9,1:4 Amavante

The linework above and to the right of Jerusalem has suffered as a result of a Christian user inserting a gloss about Jerusalem in what is already an overcrowded space. The error leads to a puzzle: a geographically implausible connection from Gofna to a place named ‘Amavante’ — the town of Emmaus. Finkelstein 32 sets out the issue in neutral terms as follows:

Three important roads connected the Jerusalem region with the coastal plain near Lydda during the Roman period. These are (from south to north) the roads:

1. Jerusalem—Emmaus— Lydda
2. Jerusalem—Beth Horon—Lydda; and 
3. Gofna—Thamna—Antipatris.

The appearance of Emmaus midway and the distances given (19 and 12 miles) fit the course of the Jerusalem—Emmaus—Lydda road. Still, other details on the map refuse to fall into place. The road to Emmaus and Lydda went directly west from Jerusalem and reached Lydda itself; whereas the line in the Peutinger map verges westwards at Gofna — far north of Jerusalem — and connects up with [the] ‘inland’ coastal plain road, north of Lydda.

Finkelstein's choice of solution 3 is over-complicated: "On the Gofna—Thamna—Antipatris road [the chart-maker] placed ‘Amavante’ — Emmaus, where the town of Thamna should have been."

The graphic solution is far easier: it recognizes that route-line 1 has been simply miscopied to accommodate the gloss. Miller 835 silently adopts this solution too.