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ALEXANDRIA
EGYPT
representationsofvariousspeciesofbirds
depictedonseparatepanelsofyetanother
mosaicdiscoveredatthesiteoftheso
calledVillaoftheBirds.8)Birddepictions
inthemselvesareamongthemostpopular
themesonEgyptianmosaics.Theycanbe
seenrepresentedalsoonthemosaicfloors
fromCanopusandThmuis,wherethey
usuallyconstitutepartofaNilotic
landscapedecoration.Ouremblema,
however,revealsastrikingsimilaritywith
anotheremblemafromKomTrouga,
representingthreebirdsinanalmost
identicalcomposition.9)Thispiece,dated
tothe1stcent.BC,wasfoundinsertedin
amuchlatertessellatedfloorofthe2nd
century.Perhapsinourcasewearealso
dealingwithasimilarphenomenon.As
thereisanother,earliermosaicfloorbelow
ourmosaic,itappearsthatouremblema
mayhavebeentransferredoriginallyfrom
thisearlierfloor.
Shield-of-scalespanelsareexceptionally
popularinEgyptandareevidencedin
number.Thebestparallelsareofferedby
thewellknownmosaicfromThmuiswith
arepresentationofBerenikeIIandother
examplesfoundinAlexandria(atGabbari
andthemosaicrecentlydiscoveredatthe
CinemaDianasite).10)Alltheseshields,
however,areusuallymulticolored.Our
piecefitsverywellintothebichrome,
black-and-white
style
that
became
predominantinAlexandriafromthe1st
cent.AD.Thedesignitselfofacircle
inscribedintoasquare,soexceptionally
Fig.7.EarlyRomanhouse.Mosaicinthetriclinium
(PhotoW.Jerke)
8)
M.Rodziewicz,“Unquartierd'habitationgréco-romainàKomel-Dikka”,ETIX(1976),169-210,figs.11-14.
9)
M.Abder-Rahman,“LespremieresfouillesduKomTrougah”,ASAELV(1958),356,pl.VIb;W
.A.Daszewski,
CorpusofMosaicsfromEgypt(Mainz1985),172-173,cat.no.47.pl.D1;fig.12.
10)Daszewski,op.cit,120-128,cat.no.20,pls.22-23,fig.6;A.-M.Guimier-Sorbets,LepavementàlaMédusedansune
maisond'époqueimpérialeàAlexandrie,AlexandrinaI(1998),115-140,fig.1.
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