Female Narrator: An idyllic and active scene unfolds on this intricate mosaic. It’s just a fragment of the original mosaic, but on this piece alone, several stories unfold simultaneously. This is not so much a timelapse as composite portrait of the Nile River at different points along its length. Sara Cole is a Curatorial Assistant at the Getty Villa.
[Gently flowing sounds of a river]
Sara Cole: In this scene a group of men and women are reclining on cushioned benches beneath a latticed pergola. We can see clusters of grapes hanging from the top of the pergola and the Nile River is flowing between these benches. They're engaging in revelry and banqueting associated with the annual flood of the Nile.
To the right of the scene we see an Egyptian peasant wearing a cap and a loincloth, and he is on a papyrus skiff gathering these lotus blossoms.
In some ways it may have been a sort of travel guide for the Roman viewer so that they could imagine themselves traveling along the course of the Nile River and seeing the various people and landscapes and flora and fauna of Egypt as well as the Egyptian architecture.
It's among the earliest depictions of the Nile that we have in Roman art, and it's also unique for this sort of bird’s eye view that it presents of the terrain so that it almost feels a little bit like a map.
[River sounds fade]
Female Narrator: The work, made before Egypt became part of the Roman Empire, unintentionally foreshadows the fascination Romans would then have with the Nile, and with all things Egyptian.
