The Mosaics of Roman North Africa: Studies in Iconography and Patronage

Warm Soil, Westerly Wind, and Wet Feet: Feeling and Measuring Ecological Time in the Roman World

“…In a world where enslaved individuals were legally categorized as “thinking‐tools,” the stomping grape‐pressers are a prosthetic limb of the estate owner (Giannella, 2014; Reay, 2005; Roth, 2007, 2010). But simultaneously, as Dunbabin has observed, seasonal representations of agricultural bounty and labor must also have been so largely popular because they were also future‐looking and were perceived to bring blessings and prosperity to the estate (Dunbabin, 1978). Indeed, as Dundabin notes, “hardly any subject is commoner or more stereotyped on mosaics from the mid‐second century onwards than the Season” (1978).…”

“…But simultaneously, as Dunbabin has observed, seasonal representations of agricultural bounty and labor must also have been so largely popular because they were also future‐looking and were perceived to bring blessings and prosperity to the estate (Dunbabin, 1978). Indeed, as Dundabin notes, “hardly any subject is commoner or more stereotyped on mosaics from the mid‐second century onwards than the Season” (1978). It is significant to note that seasonal representations become ubiquitous coincidentally at the end of the Roman Climate Optimum, when, conceivably, cultivation became more challenging, and thus estate owners felt a greater need to express wishes for successful harvests.…”

“…But, if we examine the representations of the four seasons in the later Roman Empire, we also find evidence suggestive of altered sensations and climatic change. The seasons were such a ubiquitous motif in mosaic floors that Dunbabin, a leader in mosaic studies, speculated whether at times they were depicted merely out of habit (1978). For this reason, the mosaics of the four seasons have received limited scholarly attention, certainly less than depictions of seasons on carved sarcophagi or other media considered to be finer and more elevated than floors (Dunbabin, 1978; Levi, 1941; Parrish, 1977, 1979).…”

“…The seasons were such a ubiquitous motif in mosaic floors that Dunbabin, a leader in mosaic studies, speculated whether at times they were depicted merely out of habit (1978). For this reason, the mosaics of the four seasons have received limited scholarly attention, certainly less than depictions of seasons on carved sarcophagi or other media considered to be finer and more elevated than floors (Dunbabin, 1978; Levi, 1941; Parrish, 1977, 1979). But I would like to suggest that in light of the major developments in ancient environmental studies, our growing understanding of the Roman Climatic Optimum (200 BCE–150 CE), and the blossoming of research that frames climate and environment not as a passive backdrop to anthropogenic activity but as an active agent in cultural history, it is time to re‐examine representations of the seasons.…”

“…Instead, wearing a sleeveless garment, she holds a fan in one hand, and is shown with a peacock feather behind her right shoulder and a scroll in the lower lefthand corner. Peacocks and their feathers possessed multivalent iconography in antiquity and were associated with luxury, fertility, immortality, and the goddess Juno, to name but a few associations—the birds were also considered a tasty treat (Apicius, 1980, VI.5; Dunbabin, 1978). But, the combination of fan and feather together may have had an entirely different reading here.…”