings. Gerasa was called Philadelphia in the
Decapolis. These excavations show that the region was occupied in pre-pottery
Neolithic times, possibly as early as 6000 BCE, at about the same time as
Baalbek. Subsequent distinct phases of occupation include the Early Bronze Age
from about 3000 BCE toabout 2000 BCE and again during Biblical times.
Excavations in another city of the Decapolis about 45 kilometres north-west of
Gerasa, which was called Scythopolis because a colony of Scythians settled
there, but is now called Bet She'an, provide one of the longest unbroken
archaeological records of occupation in Palestine, probably from an even earlier
era than Amman.
The
archaeological record of these and other sites in the near vicinity is typified
by Jericho, situated at the modern town of El Arďhä, only about 60 kilometres
southwest of Jerash. From ancient times Jericho owed its existence to a
perennial spring and was often called "the
city of palm trees". Jericho provides a précis of the
archaeological history of Palestine from when the hunter-gatherers may have had
a shrine there before 8000 BCE, until Biblical times in about 1200 BCE.
By about 8000 BCE Palestine's earliest known agriculturists built huts by
Jericho's spring and the first town came into existence soon after. It had about
two thousand inhabitants who channelled the spring water to their wheat fields
and vegetable plots. Aggressive neighbours and nomads must have coveted the
spring, because the inhabitants built a massive stone-faced wall at least 4
metres high, as well as at least one solid stone tower that was 8 metres high
and had a built-in stone stairway. After then many cities were built
successively and destroyed. The city that Joshua destroyed and cursed in about
1400 BCE had only been rebuilt about a century earlier, from the largest of
the ancient cities built there. Two walls of brick surrounded the rebuilt city,
the inner wall being about 4 metres thick and up to 10 metres high. A space of
at least 4 metres separated the inner wall from the outer wall that was
about 2 metres high. The spring probably continued to support a village after
the destruction of Jericho by Joshua, but it probably was a fear of the curse
that caused the delay in rebuilding the city until during Ahab's reign from 874 BCE
to 853 BCE, when the ancient curse was fulfilled by Ahab's loss of his
eldest and youngest sons.
Several
Hebrew words are translated as wilderness
or desert
in the Scriptures. They include not only the barren deserts of sand dunes or
rock that are popularly perceived as comprising most of the Biblical lands, but
also the uncultivated treeless plains and pasture lands that are suitable for
grazing livestock. Relatively little of the wilderness in Palestine is true
desert even today. Modern research, including pollen analyses, indicates that
about 8,000 years ago the parklands in the region were at least as well wooded
as they are now and that the climate was as favourable for the establishment of
pastoralism and agriculture. Rainfall may even have been greater than at
present, but the evidence of erosion indicates that even then the rainfall
probably was no more evenly distributed through the year than it is now.
Evidence of early irrigation and water supply systems support these conclusions.
As the wilderness areas surrounding Gerasa were adequate for breeding of stock
and seasonal cultivation, they could support a moderate population growth. In
addition, the Chrysorhoas River valley was and still is very favourable for food
production, which no doubt also was a significant factor in the development of
Gerasa.
Intensive
research carried out by archaeologists in the Near East since 1960 has helped to
gain a better understanding of the early development of agriculture and the
breeding of stock. When the "Neolithic Revolution" began in the Near East it
developed gradually, lasting from as early as 10000 BCE until about 5000 BCE.
At the beginning of this period emmer wheat was growing wild in Palestine,
einkorn was growing wild in Mesopotamia and barley was growing wild throughout
the “fertile
crescent”
and southern Palestine. Intensified gathering of wild cereals took place
early in this period and dry farming methods had been developed by about 8000 BCE.
