Plant Mosaics in the church at Ya’amun

The pavement mosaic of the church of Ya’amun, like other pavements uncovered in Jordan, displays a wide variety of plants, such as vine scrolls, leaves, and pomegranates, and wheat, a rarity in Byzantine mosaics seems to be a distinctive feature of the decoration of this church. The authors distinguish two types of naturalistic decorations as trees: pomegranate and vines, with fruits as pomegranates, grapes, gourds. Pomegranate trees and their fruit along with vine scrolls seem to be one of the most popular motifs found in local churches. The article enumerates several parallels, with chronological remarks stressing the originality of local artists.