Abstract
The excavation of the bathhouse at Khirbat Jābir yielded twelve marble items: a female head and eleven architectural members; among them a small Corinthian capital, a bracket ornamented with a lion head, a richly decorated small pediment and a champlevé revetment plaque. All twelve items were found out of their original display context; almost all are reused spolia or recycled pieces. The workmanship of the recycled items indicates that the craftsmen employed at the Khirbat Jābir bathhouse were skilled stone carvers but had no experience in shaping figural images. The rather good workmanship of the capital and the champlevé revetment fragment suggest that these two items, like their comparative counterparts from Caesarea, were manufactured at the neighboring city. Despite the small number of sculpted items uncovered at Khirbat Jābir, the in situ marble floor slabs and wall revetments reinforce the assessment that the bathhouse was a fairly luxurious facility.
Keywords
Architectural members, bracket, Caesarea Maritima, champlevé, Late Antique female portrait, recycling, reuse, revetment plaques, Shuni-Maiumas, spolia
Recommended Citation
Gersht, R.
2026.
Khirbat Jābir: The Sculptured Decorations from the Bathhouse.
Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel 2:1–21.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.70967/3078-8528.1079
Available at:
https://publications.iaa.org.il/qadum/vol2/iss1/35
Included in
Archaeological Anthropology Commons, Classical Archaeology and Art History Commons, History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons
