Description

The main panel, measuring thirteen square feet and set in the center of one of the floors, is divided into a series of smaller squares and triangles by an interlocking cable pattern, forming an outer polygon of twelve sides and sixteen square and triangular segments in which various birds, fish, and animals are depicted. These surround a larger octagonal space populated by ferocious wild animals—a lion and lioness, an elephant, a giraffe, a rhinoceros, a tiger, and a wild bull—with a mountainous landscape in the background. The mosaic scene is flanked by two smaller rectangular panels; one is decorated with a similar pattern of animal scenes, but the other completely is filled with a lively marine scene of fish, dolphins, and shells, together with two merchant ships facing in opposite directions, one shown with billowing sails, the other with its mast and sails lowered. The juxtaposition of animal hunting scenes and a marine scene, combined with the lack of human figures on any of the floors, makes the Lod Mosaic highly unusual.