Medeba

MEDEBA: A town on the table-land of Moab east of the Jordan. It is situated almost directly east from Bethlehl;m,about five miles slightly west of south from Heshbon, at an elevation of 2,940 feet, and is the site of a modern town built an a pile of early Christian ruins having a circumference of a mile and a half. New interest attaches to the town because of the discovery there of a mosaic map of Christian Palestine and part of Egypt. The place was anciently of considerable importance and finds frequent mention in the Old Testament (Num. xxi. 30; Josh. xiii. 9, 16; I Chron. xix. 7; Isa. xv. 2; I Macc. ix. 36) and on the Moabite Stone (q.v.). It was originally Moabitie territory, but was taken by the Amorites, then by Israel; in David's time it was an Ammonitic point of defense, was captured by Omri (Moabite Stone, line 8, Mehedeba) and recaptured by Mesha, the Moabitic king who indited the Moabite Stone. The place comes into later mention as the home of the robber band which accomplished the death of John the Maacabee; John Hyrcanus took the city after a siege of six months (Josephus, Ant., XIII., ix. 1), and it had to be retaken by Alexander Jannaeus. Ptolemy the geographer mentions it (V., xvii. 6) as lying between Bostra and Petra. After the Christian era it appears as the seat of a bishop who attended the Council of Chalcedon (451). After that it was lost to eight until in 1880 a Christian colony, mostly of Greeks, from Kerak settled there, and there is also a Roman Catholic mission. The preparations for building led to a series of discoveries of interesting antiquities. These include a large pool (324 feet by 309, and from 10 to 13 feet deep), ruins of several churches, the remains of a colonnaded street, inscriptions, mosaic pavements, and especially the map referred to above. The character of some of the ruins show that parts of the town had pretensions to elegance.

The story of the mosaic furnishes a lamentable instance of the loss to knowledge and to art which accrues from ignorance or stupidity. The first notics of the map came through a monk belonging to the Christian colony settled at Medeba in 1880, the find having been uncovered in clearing a floor for a new church on the lines of an old one. In 1882 this monk wrote concerning the mosaic to the Greek patriarch of Jerusalem, who simply filed the letter, which remained hidden till the new patriarch, Gerosinos, found it. The latter sent a master-mason (with the title of architectl) to examine the mosaic and with directions to include it in the new church if found worthy. The deputy reported that it was unimportant, and in the building of the church large portions were destroyed, it being calculated that only eighteen square meters remain of an original area of perhaps 280 square meters. In 1896 the patriarch sent C15opas Koskylides, librarian of the Society of the Holy Sepulcher, to reexamine the map, and he recognized its importance. Large parts had been covered by cement for the flooring of the new church, while nearly all the rest had been destroyed, traces being left, however, which showed how great had been the destruction wrought.

The piece of the map remaining covers the territory from Nablus to the Nile. It is decorative and free in execution, somewhat lacking in perspective, but its location of places is approximately accurate. The East is at the top; the northern portion is

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nearly all destroyed; the extreme northern part was outside the present church walls, for in the early period the names Ephesus and Smyrna were read on it, showing that it originally included at least the southern part of Asia Minor. The artist accomplished very fair results with the difficult material and subject with which he worked. Moun tains are indicated in colored lines, the Dead Sea in blue wavy lines; in the larger cities principal streets are roughly represented, while in Jerusa lem appear the principal structures of the period (the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and at least three other churches, one outside the city), as well as two colonnaded streets which run through the north and south length of the city, and three (or four) gates on north, east, and south. Smaller cities are indicated with walls and round towers. The subdivision of the map was by tribes, with boundaries and chief towns. Nearly 140 names or parts of names can be traced. The territories of six tribes are represented in whole or in part-Dan, Simeon, Judah, Ephraim, Benjamin, and Zebulon. As examples of the places named may be cited: Modein, Nob, Lydda, Gath, Ashdod, Jericho, Ephrata, Alamon, Bethabara, Ramah (in Benjamin and in Judah), Gibson, tEnon, Shiloh, Gerizim, Shechem, Gerar, Bethlehem Ephrata, Beth-zur, Ascalon, Gaza, Beersheba, the tomb of Joseph, the well of Jacob, and the oak of Mamre, in Palestine; and in Egypt Pelusium, Tanis, Sais, Hermoopolis, and three arms of the Nile. The date of the map is made out to be probably the middle of the fifth century, since the principal structures of Jerusalem seem to correspond with those of the city of that period. The extant remnant has proved of some service in confirming a number of locations already made out, and in suggesting a few others. Had the entire map been preserved, its value might have been very great. A subject of debate still is whether in the map's composition the Onomasticon of Euse bius was employed.

Geo. W. Gilmore.

Bibliography: The principal account of the map is by C. Clermont-Ganneau, in Recueil d'ardeologie orientate, ii (1897), 161-175, from which is taken the matter in PEF, Quarterly Statement, 1897, pp. 213-225, cf. 167, 239, also 1898, pp. 85, 177-183, 251, and 1901, 235-246. Other summaries are to be found in The (New York) Independent, 1897, p. 1656; Biblical World, 1898, pp. 244-250; Meth odist Review, 1898, 478-480; Geographical Journal, 1901, p. 516. Other discussions are: G. Durand, Le Carte Mo saique de Madaba, Paris, 1897; A. Schulten, Die Mosaik karte von Madaba, Berlin, 1900; Kubitschek, in the Mite theilungen of the Royal Geographical Society of Vienna, 1900, pp. 335-380; A. Jacoby, Dos peographische Mosaik von Madaba, Leipsic, 1905. A large and important litera ture is indicated in Richardson, Encyclopaedia, P. 666. On the town, apart from the map, consult: PEF, Quar terly Statement, 1895, July; M. Sejourne, in Revue biblique snternationale, 1892, 617-644; DB, iii. 309-310.