Lost Byzantine City Resurfaces in Jordan

The past metropolis of Tharais, erstwhile marked connected the Madaba Map, has been recovered adjacent El-‘Iraq, Jordan. Credit: onthego tours / CC BY-NC 2.0

An past metropolis from the Byzantine era, erstwhile thought mislaid to time, has been rediscovered successful confederate Jordan. Known arsenic Tharais, the municipality had mostly vanished from memory, surviving lone successful humanities statement and its quality connected the sixth-century Madaba Mosaic Map.

Now, a squad of archaeologists has confirmed its location adjacent the modern-day municipality of El-‘Iraq successful the Karak Governorate.

The find follows a multi-year probe task led by Musallam R. al-Rawahneh, subordinate prof of archaeology and past Near Eastern studies astatine Mutah University.

Between 2021 and 2024, al-Rawahneh and his squad conducted tract surveys and examined humanities records, combining those findings with insights from section communities to place the long-buried settlement.

Clues from the Madaba Map guided researchers

Tharais was primitively featured connected the Madaba Mosaic Map, a Byzantine-era level mosaic housed successful the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George successful Madaba. The representation is wide recognized arsenic the oldest surviving depiction of the Holy Land, charting biblical and humanities sites crossed modern-day Jordan, Palestine, and Egypt.

Despite its prominence connected the map, the precise determination of Tharais had eluded scholars for implicit a century. Earlier guesses placed it successful distant regions, including Dhat Ras. By comparing its presumption to different known landmarks connected the map, peculiarly the colony of Ai, researchers were capable to constrictive the hunt area.

The breakthrough came during a tract survey successful the rugged hills of occidental Karak. An summation successful pottery shards and architectural remains from the Byzantine period, peculiarly on the northwestern borderline of El-‘Iraq, pointed to continuous colony from Roman done Islamic times. Among the artifacts recovered were fragments of mosaic floors, tools, glassware, and structural remains.

Evidence points to a spiritual and economical center

Most notably, archaeologists uncovered what appears to beryllium a Byzantine church. Remnants see a gateway, columns, and decorated flooring, on with concern installations specified arsenic an olive press. These finds suggest that Tharais was not lone a spiritual hub but besides an progressive economical center.

Further grounds emerged done chromatic inscriptions successful Greek and Latin, recovered successful concern with institutions from Spain and France. These funerary inscriptions, dated betwixt the 5th and seventh centuries A.D., corroborate the beingness of a Christian assemblage and fortify the lawsuit for the site’s individuality arsenic Tharais.

The town’s location, betwixt the Moabite Plateau and the southeastern borderline of the Dead Sea, placed it on an past Roman commercialized way connecting Zoar (now Ghor es-Safi) to cardinal Jordan. According to al-Rawahneh, its visibility connected the Madaba Map and the find of spiritual architecture bespeak it served arsenic some a ineffable tract and a waypoint for traders.

Architectural details lucifer humanities depictions

Archaeologists besides recovered installations similar watermills and grape-crushing basins, suggesting Tharais was economically self-sustaining. Decorative features, including triglyphs and mosaic tiles, bespeak a blend of section and classical influences successful its architecture.

The layout of the ruins, which diagnostic gate-like structures and adjacent towers, intimately matches Tharais’s depiction connected the Madaba Map. A rectangular chromatic doorway and ample threshold stones lucifer entrances recovered successful different Byzantine churches, offering further enactment for the site’s spiritual function.

The rediscovery comes amid accelerated improvement successful El-‘Iraq, wherever caller roads and lodging projects airs a menace to the site. Al-Rawahneh emphasizes the urgency of preservation, stating, “Our purpose is not conscionable to uncover Tharais, but besides to advocator for the extortion of Jordan’s affluent taste heritage.”

Tharais is present portion of broader archaeological efforts successful confederate Jordan. Ongoing studies are expected to uncover much astir the town’s relation successful history, shedding airy connected however its radical lived, worked, and worshipped centuries ago.