The aim of the project was to preserve sections of a mosaic floor originally from a church/monastery at el-Makr, for the purpose of exhibiting it in the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya.

 

The el-Makr mosaic, which was uncovered in 1964 by Yehuda Ben Yosef on behalf of the Department of Antiquities, adorned the floor of a church/monastery that dates to the Byzantine period. For some unknown reason, in 1978-79 the mosaic was removed from its site and the pieces of the mosaic were set into concrete slabs. The mosaic pavement from the nave, which consists of a pattern of intersecting circles, is currently on display at the entrance to the Youth Wing of the Israel Museum, whereas the parts of the pavement’s frame, which is decorated with a pattern of acanthus medallions filled with animals, are kept in the storehouses of the Antiquities Authority in Bet Shemesh.

 

The two pieces that were prepared for display in the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, were originally from the two ends of the mosaic with the intersecting circles. The larger of the two consisted of eight panels decorated in a pattern of intersecting octagons, framed within a floral pattern that was adjacent to one side of the nave’s mosaic. The second carpet, which flanked the nave’s carpet from the other side, comprised two panels bearing a Greek inscription set within a tabula ansata. The translation of the inscription is: “May the Lord help this village in fulfilling the vow of Julian” (Ovadia 1987).