The
center of the mosaic features a female character with a dark complexion, flattened
nose, and curly hair, wearing an elephant hide topped by a trump, an attribute
that identifies her as the Goddess Africa, dispenser of wealth and fertility,
object of a public and private cult highlighted by Pline in the following terms
: ... in Africa nobody will take a resolve without a prior invocation of
Africa.. its portrait was certainly widely used on coins, sculptures, ceramics
painting etc, but it is the first time that it appears on a mosaic in Africa. |