Geometric mosaic pavements of Yasilah in Jordan

The article analyses the pavements of the two Byzantine churches uncovered at the site of Yasileh in northern Jordan. The first, dated to the middle of the 5th or the beginning of the 6th century, is decorated with impressive and well-preserved geometric elements. In the article, the authors attempt to analyse the patterns, showing the employment of combined motifs that enjoyed a long popularity from the Roman to the Byzantine periods. An attempt is also made to trace the history and survival of several geometric patterns of the mosaic in the Western Church of Yasileh, comparing them to patterns discovered in the Levant. The significance of non-figurative imagery in the Yasileh mosaic and in other church floors in the region of the same period is also considered. (BH) Two designs appear here for the first time: a composite motif of interlocked circles and squares set in a roundel, later adopted in a church at Gerasa, and a “quadrilobe of scales”, later used at Uyun Musa in southern Jordan.