Continuous survey and excavation work during the first decades of the 20th century revealed the ruins of several civil architectural structures dating back to the Umayyad era. Distributed across various parts of the Levant desert (Badia), these structures form a chain of buildings defined primarily by their advanced engineering standards. While the majority of these ruins turned into debris that lost their decorative adornments, some retained artistic carvings combining inherited styles within innovative molds, bearing witness to a civil Umayyad art with its own distinct techniques.
اضافة اعلان
In this field, a structure located in the village of Khirbat al-Mafjar, north of Jericho, stands out. Known as Hisham’s Palace—named after the tenth Umayyad Caliph who built it, as researchers confirm—this archaeological site yielded a massive collection of sculptural pieces. Among them was a seemingly unique piece depicting a beardless young man, described as an acrobat (Bahlawan).
Upon their discovery, the treasures of Khirbat al-Mafjar were transferred to a museum created specifically for them in East Jerusalem, opened in 1938 under the name "The Palestine Archaeological Museum." Following the 1967 war, it became the "Rockefeller Museum," and the sculptural treasures of Hisham’s Palace became part of its holdings. Among these is the acrobat, which appears in two balanced sculptures, each measuring about 1.20 meters in length. These two sculptures form the columns of an arch, which seems to have been topped by a dome whose traces are lost. This arch belongs to a corner known as the Caliph's Audience Hall (Diwan); it arrived as shattered and scattered blocks that were painstakingly assembled before being re-erected in the museum, occupying a key corner. The facade of this piece is adorned with a rich decorative scheme full of details, relying on the carved stucco technique that was widely popular during the Umayyad era, consisting of two curved bands topped by a straight horizontal band.
The decoration of these bands relies on a network of ornaments deriving their features from stylized botanical elements. The first curved band extends between two series of tightly packed circular rings, decorated with a row of acanthus leaves in a precise, traditional composition. The second horizontal band rests above this band, decorated with leafy spiral branches taking the shape of a decorative grapevine. These branches form a series of circular panels, balancing flat grape leaves and hanging clusters of grapes. A leaf appears in one panel, while the opposite panel features grape clusters shaped like cones of packed berries, in a composition that strips the pictorial elements of their natural weight. Above these two bands lies a wide horizontal band decorated with a series of undulating acanthus leaves.
This wide band forms a surface upon which a series of animal sculptures rests. Four sculptures are present, having lost many of their components, though one retained its head completely intact. It is clear that the animals in these carved blocks belong to the same species, representing ibexes sitting on the ground with their heads raised upwards. These ibexes closely resemble one another, with slight variations in posture, and are all characterized by a classical style, as evidenced by the meticulous sculpting of the body joints and the prominent head with clear features mimicking a living subject.
Flanking this facade on each side is a beardless young man standing in a frontal position, raising his outstretched arms upward as if holding the horizontal band extending across the top of this decorated arch. In reality, these two young men form the columns for this structure, following an inherited style that was common in widespread regions of the ancient world. In an unusual movement, each young man stands on one leg and raises the other leg upward, hence the comparison to an acrobat, which became his designated name. The facial features are identical, repeating the features found in the carvings of Khirbat al-Mafjar, forming a single unified model that appears across various human figures, both male and female. The face is a large round mass characterized by plump cheeks. The eyes are large, almond-shaped, and staring, each centered with a large pupil. Above the eyes are wide, arched, and connected eyebrows. The prominent nose extends down from between these eyebrows, showing nostrils at its base. The mouth is small, composed of closed lips drawing a shy smile that imparts a gentle character to the face.
The chest is bare, but its joints are flattened and stylized according to a style originating from the Sasanian world. The hands are open, each adorned with a wide bracelet wrapped around the wrist. These hands reveal their fingers, appearing tightly grouped and uniform in line with the established style. The attire is extremely simple, restricted to a loincloth with horizontal folds, topped by a belt tied around the waist with its end hanging down in the middle. This garment conceals the pelvis while exposing full, plump thighs. This specific trait constitutes an element of Umayyad pictorial aesthetics, appearing in numerous sculptural pieces as well as wall paintings. The two sculpted figures take the form of statues mounted above a triangular-shaped area, whose edges are formed between the horizontal band and the two curved bands. This area is decorated with a ornamental network relying specifically on botanical decoration, with the grapevine extending its tendrils in every direction as the primary element of this ornamentation.
In conclusion, this facade combines within its carved networks the various styles that Umayyad art reshaped. It is distinguished by the presence of two human sculptures standing at its ends in a lively, unusual posture. The animal element is present at the top of this facade, embodied in the image of the ibex, which was widely adopted in this context, as confirmed by numerous archaeological artifacts recovered from Khirbat al-Mafjar and other contemporary Umayyad sites.
