• Fig. 3.3 Front of
  Figure 3.3
  
  The front of shops of the Sanctuary of Artemis on the Main Colonnaded Street with the area excavated in 1991-92
  
  (Parapetti 1998)
  
  click on image to open in a new tab
  
  Baldoni (2018)
  shops of the Sanctuary of Artemis on the Main Colonnaded Street from Baldoni (2018)

• Fig. 3.3 Front of
  Figure 3.3
  
  The front of shops of the Sanctuary of Artemis on the Main Colonnaded Street with the area excavated in 1991-92
  
  (Parapetti 1998)
  
  click on image to open in a new tab
  
  Baldoni (2018)
  shops of the Sanctuary of Artemis on the Main Colonnaded Street from Baldoni (2018)

• Fig. 3.3 The rooms on
  Figure 3.3
  
  The rooms on the northern side of the propylaeum
  
  (photo: author)
  
  click on image to open in a new tab
  
  Baldoni (2019)
  the northern side of the propylaeum from Baldoni (2019)
• Fig. 3.4 The rooms on
  Figure 3.4
  
  The rooms on the southern side of the propylaeum
  
  (photo: author)
  
  click on image to open in a new tab
  
  Baldoni (2019)
  the southern side of the propylaeum from Baldoni (2019)
• Fig. 3.5 The north exedra
  Figure 3.5
  
  The north exedra
  
  (photo: author)
  
  click on image to open in a new tab
  
  Baldoni (2019)
  from Baldoni (2019)
• Fig. 3.8 The two rooms
  Figure 3.8
  
  The two rooms just north of the propylaeum at the beginning of the works of the Italian Mission
  
  (photo: Robert Parapetti)
  
  click on image to open in a new tab
  
  Baldoni (2019)
  just north of the propylaeum at the beginning of the works of the Italian Mission from Baldoni (2019)
• Fig. 3.19 Collapse of
  Figure 3.19
  
  Collapse of the Roman vaults in the north exedra
  
  (photo: Roberto Parapetti)
  
  click on image to open in a new tab
  
  Baldoni (2019)
  the Roman vaults in the north exedra from Baldoni (2019)

• Fig. 3.3 The rooms on
  Figure 3.3
  
  The rooms on the northern side of the propylaeum
  
  (photo: author)
  
  click on image to open in a new tab
  
  Baldoni (2019)
  the northern side of the propylaeum from Baldoni (2019)
• Fig. 3.4 The rooms on
  Figure 3.4
  
  The rooms on the southern side of the propylaeum
  
  (photo: author)
  
  click on image to open in a new tab
  
  Baldoni (2019)
  the southern side of the propylaeum from Baldoni (2019)
• Fig. 3.5 The north exedra
  Figure 3.5
  
  The north exedra
  
  (photo: author)
  
  click on image to open in a new tab
  
  Baldoni (2019)
  from Baldoni (2019)
• Fig. 3.8 The two rooms
  Figure 3.8
  
  The two rooms just north of the propylaeum at the beginning of the works of the Italian Mission
  
  (photo: Robert Parapetti)
  
  click on image to open in a new tab
  
  Baldoni (2019)
  just north of the propylaeum at the beginning of the works of the Italian Mission from Baldoni (2019)
• Fig. 3.19 Collapse of
  Figure 3.19
  
  Collapse of the Roman vaults in the north exedra
  
  (photo: Roberto Parapetti)
  
  click on image to open in a new tab
  
  Baldoni (2019)
  the Roman vaults in the north exedra from Baldoni (2019)

• from Baldoni (2019:121-122)

... The excavations conducted in the shops by the Italians between 1984 and 1987 to restore and consolidate the structures have — where still preserved — brought to light a single level of occupation datable to the transition period between the Byzantine and Umayyad periods. The layer immediately above bedrock was sealed by the collapse of the Roman vaults, probably caused by the earthquake of AD 660 (Fig. 3.9).

This event, rather than the later one in AD 749, seems to be indicated by the material found in this layer, locally produced between the sixth and the first half of the seventh centuries. The context examined includes fragments attributable to ceramic shapes and types that were widespread at Gerasa, characterized by a particular thinness of the walls and by a clay of red colour with small grits of quartz and limestone (Table 3.1).

• from Baldoni (2018:20, 26-28)

The absence of findings dated from the mid-fourth to the mid-sixth centuries seems to attest to a long period of abandonment of the building, probably caused by the earthquake in AD 363 and lasting until sometime after AD 551, the date of the new seismic event that devastated Jerash.

To this period belong four folles of Anastasius I or Justin I, minted at Constantinople, bearing on the obverse the profile portrait of the emperor and on the reverse the Greek letter M with a cross above and the mint mark CON beneath (Fig. 3.16).