Simple irrigation methods were introduced soon after then, which made it
possible to grow cereals in arid regions even when the rainfall distribution was
unfavourable. Baalbek, Scythopolis, Amman, Jericho and Gerasa are all in the
wilderness regions where the earliest growing of wild cereals took place during
the "Neolithic Revolution", from which civilisation gradually
developed in the Near East. From about 6000 BCE cereal growing had spread
throughout the Near East and into the adjacent Mediterranean regions, from where
it progressively extended into the Indus River basin, Afghanistan, the Russian
steppes and possibly beyond. As man developed an ability to control the
environment and produce food, thus improving his living conditions, the nomadic
lifestyle was gradually abandoned. The hunter-gatherers, who had lived in caves
in the winter and in flimsy makeshift huts in the summer, progressively
relinquished their temporary seasonal accommodation and built more permanent
settlements. This transition heralded the end of the "Neolithic Revolution"
and the beginning of the "Urban
Revolution",
with the development of a mixed economy and trade between communities.
Investigations
have revealed that irrigation was foremost among the factors that led to these
changes, although the changes took significantly longer or shorter periods to
materialise in the various areas of development. Some examples will show how
local circumstances influenced the advance of "Urban
Revolution". Individual families in the oasis of Jericho could
irrigate their crops and gardens easily and with very little organisation, which
fostered rapid development. At Baalbek, in the swampy headwaters of the Orontes
and Litani Rivers, a more detailed organisation was required. That slowed the
rate of development at Baalbek even though irrigation was still a relatively
simple operation. In contrast, on the flood plains of Mesopotamia and on the
banks of the Nile River with its huge annual floods, a great deal of communal
organisation was essential and an extensive and complicated network of
structures was required to establish irrigation. The capacity of settlers to
provide water supplies for their dwellings and irrigation systems for their
crops was reflected in the much longer times taken for scattered temporary
settlements to become villages and for their subsequent development into
permanent regional towns. This "Urban
Revolution" began about 10,000 years ago at Jericho, about 8,000
years ago at Baalbek, nearly 7,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, 6,000 years ago or
earlier in the Indus River basin and more than 5,000 years ago in Egypt.
For
centuries after the great earthquake of 747, the Biblical lands to the east of
the Jordan River were deserted, except for small bands of nomadic Bedouins, when
Gerasa and many other towns and villages fell into a derelict state. That great
earthquake was not the first in the region. A series of earthquakes during the
period from 550 to 555 had repeatedly caused extensive damage in Gerasa and
elsewhere in the region. Although much remedial work and reconstruction had been
carried out in Gerasa after those earlier earthquakes, most buildings were
unsafe and became derelict after the great earthquake of 747. With no Roman
organisation in place there was no will to rebuild, especially after the turmoil
of the Arab conquests, which was followed by the occupation of Palestine by the
crusaders in 1099. In 1122 a crusader known as William of Tyre recorded that "Jerash was reduced to a mass
of ruins". That state of desolation and remoteness continued until
the beginning of the nineteenth century. The situation is illustrated by a note
written in 1047 by Arab geographers, who were then carrying out comprehensive
surveys of their new lands and its resources:
"In various parts of Syria there may be some five hundred thousand
columns, or capitals and shafts of columns, of which no one knows either the
maker or can say for what purpose they were hewn, or whence they were
brought."
After
William of Tyre the next European to visit Jerash was a German graduate of Göttingen
University, Ulrich Jasper Seetzen. He was a keen traveller and explorer who had
very little money, but considerable entrepreneurial ability. He went to
Constantinople in 1802 to begin exploring the Near East and Africa. To earn
money for his venture he acquired antiquities and transcripts of newly found
inscriptions, which he sold to the museum at Gotha, to the Duke of Saxe-Gotha
and to other patrons including the Tsar of Russia who appointed him as an
Ambassador Councillor. Seetzen regarded exploration as a scientific
exercise and prepared himself for the Near East by learning Arabic and studying
Islamic law, religion and customs, which he completed in Aleppo about three
years later. Dressed as an Arab he went to Damascus in 1806 and began an
extensive exploration of the region of the Decapolis. He had studied the works
of the ancient authors and obtained all the available maps, although they were
sketchy and very inaccurate. Notwithstanding the poor information and the
dangerous conditions then prevailing in the region, Seetzen carried out a
remarkably worthwhile expedition during the next three years or so. His exploits
and reports stimulated so much interest in London that for several decades a
number of antiquarian and archaeological expeditions were sent to Palestine,
culminating with the establishment of the Palestine
Exploration Fund in 1865, which is still one of the most important
agencies concerned with the serious study of Palestine and its neighbouring
Biblical lands.
