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Gerasa (Jerash)
History, Geography and Sacred Geometry |
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Gerasa (Jerash)
History, Geography and Sacred Geometry |
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Gerasa offers the best
surviving
example of a classical
city on either side of
the Jordan. Although dating from Hellenistic times, it had its
first spurt of major growth in the late 1st century AD.
Why at that time, and why was it where it was?
The place is gifted with good soil and much water. Oak, terebinth and pine cover the hills with green foliage even through the dry summer months. Here also grows the Pistachia Lentiscus, from whose resin was derived the "balm in Gilead" sought by the prophet Jeremiah. Through the middle of the valley, a small brook flows south where it eventually joins the Zarqa River (the biblical Jabbok, where Jacob wrestled with an angel). In Hellenistic times, the brook was named the Chrysorhoas (golden). Today we can still see Gerasa's natural bounty. The virgin forests of antiquity, which to Greek and Roman minds belonged to virginal Artemis, have mostly given way to farms.
Position. The land of the Bible was a narrow strip between sea and desert, a "land bridge" joining Asia and Africa. (More.) Two main north-south highways composed that bridge. One went through Galilee and followed the coast (we may call it the Great Trunk Road). The other, in today's Jordan, stayed on a fertile plateau just west of the desert: wherever it could, this route skirted the deep wadi beds that slice down to the Jordan Valley (see map below). For most of the way, the need for level land between the desert and the wadi beds determined the course of the road. In Numbers 21, the route is called the King's Highway. We trace it by following the line of habitation. After the Roman emperor Trajan annexed the kingdom of the Nabateans in 106 AD, he had this same route paved from the Red Sea to Philadelphia (Amman), and then he extended it to the city of Bostra (capital of his newly organized Provincia Arabia). The Via Nova Troiana "was divided into two lanes, with a protruding line of stones in the middle, and the sides of the road also marked by raised stones." (Glueck p.12) It is still visible for miles.
But why did the great city of Gerasa develop precisely on the point of the highway where it did? A study of the map above shows the main reason: here was the junction with the road from Pella. Here one could cross the Jordan to Scythopolis (Beth Shean) and head up the gentle Jezreel Valley to a junction that gave access in three directions: to Ptolemais (Acco), Caesarea Maritima or Egypt. Of the few roads linking the two international highways, the Pella-Scythopolis route was the best. If Gerasa's position was so good, we may ask why there wasn't a city here in the Old Testament period? First, there was indeed a settlement on a hill above a spring just 200 yards to the northeast through most of the third millennium BC. Like many towns on both sides of the Jordan, it was destroyed by the Egyptians at the end of that period. The cities in the Jordan valley and west of it were rebuilt in the 18th century BC (it was then that they got their ramparts, which today defiine the shapes of their tells). The highlands east of the Jordan, however, knew no such urban recovery: the area was probably too close to the desert tribes that sought grazing land in the summer. Urban dwellers would have needed a central power with a standing army to protect them. There was no such power for a thousand years-till the 10th century BC, when the kingdoms of Edom, Moab, Ammon and Israel were established. Only then could cities again arise in the highlands east of the Jordan. A small walled town developed less than three miles north of the later Gerasa. We don't have a biblical identification. Here then is a second principle governing the establishment of a city at this prime spot: there has to be a power enforcing regional peace. By 332 BC, Alexander the Great had provided that power, and people felt secure enough to settle here. A Roman inscription mentions a statue of Perdiccas at the site. This general became regent of the empire after Alexander's death in 323 and was assassinated three years later. If Gerasa was founded in his time, it must have been in that short span. When Antiochus III, a Seleucid king, defeated the Ptolemies at Banias in 198 BC, the city was renamed Antioch on the Chrysorhoas. Remains from the Hellenistic period are scant, however. We're not even sure of the town's location. Yet it must have been substantial. The ruler of Philadelphia, wary of the Hasmoneans , deposited part of his treasure in Gerasa, but to no avail: lured by the money, Alexander Janneus conquered it (Josephus, War I 103). Rome's Pompey took it back. Henceforth it counted its years according to the Pompeiian era, starting in 62 BC. The Romans needed four more decades, however, to establish peace. In 23 BC Augustus put Herod in charge of the volcanic area to the north (see map above); only then could Gerasa benefit from the Pax Romana. The city prospered and spread. The Hellenistic shrine was replaced by a Temple of Zeus, built-we know from donors' inscriptions-between 22 and 70 AD. If Jesus visited Gerasa, he would have seen this temple under construction. It was laid out on a north-south axis, like the street grid on the residential side across the river. Why a north-south axis? North was determined by Polaris, the North Star. While the constellations drift from east to west in the night sky, Polaris appears to be fixed. The Romans wanted a connection to the fixed order of things and planned their cities accordingly. Whenever they could, they placed the Cardo or "main street" on this axis mundi, each city a microcosm.
