More mosaics have been preserved in the Roman provinces of North Africa than anywhere else in the empire, especially in the prosperous agricultural province of Africa Proconsularis (present-day northern Tunisia, northeastern Algeria, and western Libya).1 The region was one of the earliest to come under Roman control following the destruction of Carthage in 146 BC. However, little of the surviving Roman material in North Africa dates from before the late first century AD, and Rome’s influence on the local culture was not dominant until the second century AD, when the area became a primary source of grain for Italy and a source of wealth for aristocratic Romans. Reflecting this increasing affluence, a growing number of public buildings and private residences were adorned with ornate mosaic floors, and from the end of the second century AD onward, mosaics were a standard form of decoration in wealthy Roman villas.
The earliest Roman mosaics in North Africa made use of elaborate black-and-white patterns and geometric designs prevalent in Italy during the first and second centuries AD. Mosaics of this type were probably introduced to North Africa by itinerant craftsmen who had established local workshops along the east coast of Africa Proconsularis by the early part of the second century AD. The impact of the Italian tradition is evident in the earliest mosaics at the prominent centers of Hadrumetum (present-day Sousse) and Thysdrus (present-day El Djem), which display black-and-white geometric designs unparalleled in previous mosaic production in North Africa.2 The local mosaic styles in North Africa, however, soon diverged from contemporary Italian trends by adding stylized vegetal elements and using vibrant color for both figural and decorative compositions. Elaborate, polychrome mosaics similar in composition to that of the black-and-white Getty Medusa mosaic (cat. 1), for example, survive from a villa at Thysdrus and from a bath complex
Mosaics of a very different tradition also existed in North Africa during the same period, although examples of these are fewer. Detailed polychrome emblemata
Over the course of the third and fourth centuries AD, pictorial mosaics in North Africa increasingly displayed a preference for large-scale figural compositions.7 Themes of the amphitheater and the hunt were especially widespread. In no other regions of the Roman Empire are they found in such variety and abundance. Some of the earliest examples include early third-century AD hunting mosaics from Carthage
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For a comprehensive examination of Roman mosaics in North Africa, see Dunbabin 1978. Very different geographic and historical conditions affected the development of mosaic production in the mountainous provinces of Numidia and Mauretania, which retained separate regional and local traditions. ↩
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Examples include House B of the Terrain Jilani Guirat (Foucher 1960a, 44–46, plate 8) and the House of the Peacock (Maison du Paon) (Foucher 1961, 3–14, plates 1–5) at Thysdrus, both dating to the early second century AD. ↩
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Thysdrus (a villa): Foucher 1963, 97, fig. 13b. Dar Zmela (a bath complex): Foucher 1960b, 121–22, no. 57.247; and Foucher 1963, 97, fig. 13a. ↩
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For the baths at Thysdrus, see Gauckler 1910, 61; and Foucher 1960a, 103. ↩
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Foucher 1963, 90–96, figs. 11d–e. ↩
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Foucher 1961, 30–50, plates 32–34; and Parrish 1984, 156–60, no. 29, plates 42–44. ↩
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Lavin 1963, 229–42. ↩
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Oudna: Gauckler 1910, 122–23, no. 362; and Lavin 1963, 230–31, fig. 75. Carthage: Poinssot and Lantier 1923, 154–58; and Lavin 1963, 233, fig. 79. Thysdrus: Merlin 1915, no. 71f, 4; and Lavin 1963, 231–32, fig. 77. El Kef (or Le Kef): Lavin 1963, 231–32, fig. 76. For another hunting mosaic from Thysdrus: Gauckler 1910, 26, no. 64; and Lavin 1963, fig. 80. ↩
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For examples with references, see the introduction to Italy in the present catalogue. For additional connections reflected in the mosaics of Sicily and North Africa, see Wilson 1982, 413–28. ↩
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Mosaic of Megalopsychia (Hatay Archaeology Museum, 1016): Lassus 1934, 114–56, figs. 1–27; Levi 1947, 326–45, fig. 136, and plates 76b–80; and Lavin 1963, 189–90, figs. 6–7. Mosaic of the Worcester Hunt (Worcester Art Museum, 1936.30–31): Levi 1947, 363–65, plate 90a; Lavin 1963, 187–90, fig. 2; and Becker and Kondoleon 2005, 228–37, no. 8, dated to AD 480–520. ↩