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Tunisia: El Jem's 'Villa Africa' Undergoes Facelift Revealing World's Unique Mosaic of Ancient Goddess 'Africa'
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Tunisia Online (Tunis)
3 July 2008
Posted to the web 7 July 2008
Tunis
The reconstruction of the "Villa Africa" known as the most luxurious mansion in Roman Africa, will undoubtedly give a new life to the Roman town of El Jem , known by the Romans as Thysdrus.
The town, which is famous for its splendid mosaics and their craft, also boasts the second largest coliseum after that of Rome . A sign of the times is that nowadays musical concerts are held in it , instead of the traditional Roman games involving lions and gladiators.
Most of the Bardo Museum 's second and third century masterpieces were originally excavated in Thysdrus.
In a brave but risky bid to reconstitute the famous "Villa Africa", not far from the site of the originally exhumed villa dating back to the year 170 of our era, archaeologists and town planners have succeeded in rebuilding the 3000 square meter building, as well as preserving in situ the beautiful ancient mosaics for which the villa is known and particularly that of the goddess 'Africa', incidentally represented on coins, sculptures and paintings, but whose only representation in stone can be found in the villa which belonged to a wealthy Roman citizen.
As the goddess of fertility, and revered throughout most of Roman Africa, the goddess gave her name to the villa. In the words of Pline the ancient, "Nobody takes any decisions in Africa without having invoked Africa ". The villa also hosts the representation of Rome and its 6 great provinces, as well as still nature tableaux representing various fruit, hunting scenes and game, as well as the birth of Venus.
"Villa Africa" which is neither museum, nor an archaeological site, allows the visitor to relive the atmosphere of a rich mansion in the Roman era, along with a right perception of volumes, ceilings and ground decorations.
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The well- preserved goddess ' Africa ' designed in polychrome mosaics represents a woman with a dark complexion, a flat nose and curly hair, covered with an elephant's skin. The site of the famous mosaic was discovered by a Tunisian archaeologist in 1992.
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