The reorganization of the area in the Byzantine period led to a radical structural and functional transformation of the building, on the ground floor of which a thermopolium was established (Fig. 3.17).



... The excavation has yielded some other complete cooking-pots and the fragments of about 130 vessels of the same type, scattered over the whole area. On the bottom of one of these remained the residue of food that had been contained within it.

Despite the variety of rim conformation, their shape, arising from the repertoire of the Roman tradition, shows homogeneous features, strictly related to their specific function. The two-handled ribbed, almost globular body has a rounded bottom, particularly well-suited to fit the hearth embers and, together with their thin walls, to make cooking much faster. The thinness of the walls made these vessels too fragile for long-term use, but judging from their massive production and the large number thrown away, we can assume that they were inexpensive. Their technical features seem to indicate that many of them were produced at the hippodrome kilns discovered by Ina Kehrberg and Antony Ostrasz, who were active during the Late Byzantine period¹⁵.

The cooking ware retrieved also includes lids with small holes for the steam vent and a large number of frying pans, some with a coarse white-painted decoration on the broad rim, showing that they were used not only for food preparation in the kitchen, but also as serving dishes (Fig. 3.38).

A total of sixty-five bronze coins, heavily oxidized and almost illegible, were collected above the floor level within the building. This number includes four isolated folles, some small groups of three or four pieces found near the benches, and four hoards of seven, eleven, fourteen, and seventeen coins, most of which were small in size. One of the hoards was found inside the waste container on the east side of the room. The manner and place in which it was concealed seem to indicate that it was deposited by one of the occupants of the structure for a reason that, considering its small monetary value, remains unknown.

These coins might represent the savings or disposable income of the occupants of the thermopolium, and therefore their high concentration in this area could be related to the activity of the premises, as well as the presence of numerous Jerash Lamps, found intact and with clear traces of use (Fig. 3.39)¹⁶.

It is likely, even if not certain, that the final abandonment of the complex was brought about by the earthquake in AD 660, as the absence of Umayyad occupational activity in the area seems to indicate. However, it is not clear whether this absence could rather be due to the several digs carried out in previous years which, as we observed in the sanctuary’s workshops, had heavily damaged the post-Byzantine archaeological deposits.

In the case of Jerash, the comparitive reading of both the finds and the structure itself, as well as the architectural context in which it was built, allowed a reliable interpretation of the building's archaeology and function. In the absence of detailed indications on both the architecture and the finds from other thermopolia sites of this period, the information obtained from such a reading could contribute to the identification of coeval complexes of the same type. The architectural features and location in the urban framework of the Jerash thermopolium, as well as the nature of the materials retrieved, are indeed in some way typical and can thus provide useful indications to identify the general function and structural arrangement of similar buildings throughout the Byzantine East for which less complete evidence either survives or has been published.

As evidenced by literary sources and by depictions on mosaics and reliefs, tabernae and thermopolia must have existed in most towns of the Roman Empire.¹⁷ For some of them, like those of Ostia and the Vesuvian cities, the structural evidence is quite extensive, although information related to the internal arrangements of objects was not recorded.¹⁸

Yet little or nothing was known about the taverns of the Byzantine towns, particularly as regards the Eastern Mediterranean regions.

Recent excavations carried out in Sardis, Sagalassos, and Scythopolis, however, provided extensive documentation on some buildings of this type dated between the second half of the sixth and the first half of the seventh centuries AD, whose structural features were examined in the context of the finds evidence.

An important factor, common to all these complexes, is their strategic position in the central area or alongside the main streets of the city. At Sardis five of the ‘Byzantine shops’ recognized as thermopolia were located on both sides of the entrance to the Bath-Gymnasium complex.¹⁹ At Sagalassos five interrelated rooms, with a kitchen, a space for consuming meals, and some more private rooms, were situated on one of the main urban squares.²⁰ At Scythopolis six shops, interpreted as units for preparing and selling food, were overlooking the Street of the Monuments, the main pilgrim road which crossed the city.²¹

All these buildings were identified as taverns based on the presence of specific equipment and fittings, such as masonry benches, hearths, storage vats, ovens, water supplies, and other artefacts indicative of their function. Within one of the excavated taverns at Sardis, a stone mortar placed in a corner of the room was highlighted, along with a masonry platform, similar to the one found in Jerash and, like this one, located on the right side of the entrance.

Large deposits of animal bones, representing refuse from the preparation and consumption of meals, were retrieved from the contexts related to the occupation of the taverns, mostly accumulated close to the areas where the food was prepared.

The recovered materials, which include table and kitchen vessels, glass bottles and goblets, storage vessels, amphorae, and a large number of coins, provided a complete framework of the objects functional to the activity of a thermopolium and allowed a reliable reconstruction of tastes and standards of living of the local population between the sixth and seventh centuries.