Gerasa: Rome’s Forgotten City in the Jordanian Hills

Gerasa: Rome’s Forgotten City in the Jordanian Hills

In the series
The Lost Civilizations 3 or 4 hours by plane from the big
european capitals, Jordan is bordered by
Saudi Arabia, Syria, Palestine, Israel and Iraq. The entire Middle East,
cradle of civilizations, to which Jordan is no exception, conceals archaeological treasures. Jordan is a real
history book. If Petra is the archaeological site
the best known in Jordan, the ancient city of Gerase, formerly
named Gérasa, is not to be outdone. Founded in the 3rd century BC
by the Greeks. The ancient city had its heyday
under the Romans, in the 2nd and 3rd centuries of our era. Then the masters of Byzantium
made it the seat of a bishopric. Persian and Arab invasions
in the seventh century, as well as a series
earthquakes, turned the city into a field of ruins. Never did the Roman Jerash find
its splendor and importance. But the site remains
an archaeological gem. Hadrian’s Arch, which measures
25 meters high, was built at the southern entrance to the city
during the visit of the Roman emperor, Hadrian in the city in the year 129. The peculiarity of this work, is the crown of acanthus leaves
carved at the top of the pillars. The finesse of the detail. Passed through Hadrian’s Gate,
here is the hippodrome. It was built at the time
of the dynasty of the Severan emperors, from the end of the second century AD. The racecourse is equipped
of 10 gates, the carceres, and could accommodate
15,000 spectators, who, so it is said, by the Greeks,
even in Roman times, during chariot races. Prisons that are in
made the starting stalls. 4-horse teams led by
charioteers rushed down the track. Chariot racing was a big
moment in the cultural life of Roman cities, and bets were on
in the enthusiastic audience. Charioteers and Horses
were real stars. The hitches belonged
to stables sporting colors and divine representations. Today the site of Jerash is considered
as one of the archaeological sites, best preserved of the Roman Empire. Jerash is one of the ten cities
of the Decapolis, as its name suggests, we counted 8 to 16 according to
ancient authors. These are Hellenized cities
in a Semitic environment, since we are just
on the edge of the desert. One of the problems is knowing, what these 10 cities represented. Why in this area? They are all
together and form a coherent whole. There’s only one that’s to the west
of the Jordan, it is Scythopolis Beit-Shean It is an economic alliance in a
opulent period that the Decapolis was created. During this prosperous period, Jerash
adorned with cobbled streets with colonnades, huge temples, theaters,
spacious public squares, of fountains and pierced walls
by towers and grids, all well arranged around a plan. The Jerash site has always been busy. Because we are in an area which
is sufficiently watered and in which, there are very important sources.
We have one in the center of town, unfortunately below the level of the sector
monumental and which could not be used, directly to supply the thermal baths
or others, except those in the East. It is the source of Aïn Karawan but there is
many other springs in the valley. It explains the fact
that we had people. It is from the Middle Bronze
that the small group, will settle definitively in what
will become ancient Jerash, it is under the hill that we see
there that is the hill of the present museum. This hill is in very
largely artificial. It is therefore a tell, neither more nor less, which results from the accumulation of small
villages since the Middle Bronze Age, until our days,
since there is the current museum. From the time
late Hellenistic, the little village will begin
to explode, to get out of its frame, and it will gradually begin
to occupy the bordering hills. This will be done by
gradual spread. This is an area in which we
is still very reserved, because we don’t know
old or very few levels. We only have small points, surveys
that let us know. The quality of the vestiges of the time
Roman and Byzantine is such, that we won’t get through
so as not to demolish all that, to take a poll below. We have to choose the places where
there are no too important vestiges, to be able to do surveys. It doesn’t
not always correspond to what we would like. The oldest dated building
of Jerash is the South Theatre, which dates from the 90s,
seen from the side, we are already in Roman times,
there is no doubt about that. South Theater in the city of Jerash. This superb building was built under
the reign of Domitian at the end of the first century. Only men had the right
to occupy the 29 rows of bleachers. Some 4,000 spectators entered through
two doors provided with banknotes in the ground, in the shape of a washer. Seats were marked
by Greek letters, whose traces can be guessed in the front row. What is impressive is the mastery
acoustics inside the theatre. The spectator who stands at the last
row of bleachers hears, as well as that
which is at the first. An incredible acoustic feat. Today the theater is home to the festival
folklore of Jerash during the summer. An astonishment to hear and see
Jordanian soldiers playing bagpipes, in the Roman amphitheater of Jerash. In fact, there must be seen here another
sign of English occupation, this one. In former protectorates
