Animal Figures in the Basilical Building Mosaics at Roman Sepphoris, Lower Galilee, Israel

Abstract

Animal pictorial representations appear in the floor mosaics of a large public building at the site of Sepphoris, a major city in the Galilee during the Roman period. Zoological subjects include six fish, four birds, and two mammals. Only a few of these animals, however, are represented in the archaeological faunal remains. The mosaic zoological depictions were most likely derived from pattern books as some of these subjects also appear in other Roman site mosaics in identical stylistic renderings.