FLOOR MOSAIC WITH TRITON AND NEREID, C. 150 CE. THE BRITISH MUSEUM Between 1857 and 1860 a novice archæologist, Nathan Davis, undertook excavations in the ruins of ancient Carthage on behalf of the British Foreign Office, receiving £1000 per annum for his discoveries, which the local Bey permitted to be exported. This was part of an imperialist competition with the equally marauding French for collecting antiquities in a strange race which would make a smashing movie. Here we see a floor mosaic from a Roman domus, perhaps itself a border for a larger mosaic, showing a triton reaching back toward a Nereid riding on his serpentine back. She seems to be having second thoughts. A shawl billows over her head, the "velificatio" that indicates her divine nature. Above their heads is a yellow border between two black lines, and then a wide frame with a guilloche between two dentillated strips. The same frame can be seen below, with a complex braid instead of the guilloche.
This #MosaicMonday we're at the #BritishMuseum to see a #mosaic from #Roman #Carthage, c. 150 CE, where the usual flirtation between a #triton and a #Nereid doesn't seem to be going well, but the complex #frame takes equal attention: #guilloches, #braids, #dentils. Fancy. #AncientBluesky 🏺