British in the Middle East, military music has remained that
brought by the Scottish regiments, with a style of interpretation
sometimes quite personal. There, we are in front of the ramparts,
city fortifications. The city was essentially
studied in the 1930s, by an Anglo-Saxon team
led by Kraeling. And one of the very big
initial ideas, is that the city being admirably
preserved compared to other cities, is that it was thought that the study of Jerash
could serve as a model to explain, organization and history
from other cities. So that of Jerash is relatively
easy to understand, when looking at a plan. It is a city that is organized on
a grid plane with orthogonal axes, and which seemed to indicate
a Hellenistic origin of the city, since it is a so-called Hellenistic plan
hippodamian type, the city being surrounded by
an almost circular rampart. One of the things that is very
important is that this rampart, we have just that
a piece under the eyes, it encompasses doors, like this one that
was built during Hadrian’s visit. And this rampart according to the Americans
would have been built in the 1st century. If the rampart was designed in the 1st century,
it means doors and streets, are in place in the first century,
the town planning is in place. All the organization of the city
is therefore fixed. Several gates are known on the route
ramparts, but only the northern one, and that of the South are well preserved. So it’s by the south door
formed by three arches, the caravans were coming
from Arabia. And there too, the clues found
trace the history of the city. We found facilities
from Roman times, one part is quite remarkable, it is an oil press, nothing surprising in the region,
it is a very particular type. It’s a double take
direct action screw. What will interest us here,
this is the rampart part. The foundation of the rampart partially covers
oil mill facilities, and therefore the oil mill is not
usable in its state. The rampart can only be posterior
to the destruction of the oil mill. Luckily, we found in there,
all levels of destruction, both the oil mill, the stall
carpenter and dwelling house, with monetary treasures,
ceramic materials… From there, we were able to prove that the
rampart was not from the 1st century, but extreme end of IIIᵉ beginning of IVᵉ, which corresponds to a diagram
classic for the region, with a fortification of the cities
in the Byzantine period, Despite the few existing scriptures
on the history of Jerash, archeology thus makes it possible to disentangle
the skein of time. Because here, men,
generation after generation, have left in the ground and in the stone
the desired traces of their passage. This gate was then included
in the fortress, it’s the wall that came to rest
on the door and not the other way around. And so on,
we have a whole series of elements, who were able to allow
to question, what we know about urbanization,
from the city. and finally its history
since once that town planning has been able to show that
it was an urbanism that is superimposing, to a totally urban fabric
different anterior, we don’t have much left
allow us to hang on. We have to resume
monument by monument, to try to find, little by little the story
of the city itself. We have to do the opposite. Instead of looking at the whole plan, to try to draw conclusions, we will start from particular elements, try to find out their history
find the general history of the city. Unfortunately, we have very few
text that tells us about it. Fortunately, we have
part of their history, a fundamental text for us
who is Flavius Josephus. who tells us about these cities when
of the first Jewish revolt. We know that during the first revolt
Jewish, we have to make an uprising, Jewish populations
with bands that come to attack, inland towns. However, in
those inland towns, including Gerasa, you also have Jewish communities
that exist in the middle of the population, which is very heterogeneous. And we know from Flavius Josephus that, these Jewish communities within
of each of the towns unite, with the rest of the population to push back
the Jewish attackers from Palestine. As a result of which we also know
that in most of these cities, the inhabitants gather their own Jews,
the natives, those of the city, and delete them. So it’s very clear about that,
except, there is only one special case, there is only one city that does not practice
not this massacre, it is Gerasa. Gerasa does not slaughter
its Jews at the first revolt, but goes so far as to protect groups
of Jews who want despite everything, leave the city to escape and leave. It is obvious that such a position
at the level of the Emperor is judged as, the friends of my enemies are my enemies. Flavius Josephus also tells us. Suddenly, Vespasian comes with the troops
and shave Gerasa, shave in quotation marks, ransacks a certain number of symbols,
carries a number of people, maybe more or less slavery… The sanctuary of Zeus, the most important
of the city at that time, is ransacked. What is important,
is that despite everything, the sanctuary is rebuilt
right after. And it is rebuilt,
more beautiful than it was before. You can follow part of the history of the city. And this story seems to me absolutely not
representative of the cities of the Decapolis. This is a special case.
