362 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.40. 



southern limit of the map. The north side may have reached to the 

 northern confines of Phenicia. It may be assumed that the scale 

 was contracted northward, as that region gave the artist less occasion 

 and opportunity for illustration and comment. On the east side the 

 map may have been bounded by the River Euphrates, which in 

 Biblical tradition is the ideal boundary of Israelite power and expan- 

 sion (compare Genesis xv, 18; Deuteronomy i, 7; xi, 24; Joshua i, 4, 

 etc.), while on the west side the Mediterranean Sea would be the 

 obvious boundary. Little weight is to be attributed to the assertion 

 of some inhabitants of Medeba that they read the names of Ephesus 

 and Smyrna on the map years ago, so that it contained also Asia 

 Minor (Bibhcal World, 1898, p. 254). 



GENERAL FEATURES OF THE MOSAIC MAP. 



The Medeba map is not only the earliest map of Palestine preserved, 

 but also the oldest detailed land map that we possess. It originated 

 in the Greek part of the w^orld, while aU other itineraria and maps of 

 Palestine belong to the Latin West and are inscribed in Latin. 



Like all the maps which are based on Greco-Roman tradition, the 

 map of Medeba is orientated toward sunrise ; that is, the east is placed 

 at the top, the west at the foot, the north at the left, and the south 

 at the right. This orientation "may be designated as the ecclesi- 

 astical, as without doubt the east was the determinating point of the 

 compass for the medieval geography for the reason that Paradise was 

 there located" (Schulten, p. 112). As the church of Medeba is, 

 according to ancient usage, likewise orientated toward the east, the 

 visitor on entering the church looked in the same direction toward 

 the apse and altar of the church, and at the same time in the eastern 

 direction of the sky, and thus a natural connection between the pic- 

 ture of the map and the reality was established. In agreement with 

 this orientation the explanatory inscriptions are placed on the west 

 line and were to be read from the door side of the church. In like 

 manner the pictorial representations of cities, buildings, mountains, 

 trees, etc., are placed on the basis of the west as the foot line. 



It is evident that the artist attempted to combine a view of ancient 

 Canaan with a picture of Palestine of his time. As ancient historians 

 often projected their time into the past, so the maker of the map had 

 before his mental eye the land of the patriarchs not separated from 

 the contemporaneous Palestine. Past and present were blended into 

 one picture. That the artist had Biblical Palestine in mind is shown 

 by the prominence given to the tribes of Israel on the map. The 

 names of the tribes are inscribed on the map in particularly large red 

 letters, are in most cases accompanied by a Biblical reference, chiefly 

 taken from the so-called blessing of Jacob (Genesis, chapter xlix) and 

 blessing of Moses (Deuteronomy, chapter xxxiii) and quoted after 



