Image Details

Robert Schick

The careful, almost loving “camouflaging” of the images in these mosaics suggests that Christians themselves did the damage. In the Upper Church of Massuh, the body of a chicken or pheasant was canceled out, but not the head—and to prevent further damage (shown here, compare with photo of mosaic floor from the acropolis church at Ma‘in), the empty space once occupied by the bird’s body was filled in, perhaps with the tesserae used in the original image.