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This is a picture of the Nilometer that is the focal point of the mosaic. On the column are Greek numbers— ΙΕ (= 15), ΙΣ (= 16), ΙΖ (= 17)—that the Greek letters represent. A nude male with a hammer and chisel stands on the back of a nude female engraving IZ (= 17) on the Nilometer. Below the Nilometer is its base with two fish in it. The Nile is flowing from right to left.
Nilometers measured the height of the inundation of the Nile and evidently "17" indicated a particularly good year was coming!
The overall theme of the mosaic is the joy of the people of the land at the prospect of "bumper crops" due to the bountiful water and topsoil that the Nile has delivered to the land. Indeed, the fifth-century historian Herodotus said: "Egypt is the gift of the Nile."
Compare the Nilometer on the mosaic floor of the fifth-century mosaic of the Church at Tabgha on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
To the right of the Nilometer are two male nudes bearing gifts to Nilus—the male personification of the Nile. One of these figures carries a wreath in one hand and a bird in the other. The second holds a staff used for measuring land; in the other hand, he too holds a leafy wreath. An additional figure, also nude but his time a female, supports the foot of the Nile god with one hand and presents him with a wreath with her other hand. (Netzer and Weiss, p. 40).
To the left of the base of the Nilometer is a stork in the process of devouring a snake and to the left of that a nude fisherman holding a net and several fish that he has caught.
The "Nile Festival Building" is the name given to a large house or public structure, that was uncovered by a team from the Hebrew University led by Ehud Netzer and Zeev Weiss. It measures 165 x 115 ft. Rooms were built around a central courtyard and the structure may have served as a Basilica. It is situated near the center of the Byzantine city on the east side of the Cardo—the main street of the city. It was built around A.D. 400 and was destroyed by an earthquake in the seventh century.
Netzer, Ehud and Zeev Weiss. “A New Mosaic Art from Sepphoris.” Biblical Archaeology Review 18, no. 6 (November/December, 1992): 36–43, 78.
