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and Ward-Perkins 1980: 51; Piccirillo 1993: 37;
Maguire 1999: 181). Alföldi-Rosenbaum and
Ward-Perkins (1980: 48-49) suggest that the
mosaic pavements found in Israel and those from
Gerasa depicting Nilotic scenes are perceived as
geographical renditions of the Nile valley and
Egyptian towns, while the Nilotic panels in the
Cyrenaic churches are by contrast genre scenes.
Alföldi-Rosenbaum (1975: 150-151; 1980: 49)
posits that Nilotic motifs were included in mosaicists’
pattern books. The other view argues
(Whitehouse 1979: 77-81; Meyboom 1995: 84;
Hamarneh 1999: 188-9) that the Nilotic landscapes
are of a religious derivation as elements
imported with the Egyptian cults, especially the
cult of Isis.
Roussin (1981: 6-9) suggests an eschatological
interpretation for the crocodile-cow combat scene
at the House of Leontis, Beth She"an. The scene
is identified as ‘the combat between Leviathan
and Behemoth, which signals the beginning of
the Messianic Era and will take place at the end
of the world according to Jewish tradition’ (see
also Drewer 1981). Yet this combat appears in
other examples too, so it should rather be considered
one of the iconographic elements of the
Nilotic scene. Roussin (1985: 312-315) maintains
that some of the Nilotic landscapes with specific
Egyptian topographic subjects are possibly related
to the Nile liturgy.
Balty (1984: 833-834) rightly states that the
Nilotic scenes in the 5th-6th centuries were inherited
from the Hellenistic period; however, they
lost their meaning of worship of the Nile and glorification
of the Egyptian landscape, and became
unspecified motifs which could be loaded with
various meanings. In some cases the scenes were
considered to carry Christian symbolism. 7
Maguire (1987: 50-55, 82) maintains that many
of these motifs (especially those on the nave mosaic
pavement of the East Church at Qasr-el-Lebia)
might be interpreted ‘as signs standing for the
earth and the waters, and as symbols representing
allegories on the creation’. He further argues that
the Nilotic scenes at Qasr-el-Lebia refer ‘both to
the gathering of waters to create dry land and to
the arrival of Christ in Egypt’.
Meyboom (1995: 7-90; n. 19 p. 341; n. 47
p. 380) contends that the Nile mosaic of 2ndcentury
BCE Palestrina is in a sense symbolic
7 Balty (1984: 833) also notes that the Nilotic scenes
depicted on Syrian church pavements do not portray
chapter five
as it combines and depicts the Nile flood and
all its aspects. The various motifs of the Nilotic
landscape scenes were considered symbols of the
fertilizing power of the Nile’s inundation, and in
the Christian period ‘were seen as illustrations of
the Creation’.
Hamarneh (1999: 185) divides the Nilotic scenes
into three major groups, forming ‘prototypes’,
though they tend to interconnect constantly: the
first group, showing the River Nile as a deity, is
closely associated with the Classical background;
in the second prototype elements and architecture
of cities control the composition, and the
third group reflects landscape elements originating
from nature. He maintains (1999: 188-189)
that Nilotic patterns, especially those with all
the elements discussed above, derive from Egyptian
origins; Nilotic, maritime and other images
depicting water are popular in the region with its
dry climate, and are probably meant to symbolize
the inhabitants’ welfare. Furthermore, ‘the
pagan subjects seem to be completely deprived
from their cultural meaning and become purely
decorative compositions in the Christian pavements’.
Versluys (2002: 290-291) examined the Nilotic
elements of the 5th-6th centuries in the Near
East and suggested three similar categories: (1)
the Nilotic scene which quite extensively shows
a number of Nilotic elements; (2) topographic
mosaics which depict the Nile and Egypt as topographic
elements; (3) a large number of mosaics
depicting a Nilotic motif as part of a representation
of the flora and fauna world. In his catalogue
Versluys studies the first category; the other two
are examined in the appendix. Versluys (2002:
294-295) writes, ‘Nilotic scenes are flood scenes
not random depictions of Egypt. The Nilotic
iconographic scenes seem to present fertility and
abundance scenes, sometimes connected with a
Dionysiac character, for example, the restored
mosaic panel with a Nilotic scene in the House of
Dionysos at Sepphoris’. The Nile Festival mosaic
at Sepphoris is considered by Versluys (2002: 290)
as depicted in the classic tradition with stereotype
motifs’.
Weiss and Talgam (2000: 72, 83) agree with
Maguire and Balty that Nilotic scenes in the Byzantine
period may articulate diverse meanings.
Moreover, the secular context of the Sepphoris
humans, in contrast to the scenes found in Israel and North
Africa.