We can see it very well. During the first Jewish revolt,
Jerash is behaving strangely, all alone, compared to other cities and visibly, she must have behaved so strangely
alone during other events, which may have shaken the region. This makes the very study of Jerash, does not allow us to understand Jerash,
so tempted that we can understand it, but cannot be used to explain
what is happening in other cities, contrary to what we had
could have hoped for at the start. In Roman times from 63, at the time of the conquest by Pompey, the site will pass directly
under Roman rule. And there we will start to have
the creation of great links, road trips with Philadelphia, Pella… You will gradually have
city development, which will therefore gradually come out
from its original setting, which will pass under the oval square and begin
to spread over the surrounding hills. But the maximum development
will only be reached in the 2nd or 3rd century, for a first wave of construction
and especially in the Byzantine period, the maximum extension of the city
will take place in the Byzantine period. Then there will be, unfortunately, the very big earthquake of 749, then or at the same time
or a little before, unfortunately, we are unable to
knowledge at the archaeological level, What is called a or
several great plagues, several epidemics
which will decimate the population. The set makes
that in the middle of the eighth century, really mark it
the great decline of the city. There will be a small
Abbasid occupation, then a desertification, and then a punctual reoccupation
during the crusades, since we will therefore have a few people, who will come to settle here,
a small fortress, then a small village which
will settle on the slopes here. And then disappearance
total population. Which means that during
about 7, 8 centuries, almost a millennium, there is no one on the site
and therefore there is absence, of the most catastrophic predator that
exists for the ruins, the biped. And so the city is going to be
beautifully preserved, because there never was
people to tear it down. This is why Jerash is one
of the most beautiful vestiges of Antiquity. The decline and then the oblivion of the site allows
a clear reading of the ruins. Already, the Greeks had erased or scattered
traces of the Bronze Age. Then the Romans did the same
with the tinsel of the Greek era, then the Byzantines. For archaeologists, it is therefore a question of
put some order in all this. Much of the first temple,
whose stones were scattered, during the Roman period,
was brought together in a staging, imagined by the Louvre Museum in Paris,
under the temple itself. Here you have two elements
which are very important of which perhaps the most important, no longer appears after
museographic development, which was produced here by the Louvre, it is the building. We are in
the cryptoporticus of the sanctuary of Zeus, which was raised in 27-28 CE
by Diodorus son of Zebedas, who is a brilliant architect, since he has succeeded in the feat of
build vault penetrations, without hanger, vaults fitted, which was one of the problems
highlights of ancient architecture, but no one will realize that
it is a technical tour de force. The second part you have here,
it is the building that was destroyed, during the first Jewish revolt. This building is quite extraordinary
because we found about 80%, of these blocks it was dismantled
voluntarily and buried. Apart from these remarkable buildings, Jerash was built as a city. The architects of the time erected
and followed plans that had, already proven
in other ancient cities. When you are on a site like Jerash
today you actually have a set, which is fossilized,
this is the last state, left after all
a series of changes… When you look at the city map
without any other form of trial, we have a plan with a main street, north-south and you have
a whole series of streets, which intersects it at almost a right angle
relatively regularly. So we have an urban plan
raster type, which is said to be characteristic
of the Hellenistic period. On the cardo maximus, the axis lined with
most elegant buildings in Jerash, the nymphaeum, sacred fountain, was
built in 191 AD. It is a two story building. Originally the set was
surmounted by a half dome. Its presence and its monumental proportions
characterize the opulence of Jerash. It was dedicated to Tyche,
the goddess of luck. The building was covered with slabs
marble on the lower level, and stucco on the upper floor. A real cascading water feature
in the middle of the Corinthian columns, in a large basin,
then after various basins, flowed into a common sewer system, over the entire length of the cardo. Any reading of the past
is it so smooth? When Americans come here, the streets are not cleared, you have here a huge field of wheat, they see very little
compared to U.S, they go to work
from the plane. And the plan seems to indicate a city
of Hellenistic foundation. Some surveys, some elements
seem to confirm them. When we get here,
no reason to doubt, what the Americans say. The items they
present are consistent. Seems everything fits
in what they say. So it’s the dig next to the door
south which strikes the first warning shot, the fact that we find under the rampart, a burned building
at the end of the third century, comes to prove that the rampart
is not from the first century. The rampart not being from the 1st century, we can’t say anything more
on door locations, we can’t do anything
say on the axes… That’s what puts, the grain of sand that comes
cause the wheel to seize. What is more extraordinary, the large
columns that mark the entrance, you have 4 large columns. You have two that have a height,
two others that have another height, and the two that are furthest north are
shorter, about twenty centimeters, so we had to make a crutch
under the architraves, because at eye level, which
is important, these are the horizontals. And if the horizontal is not preserved, the height is not a problem, but as they lacked 20 centimeters.
