The Marine Scene in the Lod Mosaics

Yıl 2019, , 47 - 62, 30.11.2019

Amir Gorzalczany Baruch Rosen

https://doi.org/10.26658/jmr.614853

Cited By: 2

Öz

The Lod mosaic, discovered in the city bearing that name in Israel, was laid in a luxurious villa urbana in the late 3rd or early 4th century AD. It contains inter alia a nautical scene presented as a floor carpet in the form of a pond. The scene includes sea life and two ships. One is sailing freely while the other, facing the opposite direction, is becalmed and perhaps in distress. The scene, in that place and time, symbolized the penetration into this country of the sea-oriented Greco-Roman culture. The pond containing the sea life and the vessels conveyed the idea of the sea, full of life, as a representation of the world organized by its creator. The scene details of the sea symbolize the truism “big fish eat little fish,” which also appears in contemporary literature. The vessels symbolize life as a sea voyage, also reflected in contemporary sources. The two ships affected contrarily by the same wind suggest the metaphor that a benefit divinely granted to one may be undesirable to another, and that it is impossible to appease everyone all the time. Such ships could also present additional ship associated symbolic concepts. To the modern observer the pond and its contents look as if they were purposefully and successfully designed to fit most cultural backgrounds of contemporary viewers, be they Jews, Christians, Samaritans or pagans.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Mosaic, marine motifs, Roman-Byzantine, ships, sea monsters

