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church of Sts. Lot and Procopius at Khirbat al-
Mukhayyat on Mount Nebo, the mosaic depicts
a Nilotic scene divided among four of the panels;
one shows a church representation flanked by
a boatman and a fisherman, another portrays a
river with fishes and ducks (Piccirillo 1993: 37,
fig. 209). A fragmentary mosaic in the main hall
of the chapel at Zay al-Gharby contains fish, a
sailing boat with two damaged figures, and a
crocodile, fishes, and birds on the Nile water;
a small church is in the border (Piccirillo 1993:
37,324-325, figs. 660, 674, 676). On the central
panel of the nave mosaic of the Byzantine church
(or perhaps a house: see Maguire 1999: 183, note
34) at Umm al-Manabi only a sketch of the mosaic
is preserved. Once it contained a walled city with
the inscription ‘Egyptos’; of the personification
of the Nile all that has survived are the Greek
inscription ‘Nilos’, a Nilometer with marks from
ten to eighteen, and stretches of water with a fish
and a sailing boat (Glueck 1951: 229-230; Whitehouse
1979: 141-142, M47; Piccirillo 1993: 37,
341, Fig. 752; Hamarneh 1999: 186).
Isolated Nilotic elements appear on some other
mosaics of Jordan. In the church of St. John at
Gerasa, two Nilotic scenes show of a river with
fish swimming in it; ducks, storks, and herons
move about and lotus flowers accompany the
walled city (Piccirillo 1993: 34, fig 535). On the
pavement of the church of the priest Wa"il, in the
intercolumnar space on the north side a Nilotic
scene appears consisting of two boats, fishes and
plants (Piccirillo 1993: 243, Fig.398). The flowing
Nile stream with seven fishes and walled cities
are portrayed on the Madaba map (Avi-Yonah
1954: 21-23,25; Piccirillo 1993: 30-34). On the
mosaic pavement of the 8th-century St. Stephen
church at Umm al-Rasas, the border frame renders
Nilotic landscape with cities, boats, fishes
and plants (Piccirillo 1993: 35-37, figs. 345, 358).
Some of these pavements suffered deliberate
iconoclastic damage; most were crudely repaired
(Schick 1995: 189-195,217).
On an outer border of the 6th-century mosaic
pavement at Sarrîn in Syria (Balty 1990: 60-68,
chapter five
Figure V-3. Sarrîn border mosaic.
pls. XXXI-XXXIII, XXXV,3: general plan) a
Nilotic scene appears in the border mosaic containing
most of the elements (fig. V-3): a halfnaked
Nilus reclines on a wagon drawn by a pair
of hippopotami with a naked putto riding one
of them; another putto rides a crocodile; on a
Nilometer a putto engraves the numbers IH and
IZ; close by is a depiction of a walled city, perhaps
Alexandria.
An interesting scene with most of the Nilotic
elements appears on a central panel mosaic at Jiyé
(Phoenicia, Lebanon) dated to the second half of
the 5th or early 6th century (Ortali-Tarazi and
Waliszewski 2000). The panel is divided into two
levels by two base lines: the upper level shows the
half-naked bearded figure of Nilus. Nilotic plants,
an eagle, and another bird flank him. The lower
level renders in the centre a boat with two seated
rowing figures; under it is a crocodile nibbling at
a Nilotic plant; to the left is a fish and another
Nilotic plant. The border of the mosaic is depicted
with Nilotic plants, fishes, birds, a snake, and a
crocodile.
Nilotic motifs consisting of plants, birds, and
fishes also appear on some mosaic pavements in
Syria: on a floor of the House of Ge and the Seasons
in Antioch, and on church floors at Apamea,
Oumnir, Qoumnahan, and Tell Hauwash (Balty
1984: 830, table on p. 831, figs. CXXX,5;
CXXXII,1-2; CXXXIII,1,4,5), and Sorân (Donceel-Voûte
1988: figs. 295,297,298).
Nilotic scenes appear on two currently discovered
pavements in Syria (Zaqzuq 1995: 237-140,
pls. 1, 19; Hamarneh 1999: 188: Campanati
1999: 173, fig. on p. 175): the cathedral of Hama
(412 CE) has a Nilotic scene in its south passage
depicting water with fishes, plants, a boat with
amphorae, and birds quite similar to the Tabgha
birds. The presbytery pavement of the Church
of the Holy Martyrs at Tayibat al-Imam (Hamah
district, dated to 442 CE,) shows another unusual
Nilotic scene: a river with fishes and Nilotic birds,
apparently created by the four rivers of Paradise
and identified by an inscription; it flows down
from the mountain of Paradise on whose top is an