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iconographic elements of nilotic scenes 99
Figure V-2. Tabgha Church. a. The north transept; b. the south transept.
and her husband Absolius Patricius (see Chap.
XII ).
Some isolated and abridged Nilotic elements
appear on three pagan pavements dated to earlier
periods:
Sepphoris, the House of Dionysos. A section in the
southern side of the border mosaic replaced at
some stage the earlier Dionysian procession. It
shows a pair of naked youths hunting a crocodile,
and a heron, water plants, figures, and birds
(pl. V.2a). It is dated to the late 3rd or early 4th
centuries (Netzer and Weiss 1994: 37; Talgam
and Weiss 2004: 87-88, 112, Figs.73-74).
Emmaus. A structure (perhaps a villa or a Christian
religious building) dated to the 5th century
(pl. V.2d) shows a mosaic with a geometric design
which portrays Nilotic water plants and birds rendered
inside an octagon; scenes of beasts hunting
other animals also appear inside two other surviving
octagons (Vincent and Abel 1932; Avi-Yonah
1981: 355, no.346).
Beth Guvrin, el-Maqerqesh. On the lower centre
of the southern border of the nave’s mosaic pavement
(period II, late 5th century), an isolated
scene shows some elements of Nilotica flora and
fauna (pl. V.2c; fig. VIII-4). A horseman holding
a sistrum (a musical instrument) in his hand
rides among the plants (Vincent 1922; Abel 1924;
Schneider 1937: ills.13, 14; Avi Yonah 1981:
293, no.23, pl. 49; 1992: 197; Whitehouse 1979:
137-138, M43).
A few Nilotic scenes are preserved on contemporary
church mosaics in Jordan, Syria, Phoenicia,
and Cyrene.
Several mosaic pavements in Jordan show
Nilotic scenes: on the intercolumnar space in the