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443, 455-6, 466) holds that this type of scenes
portrays rural life on villa estates and represents
the patron’s prestige and wealth. These recurring
themes, which decorate some religious and
secular Levantine mosaics, show in some cases
hunting and pastoral scenes in the same composition.
Here is an apparent dichotomy and
an interrelation between ‘idyllic’ and ‘violent’
scenes. These subjects decorate religious buildings
because they are fully attuned to Christianity.
Some of the best examples of this dichotomy and
of the interrelation and juxtaposition of pastoral
and savage hunting scenes are found on some
other carpets such as the Nile Festival Building
mosaic at Sepphoris. The border frieze mosaic at
el-Maqerqesh at Beth Guvrin shows similar scenes
of Nilotica combining pastoral and hunting episodes.
On many inhabited scroll mosaics arable
and hunting scenes appear on the same pavement
(Tables 1-4). Similar interpretations are presented
by Trilling (1989: 58-60) in respect of the iconography
of peaceful rural life and animal violence
shown together on the Byzantine Great Palace
mosaic pavement in Constantinople. Dunbabin
(1999: 235) maintains that the sources for the
pavement themes are ‘those of bucolic idyll and
of wild nature…together creating the predominant
atmosphere of the mosaic, part peaceful,
part violent’.
Merrony (1998: 474-75) presents two possible
interpretations of the hunting renditions in the
religious context. First, hunting was a social pursuit
of the upper classes—landowners, the bishop
and clergy—in the Roman and Early Byzantine
periods; on church floors these scenes glorified
the activities of the ecclesiastical patrons. Second,
‘such iconographic themes could, moreover, have
been viewed symbolically… The battle between
the prince and his enemies—wild animals—could
be viewed symbolically as the struggle and victory
over passions… or as an allegory of human
life itself’. Merrony continues (1998: 480-482) by
noting that the vintage scene and the inhabited
scroll iconography were a religious theme as well
as carrying a descriptive meaning. Further, the
hunting scenes on Early Byzantine religious pavements
continued the inference from the Roman
period articulating the patron’s prestige and
integrity. The pastoral scenes presented a biblical
significance. The combined vintage, hunting,
and pastoral themes represented an idyllic/violent
relationship renowned in the Roman period.
Merrony suggests three possible meanings for
iconographic aspects of rural life 177
these episodes. 1. They ‘emphasized the protection
against external forces, the controlling of
passions, and the triumph of good over evil. 2.
These themes represented the dominion of Mankind
over animals. 3. The various categories of
iconography may be interpreted as a variation on
Isaiah 2: 6-8’. He claims that the inhabited scroll
pavements, though undergoing stylistic changes,
still presented a continuation of iconographic
form and ideological message but bore a change
in significance from the pagan to the Christian
sphere with manifold aspects of meaning in their
iconography.
Dunbabin (1999: 197-199) contends that the
popular 6th-century genre themes describing
rural activities might have ‘a unifying underlying
significance. The church floor becomes an
image of the earth with its varied inhabitants,
its produce, and the work needed to maintain
it, though it probably retained different levels at
which such floors might have been read’.
Further, ‘the liveliness and realistic detail of
some of the genre scenes illustrate… the revival
of traditions and motifs going back to the Hellenistic
period; a revival often connected with the
“classical renaissance” under Justinian. The classicism,
it should be noted, is one of subject-matter
rather than of style’.
Another interpretation of the themes of vintage,
hunting, taming of wild beasts, and using
domestic animals is that they might reflect and
represent contemporary existing rural life and
vine-producing activities in the area (Maguire
1987: 71; Merrony 1998: 472-473). Still another
valid interpretation is that the farmers had to perform
their vintage or agricultural activities but
also to protect the vineyard and animals from
beasts by hunting them. Conceivably, the rendering
of rural and genre scenes, especially savage
hunt episodes and the capture and display of animals,
enabled the mosaicists to exhibit their talent
in portraying humans, animals, and beasts in various
activities, manners, and positions.
The farming, hunting and pastoral scenes,
vignettes of daily life depicted on mosaic pavements
and especially in medallions of the Early
Byzantine inhabited scroll mosaics, are only partly
symbolic; they rather portray the activities and
occupations of the local communities. While some
conventions imitate the real actions of the figures
they possibly were selected from model books. The
popular themes could have been chosen because
those episodes were part of the repertoire of the