Seetzen
explored all of the ruins he could find in the Jordan River valley between the
Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, ultimately reaching the ruins of Gerasa. In his
treatise entitled "A
Brief Account of the Countries adjoining the Lake of Tiberias, the Jordan and
the Dead Sea" published in London in 1810, he said:
"I had the
satisfaction of seeing the important ruins of Jerrash . . . which ruins may be
compared to those of Palmyra, or of Baalbek. It is impossible to explain how
this place, formerly of such manifest celebrity, can have so long escaped the
notice of all lovers of antiquity.
It is situated in an open
and tolerably fertile plain, through which a river runs. The walls of the town
are mouldered away, but one may yet trace their whole extent. Not a single
private house remains entire. But on the other hand I observed several public
buildings, which were distinguished by a very beautiful style of architecture. I
found two superb amphitheatres, solidly built of marble, with columns, niches
&c, the whole in good preservation. I also found some palaces and three
temples, one of which had a peristyle of twelve grand columns of the Corinthian
order, eleven of which were still upright
(the Temple of Artemis). In another of these temples, I
saw a column on the ground of the most beautiful polished Egyptian granite. I
also found a handsome gate of the city, well preserved, formed of three arches
and ornamented with pilasters.
The most beautiful thing I
discovered was a long street crossed by another and ornamented on both sides
with rows of marble columns of the Corinthian order (the
Colonnade Avenue), and one of whose extremities
terminated in a semicircle that was set round with sixty pillars of the Ionic
order (the Oval Piazza).
At the point where the two streets cross, in each of the four angles, a large
pedestal of hewn stones is visible, on which probably statues were formerly set
(the South Tetrakionia).
A part of the pavement still remains, formed of hewn stones (grooves cut
by chariot wheels are still clearly visible).
To speak generally, I
counted about two hundred columns, which yet partly support their entablatures,
but the number of those thrown down is infinitely more considerable; I saw
indeed but half the extent of the town and a person would probably still find on
the opposite side of the river
(that was the eastern side, which since then has mostly been built over by
modern Jerash, although the ruins of the Eastern Baths and the Procopius Church
and the site of the Church of Prophets, Apostles & Martyrs are still there),
a quantity of remarkable curiosities."
Seetzen's
report of his first sighting of the ruins of Gerasa provides a wonderful
impression of its beauty and the diversity of its buildings and structures, but
it does not convey any concept of the size and cultural character of the city.
It would require a book to describe the civic facilities adequately, so that a
brief summary of the more important features must suffice. The city was
surrounded by a wall of stone 3,450 metres long and in the form of a many sided
polygon, roughly circular in shape and enclosing about 85 hectares. The walls
were 3 metres thick and 10 metres high, with huge inbuilt buttress towers that
were 6 metres square in plan at intervals of 20 metres or less. The road to the
main gate in the south passed through a Hadrianic Arch of three spans that was
constructed after the Emperor's visit in 129 and 130. The road then passed by a
hippodrome about 260 metres long, which has been estimated to seat at least
15,000 spectators. Immediately after going through the main gate the road passed
the entrance to the Oval Piazza, about 100 metres long and located in a natural
depression.
