Zodiac Floor Mosaics: Tunisia and Israel
The Bardo Museum in Tunis is home to one of the most complete zodiac floor mosaics in the world. The mosaic dates from the third century C.E. It was moved from an archeological site in central Tunisia near Zaghouan, at Bir-Chana. There are several WEB links which show images of the mosaic. Here is one in French. This image shows the central section of the mosaic depicting seven Roman emperors. This may either represent the seven days of the week or the Sun, Moon, and the five planets visible with the naked eye: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The central figure is the God Saturn, who was the most important God to the indigenous population. Other figures are simply identified as planetary deities and the animals sacred to them in the nearby rectangles. The sacred animals are a wolf, eagle, dove, horse, bull, goat. An image of the entire mosaic from the top should pop-up otherwise click here. From the top of the image and going clockwise, those images in the outer ring still intact include: a scale representing the constellation Libra, a scorpion representing the constellation Scorpio, a centaur (half horse/half man) firing an arrow representing the Sagittarius, a half fish/half goat representing the constellation Capricorn, two fish representing Pisces, a ram representing Aries, a bull representing the constellation Taurus, and a crab representing the constellation Cancer. The constellations of the Zodiac are part of the popular consciousness in the United States, thus we can deduce which constellations have been destroyed in mosaic.
Many people have no idea why there are a set of twelve constellations called the Zodiac. As the Sun travels across the sky, it travels only through the twelve ancient constellations of the Zodiac. Today, with the modern constellations boundaries, it also travels through the constellation Ophiuchus, but the ancient Zodiac of twelve constellations has remained with us. It takes the Sun a year to travel through the Zodiac with the Sun remaining in each constellation of the Zodiac approximately one month. The ancients obviously saw or tried to create a symmetry between the phases of the moon and the monthly motion of the Sun through the heavens. One has only to examine a lunar calendar to see what an inexact science this is.
Exercise Question for Students.
There are four constellations missing in the Zodiac floor mosaic from Tunisia. Can you figure out which ones are missing and where do they belong in the mosaic?
Israel
Israel is home to several Zodiac floor mosaics with the Beth Alpha and Tiberius mosaics being the most famous and the most accessible. These Zodiac mosaics date from the Byzantine period, the third and fourth century C.E. or about one hundred years later than the Bir-China mosaic. In 1999, I had the opportunity to travel to Israel and explore what research has been done on the mosaics, and I spoke briefly with Gideon Foerster of Hebrew University who had done some work on the Zodiac mosaics.
The mosaics in Israel have been found in structures identified as synagogues. The Zodiacs are circular and often include Biblical scenes. Many theories have been presented as to why the Zodiac was included in these mosaics. One theory is that it simply served as a calendar and represented knowledge of the heavenly motions. Another, is that it is a remnant of a time when Jewish society rubbed shoulders with the local pagan population and adopted some of their images. And another, is that it reflects a population that practiced mysticism and some form of astrology.
Israel Mosaics Links:
Other mosaics which are not linked include archeological sites at Kefar Bir'im (4th century), Na'aran (4th century), and Husifa (4th century). The bibliography for this WEB project is too long to put on this page, please email requests:holbrook@u.arizona.edu