Coinage and the economy of Syria-Palestine in the seventh and eighth centuries CE

This chapter analyses the final report on the excavations at Hammath Gader, where a monumental Roman bath complex supposedly was destroyed and put out of use by the earthquake of 749. Excavations directed by the late Benjamin Mazar and by Meir Ben-Dov after 1967 brought to light a series of monumental early Islamic buildings around the southern and western sides of the Jerusalems Haram. The mineral-rich hot springs of Gadara called Hammath Gader, lie in a valley on the banks of the Yarmuk River. Excavations conducted by Yizhar Hirschfeld between 1979 and 1982 brought to light the remains of a monumental bath complex covering an area of about 78 x 60 meters. Hirschfeld's chronology is based almost entirely on the numerous dedicatory inscriptions that were found throughout the complex. This chapter concludes that the bath complex continued in use with evidence of substantial repairs and alterations through the Abbasid period, until it was destroyed, apparently in the earthquake of 1033.