From
the Oval Piazza the road continued on to the Cardo, the pivot road or axis of the city called the Colonnade
Avenue, which ran straight to the other main gate in the north. Two Decumani
or secondary streets intersected the Cardo
at right angles, each with a stone arch bridge over the river to the east and
then passing through a small gate in the western wall. The intermediate streets
were also laid out on this rectangular grid, only one of which crossed over the
river to the east with an arched stone bridge. The north gate provided access to
one of the main water supplies of ancient Gerasa, called the Birketein
reservoir, which was 88.5 metres long, 43.5 metres wide and 3
metres deep, subdivided by a barrier wall. An impressive colonnade and
processional way flanked the western side of the pool and the area was
landscaped and wooded. This tranquil area included an open-air festival theatre
that had fifteen rows of semi-circular seating that could accommodate almost
1,500 spectators.
Within
the town there were two open-air theatres of typical Roman construction, one in
the north and the other in the south. Each had about thirty rows of
semi-circular seating, estimated to accommodate 3,000 spectators or more. Every
seat was numbered, starting from the lowest row and working from right to left.
There also were two huge baths in the Roman tradition, the larger being on the
east bank of the river and the other on the west bank. Though more modest than
the baths in Rome, each contained a frigidarium or cold
bath, a caldarium or hot
bath, probably a
tepidarium or warm bath, several apodyteria
or changing
rooms and the usual pavilions to accommodate libraries and meeting
rooms. It is evident that Gerasa in Roman times was well provided with all the
desirable civic amenities, vastly superior to those of the earlier and much
smaller walled Hellenistic city located on Camp Hill close to the south gate.
Although there are indications that Camp Hill was occupied during the "Neolithic
Revolution", subsequent building and rebuilding have destroyed most
of the useful evidence from that era.
The
Temple of Zeus was on a tel
overlooking the Oval Piazza and directly opposite Camp Hill. It replaced a
previous Roman temple and an even earlier Greek temple constructed on the
ancient site of the town's traditional shrine. The temple complex was erected on
a series of terraces, which were connected by imposing stairways like those of
the Temple of Jupiter at Baalbek. The Temenos, or sacred enclosure 100
metres wide and 50 metres along the temple axis, was on the lowest terrace and
had its own altar. Huge arched corridors surrounded the Temenos.
The corridors had a roof terrace above them and vast arched vaults underneath,
which were used as a place of refuge and to store the treasures of the realm.
The temple on the highest terrace was on a podium about 40 metres long and
28 metres wide, with a portico and surrounded by thirty-eight Corinthian
columns 15 metres high. The quality of the masonry and the carved detailing
was exceptional. On a small hill further north an equally magnificent and
intricate group of sanctuaries and shrines was also constructed on a series of
terraces and included temples dedicated to Artemis and Dionysus. At least five
smaller Roman temples were dispersed in various locations taking advantage of
the interesting topography.
Churches
are the most important remains from the Byzantine period, from when a cathedral,
a basilica and at least ten churches have been discovered. In his "Early Christian and
Byzantine Architecture", R. Krautheimer describes the churches in
glowing terms:
"The churches of Gerasa are
extraordinarily impressive - through their size, through their number and
through their tendency to group several structures within one precinct".
Much
of the building stone used in the Byzantine period came from older structures,
but not always from those damaged in earthquakes. Parts of some temples were
reconstructed as churches. The oldest remaining church in Jerash is the
cathedral that was built in about 365 on what probably was the Temenos
of the Temple of Dionysus, making use of the ancient Propylaea
as its gate. In about 496 the Basilica of Saint Theodore was built immediately
to the west of and almost abutting the cathedral, but on the higher ground that
had been the site of the Temple of Dionysus. The Propylaea Church was built on
the Piazza in front of the Propylaea
of the Temple of Artemis. The Synagogue Church was an adaptation of a synagogue
that probably was then several centuries old, but in the process the orientation
was reversed because the synagogue entrance had been in the east. Another
interesting example is known as the "Three Churches"
of Saints Cosmas & Damian, Saint John the Baptist and Saint George, all
three having been constructed side by side as a single building. Although there
would have been many mosques during the Arab occupation, only the Atrium Mosque
has been discovered. It was built into the Atrium
of a Roman building constructed in about 150, using an existing niche as the Mihrab that indicates the
direction of Mecca.