So we have architraves, on one side it is 20 centimeters
less than the other side. The one who is in place is funny, it has three faces, these are the planes
successive before the upper molding. It is a three-sided architrave,
what is normal, on the left side and on
the right side it has 4. And you have the following
who has these two crutches, who had fallen on the ground, it is
the one that went above. And to catch up with the horizontal, we are obliged to have
a double crutch. We have a 4-sided architrave,
which is completely abnormal. But that’s just a catch-up on a building that
is constructed normally, with people who don’t work
to the millimeter as we do today. And still today, there are people
who do not work to the millimeter. If you turn around for example here,
you have columns. These columns are perfectly in place. These have not been restored. You are dealing with columns that are
built in the second half of the second century. If you go a little further,
you will see the same columns. But the barrels, they will be barrels
reused from older columns. If you go a little further,
you will always have the same columns. But everything is reused. You have to take a closer look, but
everything was rebuilt in the 5th-6th century. If you don’t do that, you’re gonna say
the street was rebuilt in the 2nd century, We are not there at the time of construction,
when the city is taking shape. We only see the last state
which is very modified, and which essentially corresponds to
to the Byzantine state. And that’s what’s most important,
is to bring together all the elements, which apparently are dissimilar. They are digging
at that time, Umayyad houses, and they will pass under the street, where they will find cisterns
of Roman houses, filled in 170 CE at the earliest, to let the street pass
that we see today. So we have more proof than the street, is not earlier than the second
half of the second century CE. So the very axis of the street, the grid, it’s not just the packaging, It’s not the columns
who are there and who are handed over, it is the street itself that is
built at the end of the 2nd century. In the same way, you will see,
along the street, a sidewalk which is very beautiful, which is made
with pieces of the sanctuary of Zeus, therefore not before the end of the 5th century, while the columns
behind are of the second. It’s a mix.
We see that in the middle of the 5th century, these are the upper parts of the building
which are taken and reused, in an early Byzantine building. And a century later
these are the foundation moldings, which are reused in art
triumphal from one of the churches. And it’s only little by little. How to know? We have nothing left
on the site. Everything has been removed. We only have what was broken, what was left
because it was broken, bits of capitals,
molding fragments… When we do the re-gluing, it’s over. we have the continuation, we catch the end
horses and everything. The temple of Zeus is the example
the difficulty that archaeologists have, to write history. The site is cluttered with column shafts,
stones, capitals, of collapsed architrave, testimony
of the passing of generations, earthquakes
and wars that the city has suffered. All the work of archaeologists
then consists of to reconstruct the historical puzzle
of the forgotten city. We are on the sanctuary of Zeus. It’s a sanctuary
which is multi-tiered. We stand on the podium,
on the very facade of the great Temple, which is consecrated in 162 CE. And this temple came to be superimposed, to an older structure that
is just below, which is called… simply the lower terrace
because it is under the great temple. and which actually corresponds
to the primitive nucleus of the sanctuary. This is how from this terrace, we can contemplate more
2000 years of history. There, we had a construction of a thing
which is absolutely amazing. Even before the construction of this big
machine on which we are, you have a succession there
full of buildings, spanning more than a millennium. There, we are no longer at all in
the classical canons of the second century. We are in architecture
called oriental, because we don’t know how to qualify it, since these are things that
are more of a Hellenistic tradition. we do not understand very well. In the middle of the yard stood
the most important part of the sanctuary, it is the part corresponding to the temple. The inscriptions tell us
that more than a dozen divinities, were worshiped in the city. But only the remains of the sanctuaries
dedicated to Olympian Zeus, and to Artemis, her daughter,
are visible today. The ruins of the monuments dedicated to Zeus and
Artemis have always impressed visitors, but the major interest lies in
the chronology of their development, that link them to the road system, to the expansion
