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[~1150 Judean Desert Quake]

~1150 CE

by Jefferson Williams








Introduction & Summary

UNDER CONSTRUCTION - Ambraseys (2009) Guidoboni and Comastri (2005)

Textual Evidence

Text (with hotlink) Original Language Biographical Info Religion Date of Composition Location Composed Notes
Concise Description of the Holy Places by John Phokas Greek
Biography

~1185 CE Described seismic damage (after the fact) to two monasteries in Palestine due to earlier earthquakes. His text was based on his travels to the area.
Text (with hotlink) Original Language Biographical Info Religion Date of Composition Location Composed Notes
Concise Description of the Holy Places by John Phokas

Background and Biography

Background and Biography

Excerpts

In these excerpts, we can read about seismic damage observed around 1185 CE by the author of Ekphrasis.
English from Stewart (1889:27)

XXII.

On the banks of the Jordan are built three monasteries, namely, that of the Forerunner, of Chrysostom . . . the monastery of the Forerunner having been levelled with the ground by an earthquake, now by the munificent hand of our Emperor, Manuel Comnenus Porphyrogenitus, crowned by God,* has been entirely rebuilt, the prior being entrusted with the superintendence of the restoration. At a distance of about two bowshots from hence flows Jordan, the most holy of rivers, wherein my Lord Jesus, having embraced poverty, wrought out by baptism the great mystery of my redemption ; and on its bank, about a stone's-throw distant, is a square vaulted building, wherein Jordan, bending back its stream, embraced the naked body of Him who covereth the heavens with clouds, and the right hand of the Forerunner tremblingly touched His head, and the Spirit in the likeness of a dove descended upon its kindred Word, and the voice of the Father bore witness to the Redeemer's being His own Son.

English from Stewart (1889:30-31)

The city of Bethlehem is about six miles distant from the Holy City. Halfway between it and the Holy City stands the monastery of the holy prophet Elias, which was built by godly men in very ancient times, but has been entirely thrown down by an earthquake. This, however, that universal benefactor, my master and Emperor,"has raised from its foundations, at the prayer of a Syrian, who is the chief of the community.

English from Stewart (1889:27) - embedded



Seismic Effects and Locations

Two monasteries are referred to as ruined by a prior earthquake Online Versions and Further Reading
References

Archaeoseismic Evidence

Location (with hotlink) Status Intensity Notes
Mar Elias Monastery
Location (with hotlink) Status Intensity Notes
Mar Elias Monastery



Tsunamogenic Evidence

Paleoseismic Evidence

Location (with hotlink) Status Intensity Notes
Dead Sea - Seismite Types n/a n/a n/a
Dead Sea - Nahal Ze 'elim no evidence Although Belferman et al. (2018) list paleoseismic evidence in Nahal Ze'elim based on Kagan et al. (2011), Kagan et al. (2011) do not list a c.1150 CE seismite in their tables or discussions.
Location (with hotlink) Status Intensity Notes
Dead Sea - Seismite Types



Dead Sea - Nahal Ze 'elim

Although Belferman et al. (2018) list paleoseismic evidence in Nahal Ze'elim based on Kagan et al. (2011), Kagan et al. (2011) do not list a c.1150 CE seismite in their tables or discussions.



Notes

Ambraseys (2009)

[AD c. 1150 Palestine]

Guidoboni and Comastri (2005, 151) on the authority of the Descriptio terrae sanctae, assign the destruction of the sanctuaries of St John the Baptist and Mar Elias to the middle of the twelfth century. However, we know that the former sanctuary was ruined in the earthquake of 7 June 659. See sources for the event of 7 June 659.

References

Ambraseys, N. (2009). Earthquakes in the Mediterranean and Middle East: a multidisciplinary study of seismicity up to 1900. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press.

Guidoboni and Comastri (2005)

(073) c.1150 Palestine

source

historiography
catalogues d.
An earthquake which presumably occurred around the mid-12th century (or perhaps earlier), struck a limited area of Palestine between Jericho and Jerusalem. All we know is that it destroyed the two monasteries of St.John the Baptist and Mar Elias. The monastery of St.John the Baptist (who is known in Greek as the Prodromos), was built in the 6th century on the site where Christ was traditionally held to have been baptised. It stands near Jericho on the west bank of the Jordan, at a place now known as Qasr al Yahud. The Greek Orthodox monastery of Mar Elias was founded in the 6th century and rises like a fortress on a hill 5 km north of Bethlehem on the road to Jerusalem. The only source to record the destructive effects of this earthquake is John Phocas, who wrote a description of the Holy Land. He himself visited the places he describes dur ing a pilgrimage in 1185. In his Description of the Holy Land he writes:
"The monastery of the Prodromos [Precursor] was completely destroyed in an earth quake. But it has recently been rebuilt thanks to the munificence of our emperor, crowned by God, Manuel Porphyrogenitus and Comnenus, because its hegumen spoke freely to him about its reconstruction".
Later on in the same work, Phocas writes as follows of the monastery of Mar Elias:
"[This monastery] was built by men of religion in a very distant age, but it was later totally destroyed in an earthquake. That universal benefactor, my lord and emperor [Manuel I Comnenus], completely rebuilt it in response to the requests of the Syrian who was its abbot".
John Phocas's text is somewhat obscure as regards the date of the earthquake, the only chronological clue in his narrative being the terminus ante quem provided by the known time when the monasteries were rebuilt, that is to say during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus (1143-1180). Ben-Menahem (1979) and Amiran et al. (1994) date the earthquake to 1160; Pringle (1993-98) expresses a series of doubts about the dating, but does not offer a solution to the problem. For lack of any reliable information, we think it appropriate to adhere to an approximate dating around the mid-12th century.

Intensity Data Points
Locality Lat. Long. I
Mar Elias 31 44 35 13 A (IX)
Qasr al-Yahud 31 50 35 31 A (IX)

References

Guidoboni, E. and A. Comastri (2005). Catalogue of Earthquakes and Tsunamis in the Mediterranean Area from the 11th to the 15th Century, INGV.

Belferman et al (2022)



References

Belferman, M., et al. (2018). "Effect of large-scale surface water level fluctuations on earthquake recurrence interval under strike-slip faulting." Tectonophysics 744: 390-402.

Paleoclimate - Droughts

Footnotes

References

References

Pringle D. 1993-98, The churches of the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem: a corpus Volume I A-K (excluding Acre and Jerusalem), Cambridge. - open access at archive.org

Pringle D. 1993-98, The churches of the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem: a corpus Volume II L-Z (excluding Tyre), Cambridge. - open access at archive.org

Pringle D. 1993-98, The churches of the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem: a corpus Volume III The City of Jerusalem, Cambridge. - open access at archive.org

Pringle D. 1993-98, The churches of the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem: a corpus Volume IV The Cities of Acre and Tyre with Addenda and Corrigenda to Volumes I-III, Cambridge. - open access at archive.org