Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Macellum of Gerasa (Jerash, Jordan): From a Market Place to an Industrial Area

1997; University of Chicago Press; Volume: 307; Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1357704

2161-8062

Alexandra Uscatescu, Manuel Martín-Bueno,

Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History

This article summarizes the results of excavations at Gerasa carried out by a Spanish team over an eight-year period beginning in 1983. The archaeological team discovered a building in the southwestern sector of the Gerasa cardo maximus and identified it as a macellum or Roman food market. Archaeological evidence proves that the macellum, was constructed in the first part of the second century A. D. The building's function changed over a period of approximately seven centuries, beginning in the second century A. D. (Roman period) and extending until the eighth century (Early Islamic period). Of special interest is the use of the ancient market as an industrial area during the Late Byzantine period (late fifth-sixth centuries A. D.).