Roman Period Mosaics

• The Dionysiac Mosaic

The Dionysiac mosaic was not only the first mosaic to be found in Zippori, but also the earliest chronologically. The JSP, a joint expedition of the Hebrew University and Duke University, uncovered a large private dwelling, south of the theater. The building is 45 X 23 m. and was built in the beginning of the third century CE. A courtyard surrounded on all four sides by peristyles was in the center of this building. A triclinium (reception hall) was located in the northern part of the building, which opened onto the courtyard via three doors. The other rooms were arranged around the triclinium and the courtyard. Many of the rooms were originally paved with mosaics featuring colorful geometric patterns, but the most important one was found in the central room in the building.

The mosaic found in the triclinium was designed as one colorful rectangular carpet, measuring 9 x 7 m., that covered almost the entire floor. The decorated part in the floor forms the letter T, a common arrangement in other triclinia found at other sites, throughout the Roman world.

Fifteen panels depicting various scenes from the life of Dionysos and his cult, decorate the central carpet of the floor. The panels were made according to the emblem tradition, with each image conceived as an independent frame. They were designed to be viewed from the margins of the mosaic. The figures and alternately, the scenes, are identified by Greek inscriptions.

A frame containing twenty-two medallions formed by intertwining acanthus leaves, surrounds the central carpet. Unclothed hunters and animals appear within the acanthus medallions. Each medallion depicts a hunting scene or struggle between animals with two or three figures. The medallion frame spreads from the centers of the two narrow sides of the mosaic, where the portraits of two beautiful women are incorporated. The face of the woman at the southern end has been partially destroyed, while the portrait in the central medallion of the northern end is preserved almost in its entirety.

The U-shaped strip to the south of the main carpet depicts a rural procession where people are preparing for Dionysian festivities. The uniqueness of this section is that it does not relate to the myth like the panels in the central carpet, but rather, presents the Dionysiac cult itself, as it was practiced throughout the empire during the Roman period. Despite the partial preservation of the mosaic floor in this section, it appears to be one continuous scene, beginning at the eastern and western ends of the "U" and extending to the middle of the southern end of the floor. In all probability, the damaged center of this strip depicts an altar with a statue of the god next to it, toward where the procession, on both sides, is facing, similar to a depiction on a glass vessel from the Morgan collection in N.Y.

During the lifetime of the building, a substantial section of the procession was replaced by a Nilotic scene, in which a group of naked youths is depicted hunting a bird and a crocodile.

The Dionysiac mosaic, which is dated to the early third century CE, has several parallels in Roman art. The richness of detail, the length of the depictions, and especially the combination of the myth and reality of Dionysian cult in one floor, make this mosaic unique, not only among the mosaics of Zippori, but among Roman art in general.