urban and the history of the city. Thanks to the excavations, we can
note that at the time, the 2 temples were in competition. The true sanctuary, the true sanctuary
old and which will remain anyway, the one who will take precedence in
the heart of the Gerasenes so well that of the sanctuary of Zeus. The Temple of Artemis will remain unfinished, when all of a sudden,
twelve years later, we are going to build here, a huge temple, which is greater than that of Artemis
and which will be finished for him. Archeology is special, it’s because we have big monuments. We sometimes have texts that are
extremely precise, but we do not have at all, we never have, moreover, those who
would be of primary interest to us. For example, we would like to have
a text that tells us “I am Emperor X, who financed the construction
of the temple of Artemis, because I needed
to say it was now, the imperial power that reigned
undivided in Jerash.” Well, we don’t have that. And the story gets complicated
for the temples, once deserted, served as raw material for
construction of other monuments in the city. There, we are in front of a portico which
seems to be of good quality, and in front of the sidewalk has been redeveloped, rebuilt overhanging the street with
only blocks from the Sanctuary of Zeus. We see it very well,
white limestone blocks, the small cornice with palmettes, including the blocks of a monumental altar
which is in the courtyard of the sanctuary. All that, it was dismantled, reused
partly here, in the cathedral, partly in Saint Theodore,
in the thermal baths… We have nothing more on the sanctuary. The game today is to spot
the pieces in the city. We know we have to search
in buildings, which are after 450. Since the excavation we
said it’s around 450, the building begins to be dismantled. We search the city for buildings
which are later than 450. Sometimes it’s pretty easy to find
and other times it’s a bit more complicated. We have the Italians digging
a little further, who have just found 19 architraves
suddenly, which have been reused, as foundations
at a portico of a church. It’s under the portico, we
we are here in the Propylaea, rather the courtyard atrium which precedes the church
called the Propylaea, which is behind, and we have under the bases
of columns that are there, a whole series of blocks
which are the architraves, who disappeared from the sanctuary of Zeus. They are there, are all reused as
foundations of the portico of the Byzantine church. You see one here and another
still in place there on the door. So that’s easy to spot. These are
blocks that are very specific. They are in pink limestone with
a very particular molding, and we especially have shaped tenons
double dovetail, so crampons. That, that just happened
excavated by the Italians, and suddenly we had 19 blocks of the sanctuary
which have come back to us. The other temple in town, therefore, is a Roman temple erected in 150
under the reign of Antoninus Pius. The building had a portico
of 12 Corinthian columns, whose height is so high
that on windy days, we can see the drums wobble. 11 are still standing. It is the monument most
important to the city. First because it is the temple
of the tutelary goddess of Jerash, but especially by
the proportions of the building. The whole construction is spread
over nearly 650 meters in length. There we stand at the entrance, of the Sanctuary of Artemis,
at street level. We are on the map,
on the famous North-South street, and we are at the foot of this
called the Propylaea, the door that will give
access to the sanctuary. The sanctuary of Artemis,
it is a sanctuary that is banal. There are no surprises. It’s a
large construction of the second century. We were not going to find capitals
weird, abnormal moldings… It’s classical architecture
in all its glory. However, where it is
quite remarkable, it is the use of topography, and the volumes that are put
in progressive perspective. It must be recognized that here
we are in the vicinity. The sanctuary is above, above
from the hill, you can’t see it, we are in a place that
corresponds only to the middle of the device, given that all of the marshes, on the other side of the Wadi, there was
therefore a street, a bridge, first a first door on the street,
again a section of street, shrinking again
with another monumental gate, a trapezoidal square that gives
on the cardo where we are. We started with an enlargement
progressive and this enlargement, will be more and more important, since here we are
at the foot of the Propylaea. You see the tripylon behind
and behind, you have a staircase that does not
only 34 meters wide. This staircase leads
to an intermediate terrace. It’s a gradual climb
with a gradual enlargement, in front of the facade of the sanctuary.
