Production procedures in the late-antique mosaic workshop : The region of Mount Nebo as a case study for a new approach

In the first part of this article, the author presents the different approaches to the study of mosaic workshops suggested by scholars, paying special attention to those identified in Palestine and Transjordan. In the second part, the author focuses on the region of Mount Nebo to apply her methodology consisting of testing seven different criteria that may be applied to describe the production procedures of late-antique mosaics. They are the following: illusionistic overlapping; internal division of the figure; repetitive forms of gestures; recurring features; size and shape of the tesserae; colour and sorting level of the tesserae, and, finally, inlay patterns, that is to say, the manner in which tesserae were applied in order to fill in the interior surface of a body. The author turns to a case study based on Piccirillo’s identification of the team that produced the mosaics at the Church of the Holy Martyrs Lot and Procopius (A.D. 557) and the team that made the mosaic at The Upper Chapel of the Priest John (A.D. 565), both at Khirbet al-Mukhayyat.