GERASA
(Jerash) Jordan.
About 48 km N of
Amman/Philadelphia in the hills of Gilead S of the Hauran. It was transformed from a village into a considerable
town in Hellenistic times, perhaps by Antiochos IV Epiphanes (175-164 B.C.), and was known then as Antioch
on the Chrysorhoas. Early in the 1st c. B.C. it was annexed
by Alexander Janneus to Jewish territory, and in 63 B.C.
Pompey in his reorganization of the East assigned it to
Roman Syria as one of the towns of the Decapolis; in
the 3d c. A.D. it was elevated to the rank of colony. As a
provincial agricultural, mining, and caravan town Gerasa
flourished under the Roman Empire, remaining relatively
prosperous until in the 7th c. it was captured first by the
Persians (614) and then by the Arabs (635). One of the
few ancient writers to mention Gerasa is Josephus (
BJ
1.104,
2.458, etc.); however, several hundred inscriptions,
chiefly of Imperial date, have been found on the site.
Considerable excavation and restoration has taken place
since 1920.
In plan the town is divided N and S into two inwardsloping, unequal parts by the Chrysorhoas. There is a
perennial spring within the walls; N of the site in Roman
times a reservoir was built from which an aqueduct ran
to the town. The chief gates are N and S and they received the main roads of the area, which were among
those much renovated and augmented in the East in
Trajan's time. The town walls, so slight as to be almost
cosmetic, are sprinkled with small towers and enclose
ca. 100 ha. Perhaps ten or fifteen thousand people lived
in Gerasa in the early 2d c. A.D.
What can be seen today is post-Hellenistic in date and
consists almost entirely of principal streets and public
buildings; few private or domestic remains have been
uncovered. The architecture of Gerasa is richly worked
and in some ways baroque, a successful synthesis of the
Hellenistic and Roman Imperial styles. Also, much of
the monumental building typology of imperial towns is
represented; Gerasa is a significant site in these respects.
This is clearly shown by a huge triumphal arch, a large
part of which still stands outside the town walls to the
S. It was probably erected to commemorate a visit by
Hadrian during the winter of 128-29. About 37.5 m wide,
it is divided into five bays characterized by niches, aediculae, orders at three different scales, and decorative
architectural sculpture of floral motifs. Beside this arch
stood the town stadium.
A street plan approximately orthogonal, at least with
regard to the major thoroughfares, was laid upon the
site apparently in Early Imperial times. The southernmost portion of the town, however, is not subject to this
grid: the S gate gives obliquely onto a large paved area
of irregularly oval plan surrounded by an Ionic colonnade (ca. 66 x 99 m, and built ca. A.D. 300; there was a
rather similar plaza at Palmyra). Nearby, and also independent of the orthogonal system, is a large Temple of
Zeus (begun ca. A.D. 22 but finished in the 160s). It is of
typical Romano-Syrian type, with unfluted peristyle columns arranged 8 by 12, the whole raised on a broad and
high podium. The cella wall is decorated with scalloped
niches on the exterior and broad pilasters on the interior.
Nearby is the S theater, first constructed in the 1st c.
A.D. but later rebuilt. Its elaborate scaenae frons, now
partly restored, consists of projecting and retreating
pavilions and aediculae, with orders of varying scales.
The main street runs N from the oval plaza. To the
E of this street bridges carried the main cross streets
over the Chrysorhoas ravine. The main street and many
of the subsidiary streets were colonnaded; sometimes the
Corinthian order was used, sometimes the Ionic. Two
of the major intersections with the main street were
marked by tetrapyla; of these the S one was set in a large
circular space with tabernae round about. Some of the
column shafts along the streets carry brackets for sculpture, in the Palmyrene manner, and in order to emphasize the locations of entrances to major buildings the
height of the colonnade was from time to time raised
above the standard level. Along the main N-S street were
placed a large, scenically designed nymphaeum and
propylaea to the (later) Cathedral and to the Temple of
Artemis.
The last-named is an elaborate system of architectural
screens and openings articulated by aediculae and a rich
profusion of decoration. It is centered upon a majestic
staircase that rises up the W slope of the town to give
onto the immense, walled precinct of Artemis (all from
the mid 2d c. A.D.). This complex, one of the major monuments of Roman religious architecture in the Near East,
measures ca. 240 by 120 m. The temple proper is ca.
52.5 m in length and stands in a colonnaded temenos.
In design it is rather similar to that of the Temple of
Zeus but with columns disposed 6 by 11. The podium is
high, the porch deep, and the order Corinthian (some
columns stand—they are unfluted and carry a suggestion
of double entasis; this is the order that appears in so
many Gerasa buildings).
To the E of the main N-S street are the remains of
two baths; in the N ruins there is a large, well-preserved
room roofed by a true pendentive dome made of stone
(2d c. A.D.?). To the W of this, across the main street,
there is a second (N) theater, set beside a handsome rectangular plaza. Outside the town to the N, beside the
reservoir, there is a third, smaller, theater.
Early Christian remains at Gerasa are important. At
least 13 churches are known (seven from the time of
Justinian), and their plans and to a degree their elevations can be recovered. Both basilican and centralized
designs were built, largely from materials taken from
earlier structures. Almost all these churches can be dated,
and some excellent mosaics have been revealed. Three
examples of Gerasa churches may suffice. The Cathedral,
of the second half of the 4th c., was approached from
the main N-S street by way of a colonnaded, monumental staircase. The building, of the three-aisled basilican
type, was erected on the site of a Temple to Dionysos,
parallel to and slightly below the precinct of the great
Temple of Artemis. Just beyond the Cathedral, to the
W, was a courtyard centering on a miraculous fountain.
Farther to the W, in the center of a complex of three
churches, was the Church of St. John the Baptist, built
in 529-33. It was planned as a circle inscribed in a square,
with the corners of the latter receiving deep niches; this
is a variant on the slightly earlier Cathedral at Bosra, to
the N. At the Church of the Prophets, Apostles, and
Martyrs of the 460s the plan consists of a cross inscribed
in a square, with the remaining corner rectangles walled
off into all but discrete volumes. All of these churches
had apses projecting toward the E.
By the late 8th c. people were still living around the
S tetrapylon circle and in the oval plaza. Today, some of
Gerasa's mosaics are still in situ; other materials from
the site can be seen in the archaeological museum in
Jerusalem and at the Yale University Art Gallery.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
M. I. Rostovtzeff,
Caravan Cities: Petra
and Jerash, Palmyra and Dura (1932)
I; id.,
Social and
Economic History of the Roman Empire 2 (2d ed., 1957)
references on p. 784; R. O. Fink, “Jerash in the First
Century A.D.,”
JRS 23 (1933) 109-24; C. H. Kraeling,
ed.,
Gerasa, City of the Decapolis (1938)
PI; J. W. Crowfoot,
Early Churches in Palestine (1941)
MPI;
EAA 3
(1960) 840-42
P; G. Lankester Harding,
The Antiquities
of Jordan (2d ed., 1967) 79-105
MPI; M. Restle, “Gerasa,”
Reallexikon zur byzantinischen Kunst 2 (1970)
734-66
P.
W. L. MACDONALD