The composition is extraordinary, and we will see it when
we’ll get to the top. Although the dedications to the goddess
attest to the existence of a place of worship, to divinity from the middle
of the first century of our era, the current constructions do not date
only from the middle of the second century. Here we have columns which are
columns that stand on their own. It’s a colonnade, it’s not
not a portico, it does not support anything, it’s really decoration. And at the decoration level, you will
see that the Sanctuary of Artemis, is still quite amazing, first you have a tripylon. So these three monumental gates
which we now cross. You have to imagine
that you had doors, you had doors
which were closed at the start, and that could be opened on demand. And behind you have this first
series of stairs, separated by small landings, and which lead
to a first terrace, on which stood
apparently an altar. I say apparently
because there is a big discussion, still going to find out
if the altar works with the staircase, or if it’s something else
and if it’s a DIY. From here you will start
to see the columns of the sanctuary. the columns of the temple itself. The Temple of Artemis was supposed to be the
most beautiful temple and the most important, of ancient Jerash, containing panels
of fine marble and a cult statue, richly decorated in the cella. Nothing was too good to honor
the protector of the city. Here is one thing
which is extremely misleading. It must be said to you that you
absolutely do not see that in antiquity. In antiquity, we came
on this intermediate terrace, and in front of you you had
a staircase more than 100 meters wide. Apparently blocked by two towers. And between the two rounds, you had
again a colonnade, not a portico, behind which stood
a big wall that hid everything from you, again with a tripylon,
three large doors. Until now,
we still couldn’t see the temple. You have to realize that. We arrive here, all of a sudden, you imagine that there are not heaps
rubble on the sides, and you have something that does
3 times the width you have there, in reality. With more than 40 meters of altitude difference from the point
the lowest to the highest point, a true architectural staging
materializes an initiatory journey, symbolic and mystical. The processions started from the river
and ascended to the temenos. We arrive at the top with a
completely distorted vision, compared to what we should have. There, we should hit each other, against a series of columns
which have now disappeared. Only those left are on
the left side, which are still in place. And there, in front of us, where you
have the remaining 3 blocks, you only have the threshold
of the door that is in place. So, you have to imagine a huge
wall that hides everything from you. You can’t see, unless the door
is open of course, but who normally
hides everything from you. There also, once again, it is the vision. Beware of these impressions
that we have when we visit the sites, of these visions, if only
because elements have disappeared, or because elements
visible today, do not correspond to anything
from ancient times. There we are in front of the temple of Artemis, which is the great temple of the city. It is the one who becomes, from the IIᵉ
century, the main sanctuary. The temple built inside the sanctuary,
which is a classical type sanctuary, a large courtyard surrounded
of columns, with in the middle the abode, the Temple itself. It is an extremely
classic for the second century. You have a podium,
a huge base, on which you have a series of columns
which surround the cella, the central box. The peculiarity of the whole,
is that the podium is entirely hollow, you have a whole series
underground rooms, whose function is not well
explained so far, and many interpretations
remain plausible, given that access to these rooms
can only be done by the adyton, the most sacred part. The adyton being the raised part
which is at the bottom of the cella. There is another peculiarity, it is a
temple which has a staircase in the adyton, which allowed access to the roof.
It was the priest who accessed the roof, so we can assume that here too,
as in Palmyra and other sites, we have things that
happen on the roofs, which suggests that the roofs
were probably flat, sometimes despite the presence of a pediment which
would suggest that we have a roof with 2 slopes. But the pediments being pediments
hairpieces as in Palmyra, we have pediments and flat roofs
behind with the cella that rises higher… So the temple is very beautiful. The capitals
are absolutely gorgeous. It is among the most beautiful capitals
of the second century, for a very simple reason, is that there has never been anything above.
it is a building that remained unfinished, we should have had
architraves, a pediment… There never was, it was abandoned
like this along the way, there must have been a roof
temporary and that’s it. We have a series of columns that were ready
to be mounted, we have drums on the floor. There are others who were even raw
of quarries, which were not even worked. We have a drum over there.
The others, we know them, we found the quarry that
is on the road to Souf. We have drums that have remained in
the quarry, which were not brought. It’s a discontinued project.