Kaynakça

• Avissar 1996 M. Avissar, “Lod, the Mosaic Floor”, Hadashot Arkheologiyot 108, 157-160.
• Avissar 1999 M. Avissar, “Lod, the Mosaic Floor”, Qadmoniot 32, 117, 41-43.
• Avissar 2001 M. Avissar, “The Representation of Two Merchant Ships on a late Roman Mosaic Floor in Lod (Lydda), Israel”, Tropis 6, 47–54.
• Avi-Yonah et al. 1981 M. Avi-Yonah – Y. Tsafrir – H. Katzenstein, Art in Katzenstein Ancient Palestine: Selected Studies, Jerusalem.
• Beaulieu 2008 M.-C. A. Beaulieu, The Sea as a Two-Way Passage between Life and Death in Greek Mythology, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Texas, Austin.
• Bowersock et al. 2015 G. Bowersock – J. Schwartz – A. Gorzalczany - R. Talgam, The Lod Mosaic: A Spectacular Roman Mosaic Floor, New York.
• Braudel 1972 F. Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philiph II, 2 Vols. (Translated from French by S. Reynolds), Glasgow.
• Britt - Boustan 2019 K. Britt – R. Boustan, “Artistic Influences in Synagogue Mosaics, Putting the Huqoq Synagogue in Context”, Biblical Archaeology Review 45, 3, 39–68.
• Broodbank 2013 C. Broodbank, The Making of the Middle Sea, A History of the Mediterranean from the Beginning to the Emergence of the Classical World, London.
• Brown 1971 P. Brown, The World of Late Antiquity, London.
• Casson 1971 L. Casson, Ships and Seamen in the Ancient World, Princeton.
• Dahood 1970 M. Dahood, The Anchor Bible, Psalms III, Garden City, New York.
• De Vincenz 2007 A. de Vincenz, “Christian among Jews in Ein-Gedi”, D. R. Edwards - C. T. McCollough (eds.), The Archaeology of Difference: Gender, Ethnicity, Class and the “Other” in Antiquity, Studies in Honor of Eric C. Meyers, AASOR 60–61, 391–396.
• Dunbabin 1978 K. M. D. Dunbabin, The Mosaics of Roman North Africa: Studies in Iconography and Patronage, Oxford Monographies on Classical Archaeology, Oxford.
• Edelstein 1993 G. Edelstein, “A Roman Villa at ʻEin Yaʻel”, Qadmoniot 3/4 (103/104), 114–119.
• Ericsson 1984 C. H. Ericsson, Navis Oneraria: The Cargo Carrier of Late Antiquity, Studies in Ancient Ship Carpentry, Åbo - Vaasa.
• Ferguson 1997 E. Ferguson, “Preaching at Epiphany: Gregory of Nyssa and John Chrysostom on Baptism and the Church”, Church History 66, 1–17.
• Finley 1962 M. I. Finley, The World of Odysseus, Hardmonsdsworth, Middlesex.
• Fischer - Taxel 2008 M. Fischer – I. Taxel, “Rural Settlement in the Vicinity of Yavneh in the Byzantine Period: A Religio Archaeological Perspective”, BASOR 350, 7–35.
• Friedman 2004 Z. Friedman, “Ships Depicted in the Lod Mosaic Reconsidered”, IntJNautA 33, 164–168.
• Fowler - Fowler 1905 H. W. Fowler – F. G. Fowler (trans.), The Works of Lucian of Samosata. Oxford. http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/6829/pg6829.html (Release Date: 01.11.2004).
• Glucker 1987 C. A. M. Glucker, The City of Gaza in the Roman and Byzantine Periods, Oxford.
• Goitein 1999 S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society: the Jewish Communities of the Arab world as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza, Berkeley, California.
• Gorzalczany 2015 A. Gorzalczany, “The Roman Manor at Lod”, G. W. Bowersock (ed.), The Lod Mosaic: A Spectacular Roman Mosaic Floor, New York, 38–49.
• Gorzalczany 2018 A. Gorzalczany, ”Lod, Newe Yaraq”, Hadashot Arkheologiyot 130. http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/report_detail_eng.aspx?id=25489&mag_id=126 (Acces Date: 15.04. 2018).
• Gorzalczany et al. 2016 A. Gorzalczany - M. Avissar - H. Torgë - U. ʻAd – E. Jakoel – Y. Elisha, “Lod, the Lod Mosaic”, Hadashot Arkheologiyot 128. http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/report_detail_eng.aspx?id=24984&mag_id=124 (Acces Date: 12.01.2017).
• Haddad - Avissar 2003 E. Haddad – M. Avissar, “A Suggested Reconstruction of one of the Merchant Ships on the Mosaic Floor in Lod (Lydda), Israel”, IntJNautA 32, 73–77.
• Horden - Purcell 2000 P. Horden – N. Purcell, The Corrupting Sea, A Study of the Mediterranean History, Oxford.
