Trip to Jordan

We met a number of Jordanian specialists assigned to this project, and they took us out to the Madaba site for the afternoon.

It is a truly remarkable world class site, rich with archaeology, architecture, and human history, with special focus on the resilliance of Christian culture in ancient and present Jordan. There are many highlights, but one of the most prevalent is the mosaic map at St. George's church.

This map shows the communities of the region during the first century of Christianity.

The Madaba area was selected during the Byzangtine era to be a Christian site, and the mosaic map was constructed at that time into the floor of a Christain church. Indeed, the town was prosperous and an authentic paved Roman roadway still remains in the vicintiy of the major antiquities in Central Madaba. Since Christianity predates Islam, it is interesting to note that both faiths coincided comfortably side-by-side in the ancient days, and then likewise today as well. There were some 15 churches functioning in Madaba during the height of its ancient days. Madaba dissapeared from the scene sometime after the sixth centrury AD, and was rediscovered by an Arab Christian community relocating from another vicinty nearby in the late 1880s.

It was by chance (or more likely fate) that they decided to build their new church on the exact location where the ancient mosaic map floor was located, and found it while excivating during that consturction. Hence, they incorporated that old floor with the map into the current floor of the church. As we say, truth is always stranger than fiction, and this was a truly amazing coincidence.