indietro

Polychrome mosaic of a Nile scene

    • Provenienza:
      Rome, Via Nazionale, excavations on the Palazzo delle Esposizioni site, 1882
    • Data:
      Second half of the 1st century BC
    • Materiali:
      Marble and vitreous paste
    • Dimensioni:
      height 50 cm, width 50 cm
    • Collocazione:
      Rome, Musei Capitolini
    • Inventario:
      inv. AC 4956
  • Polychrome mosaic of a Nile scene

This portrayal, inserted into a typical Nile backdrop, features sacro-idyllic scenes that suggest a ritual celebration and offering to the god Sobek in Crocodilopolis. A reed boats appears amid trees and bushes, flowers, aquatic birds and fish and a crocodile with its jaws wide open emerges from the waters onto an islet. Wearing a crown of roses, it is approached by two priests proffering a meal.