• Isaac 1998 B. Isaac, “Christians and Others in Palestine: The Evidence from Eusebius”, M. Goodmaned (ed.), Jews in the Graeco-Roman World, Oxford, 65-74.
• Lawrence 1962 M. Lawrence, “Ships, Monsters and Jonah”, AJA 66, 3, 289–296.
• Leibner - Miller 1993 U. Leibner – S. Miller, “A Figural Mosaic in the Synagogue at Khirbet Wadi Hamam”, JRA 23, 238–264.
• Leibner - Arubas 2015 U. Leibner – B. Arubas, “Summary of the Excavation Project at Khirbet Wadi Hamam, a Roman period Village in the Galilee”, Qadmoniot 48 (149), 28–39.
• Longinus Longinus, On the Sublime, T.H.R. Stebbing (trans.), London, 1868.
• Magness 2010 J. Magness, “Third Century Jews and Judaism at Bet Shearim and Dura Europus”, D. M. Gwynn – S. Bangert (eds.), Religious Diversity in Late Antiquity, Leiden, 135–166.
• Magness et al. 2018 J. Magness – S. Kisilevitz – M. Grey – D. Mizzi – D. Schindler – M. Wells – K. Britt, R. Boustan – S. O’Connell – E. Hubbard – J. George – J. Ramsay- E. Boaretto – M. Hazan, “The Huqoq Excavation Project: 2014–2017 Interim Report”, BASOR 380, 61–131.
• Magness et al. 2019 J. Magness - S. Kisilevitz - M. Grey – D. Mizzi - K. Britt – R. Boustan, “Inside the Huqoq Synagogue”, Biblical Archaeology Review 45, 3, 24–38.
• Malkin 1998 I. Malkin, The Returns of Odysseus, Colonization and Ethnicit, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London.
• Mazar 1973 B. Mazar, Beth Shearim I: Report on the Excavations 1936–1940, Jerusalem, Masada.
• Mieder 2014 W. Mieder, Tradition and Innovation in Folk Literature, London.
• Miller - Leibner 2018 S. Miller – U. Leibner, “The Synagogue Mosaic”, U. Leibner (ed.), Khirbet Wadi Hamamm a Roman-Period Village and Synagogue in the Lower Galilee (Qedem Reports 13), Jerusalem, 144–187.
• Nesselrath et al. 2005 H.-G. Nesselrath – C. Markschies - H. Leppin, “Lucianus”, H. Cancik - H. Schneider (eds.), Brill’s New Pauly Supplements II, Vol. 7, Leiden and Boston, 835–845.
• Oppenheimer 1988 A. Oppenheimer, “Jewish Lydda in the Roman Era,” Hebrew Union College Annual 59, 115–136.
• Ovadiah - Mucznik 1998 A. Ovadiah – S. Mucznik, “Classical Heritage and Anti-Classical Trends in the Mosaic Pavement of Lydda (Lod)”, Assaph 3, 1–16.
• Papadopoulos - Ruscillo 2002 J. K. Papadopulos – D. Ruscillo, “A Ketos in Early Athens: An Archaeology of Whales and Sea Monsters in the Greek World”, AJA 106, 2, 187–227.
• Parsons 1945 W. Parsons, “Lest Men, Like Fishes”, Traditio 3, 380–388.
• Percival 1977 H. R. Percival, The Seven Ecumenical Councils (The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Vol. 14), Eerdmans.
• Rosen 2004 B. Rosen, “Comments on the Reconstruction of one of the Ships on the Lod Mosaic”, IntJNautA 33, 167–168.
• Roussin 1995 L. A. Roussin, “East Meets West: The Mosaics of the Villa of ʻEin Yael (Jerusalem)”, P. Jhonson – R. Ling – D. J. Smith (eds.), Fifth International Colloquium on Ancient Mosaics held at Bath, England, JRA Supp. Series 9, Ann Arbor, 30–42.
• Schwartz 1991 J. J. Schwartz, Lod (Lydda), Israel: From its Origins through the Byzantine Period 5600 B.C.E–640 C.E., Oxford.
• Schwartz 2015 J. J. Schwartz, “Ancient Lod: An Historical Survey from the Persian Period through the Byzantine Period“, G. W. Bowersock (ed.), The Lod Mosaic, a Spectacular Roman Mosaic Floor, New York, 24–37.
• Tabory - Atzmon 2014 J. Tabory - A. Atzmon, Midrash Esther Rabbah, Jerusalem, Hebrew.
• Talgam 2014 R. Talgam, Mosaics of Faith: Floors of Pagan, Jews, Samaritans, Christian and Muslims in the Holy Land, Jerusalem.
• Talgam 2015a R. Talgam, “The Late Roman Mosaics at Lod”, G. W. Bowersock (ed.), The Lod Mosaic: A Spectacular Roman Mosaic Floor, New York, 50–107.
• Talgam 2015b R. Talgam, “Afterword: An Early Roman Floor Discovered in 2014”, G. W. Bowersock (ed.), The Lod Mosaic: A Spectacular Roman Mosaic Floor, New York, 108–109.
• Toynbee 1971 J. M. C. Toynbee, Death and Burial in the Roman World, London.
• Tsafrir - Foerster 1997 Y. Tsafrir – G. Foerster, “Urbanism at Scythopolis-Bet Shean in the Fourth to Seventh Centuries”, DOP 51, 85–146.