We see very well that, the temple is built
directly on the rock. The rock has many
traces of work, excavations that correspond to several eras. You have facilities
corresponding hydraulics, to the basins that have been added
there at the time when the temple functions, but which themselves overlap
a whole series of graves, carved into the rock. A burial chamber that
was here. another behind, one more here
and a last one still there. There were others who were
refilled for quite a few years. We can clearly see that we are
on the site of a necropolis, which is desacralized
to establish the sanctuary. We see that by some
foundation parts, you have to go get the rock
where he is, at the bottom of the tomb. Then it’s all leveled out, and you have, added on top, who come to disturb
reading it all, pipes
who come either to feed, either drain the basins which are themselves related to the construction of the temple. It is a sanctuary in which
there are large pools, as in many
shrines in the region. Watching this waltz of stones
and landmarks, we almost forget the techniques
used and the human resources implemented. The time is in the stone industry. Archaeologists have also been able to reconstruct,
according to vestiges and uses, a machine that was used at the time
construction of the Jerash site. We’re going to show the little monster. During the excavations, the researchers
have fortuitously found the traces, of a machine they passed
with archival documents, and so they have
could understand the unthinkable. The technologies used here
are very avant-garde for the time. We are in front of the reconstruction
of the oldest machine, now known to the world. It’s a hydraulic sawmill
to cut hard stones. It is an extraordinary machine.
It’s a real monster. It’s the prototype of everything
what is mechanical. You have the machine that allowed you to
transform into continuous circular motion, in longitudinal reciprocating motion. This is the very basis of mechanics, with a hydraulic motor. This machine, it’s done by
via a connecting rod-crank. We thought it was a discovery
from Europe or China in the 14th century, we are in the middle of the 6th century
of our era. You had this machine that cut out eight
hard limestone slabs at the same time. It’s a machine that worked like the
abandoned blocks in the wake proves it. It’s very sophisticated. We’re plugged in, the city’s main aqueduct, you have a small core
which has been preserved. And who filled
a huge cistern, behind, which is completely ruined,
who served, the fountains we have
could see in the street. It was the overflow of this cistern
which fed the small basin, who is there behind
and who pour himself out, in the bucket wheel
with a fall of 4 meters. It is a wheel fed from above. These are wheels
which require very little water, but which develop enormously
of power because we calculated, that we had about 2 tons
power for the wheel, and the water was evacuated through the canal, and joined the main sewers. We have a chance
extraordinary in Jerash, is that the supports
of the wheel are made of stone. And as we have, at both ends
of the short shaft of the trays, on which you have the eccentric which
is fixed, which is a metal part, this eccentric has rubbed on the walls
and leave traces. You had all the evidence.
It was a short tree, with fixed things
at both ends. We found a picture
where the 2 column drums, are at the location of the blocks
that we returned today. According to the blocks that are there,
we know that each saw has 4 blades, we have all the elements. We had the distances, the means, the width
of the wheel, the height of the waterfall. We had everything. The Austrians had
excavated at Ephesus a sawing machine, but they didn’t understand how
it work, they hadn’t published. It had been over 20 years. I was invited to Ephesus. We could
visit and discuss with the Austrians. There is a second machine,
which proves that, It is not an error,
It is not a coincidence. Which also proves
that we may have, research themes, to have axes of
research which is obligatory in archaeology, it is equally essential
to have a corner that remains, impressionable anytime,
by anything, because you never know
what we will find. I walked past it for 20 years. For the moment it is the discovery that makes
the loudest of all we could find. The Jerash site in Jordan is
the very example of drinks, and setbacks of researchers. All these mysteries of archeology
whose clues write history, and which become evidence. Not to mention the place of chance
in addition to knowledge. There you go, Jerash us
revealed some secrets. Not all of them, because the interpretation of the remains
still controversial on details. But the big one is there. Because here, what is certain,
is that almost 2000 years ago, Jerash was one of the most prosperous places
of the planet, with the innocence of success. We are in areas where people
were extremely inventive, extremely pragmatic. The decor has not been frozen,
as in the Greco-Roman world, where we have decorative principles,
architectural orders, We have here… We have seen things that exist
right, left and we play with. We are already in the baroque. And we do a little
things you don’t expect. And that is amazing
because every day we have fun.

Founded during the Hellenistic period by Seleucid veterans of Alexander the Great, the ancient city of Gerasa — now Jerash in modern Jordan — was likely named after the Gerontes. Caught between Nabataean and Jewish influence, it truly flourished after the Roman conquest, becoming one of the most impressive cities of the Decapolis.