Jacob Ori’s Excavations: The al-Haditha Mosaic
In August 1940, villagers from al-Haditha reported the accidental discovery of a mosaic pavement at the foot of a small hill near their village to the Mandatory Department of Antiquities. Their report prompted an inspection by Jacob Ori, then regional inspector, who carried out a limited excavation later that year (Figure 1). Ori exposed part of a room, measuring roughly 4.25 × 5.25 m, whose floor was decorated with the mosaic, and recorded the circumstances of its discovery before the pavement was lifted and transferred, largely intact, to the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem for preservation.
The mosaic (Figure 2) belongs to the Byzantine Era and is composed of a framed decorative programme surrounding a figural field. The preserved corner shows a richly ornamented border of geometric motifs enclosing scenes characteristic of Nilotic imagery: birds, fish, a riverine setting, and a detailed depiction of a walled city identified by the Greek inscription Αἴγυπτος (“Egypt”). Additional elements include human figures, vegetal motifs such as lotus plants, and narrative vignettes, all arranged within a composition that combines symbolic landscape with lively figural representation.
Although uncovered in 1940, the mosaic remained unpublished for several decades. It was only in 1973 that Michael Avi-Yonah presented a full study, offering a detailed description of its iconography, inscriptions, and stylistic context, and situating it within the broader tradition of Byzantine mosaic art in the southern Levant. Today the mosaic is kept at the National Maritime Museum in Haifa.