It should be apparent from the
photo, though, that in Gerasa it would have been inconvenient to put
the Cardo on the axis mundi: as
it stretched northward, the street would have
become increasingly distant from the residential section. What is
more, a Cardo requires level ground, but the land rises to the north. Gerasa in the reign of Vespasian (69-79 AD)Of all Roman emperors until his time, Vespasian knew the Near East best, for he had been here to put down the Jewish revolt. Among his trusted officers was one Trajan, whom we'll call Traianus to distinguish him from his son, the later emperor. When the revolt was over, Vespasian-now emperor-put Traianus in charge of the province of Syria. The two undertook to foster trade with Mesopotamia. An inscription on a milestone discovered in Syria indicates that Traianus paved a road from Palmyra all the way to the Euphrates. The decade saw simultaneous development in three cities that were key to this trade: Palmyra, Bostra and Gerasa. (See map above.) In all three the Nabateans were strongly present. Bostra, for example, could not have developed without them: they alone had the knowhow to harness the meager water supplies. The Nabateans and the Romans appear to have cooperated in this period for the sake of their commercial interests. (More in Bowersock.)Amid the general prosperity, Gerasa had a surge of growth. The city's Tyche ("Good Fortune") was Artemis (why her? ), and it was she, in cooperation with certain geographical "givens," who determined the layout of the streets and the placement of the buildings. We shall now attempt to see how. Sacred GeometryThe geographical givens were these:1. The Cardo could not follow the north-south axis, as said above; it would best keep close to the river. 2. On the west bank of the Chrysorhoas, opposite the residential section, the land gradually rose toward 600+ meters above sea level. This formed a slight ridge on the south side with a valley beyond, although there was no such natural protection on the west, north or east. The Gerasenes built a wall on the ridge and extended it around their city, finishing it by 80 AD, according to an inscription in the northwest gate. Inside the wall, one hill remained prominent as it sloped down toward the river. We shall call it "Artemis hill." A point on this slope was chosen for the cella of her temple, that is, the chamber containing her statue. Perhaps the augurs determined this point, but in any case a very suitable spot was chosen: not too close to the city wall but far enough from the residential section to preserve a sense of distance and holiness, allowing a stately procession. The procession would require a via sacra from the residential section to the cella.
The surge of the 2nd century ADThe younger Trajan, who reigned as emperor from 98 till 117, had worked in the East with his father and knew it well. Looking toward the Mesopotamian trade, he annexed the Nabatean kingdom in 106, converted it (with additions including Gerasa) into the Provincia Arabia, and paved the aforementioned Via Nova Traiana. This new road and its branches led to a surge in the city's prosperity, reflected in the complete implementation of the above building plan throughout the second century.When Trajan's successor, Hadrian, wintered at Gerasa in 129-130 AD, he had a commemorative arch erected, as was his wont. The hippodrome beside it may also date from this time. Because the master plan was already established, there was no place for another significant structure inside it. The solution was to double the master square to the south:
Looking straight through Hadrian's Arch, one sees the Temple of Artemis a kilometer away. All the main monuments of Gerasa are part of a single vision. From 350 AD, Gerasa held a large
Christian community. Its delegates took part
in church councils of the time. Between 400 and 600 AD, fifteen
churches were constructed here, often using stones and columns from earlier
buildings, including the Temple of
Artemis. The churches were paved with mosaics, of which several
have survived. |
