Les limites orientale et méridionale du territoire de Gérasa

Very short inscriptions, limited to the four greek letters nOFE, have been recently discovered in east and south Jerash, ancient Gerasa. The fourteen texts actually known, all similar and carved in large letters (10 to 20 cm) on isolated rocks, can be read as the abréviation of IIOX,ic rEpaaTjvcov and interpreted as markers that outlined the ancient city territory. Their disposition on a line running along the top of natural hills or ridges east of Gerasa and south of the Zarka river shows that the city territory in that area followed the natural limits of the wadi Jerash basin, but extended largely south of the ancient Yabock. It is impossible to specify the date of these milestones. The earliest ones could be from the beginning of the 2nd cent. AD when Trajan "refounded" the city.