My Photos: Mosaics -- France -- Nîmes -- Musée Archéologique



The symbol of the city of Nîmes is a crocodile chained to a palm tree.  I found these images everywhere while I wandered around the city.  Here's what I was able to learn about the symbol's origin:  when Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus conquered Egypt in 31 BC, he rewarded his troops with land in the Roman colony Nemausus -- Nîmes.  At that time, a coin was struck depicting a crocodile chained to a palm tree, apparently to symbolize Rome's conquest of Egypt.


The Archaeological Museum holds a few mosaic pavement fragments.  It also contains a nice collection of Greek Black-Figure and Red-Figure vases.






Three interesting and unique black and white mosaic panels.  Very different from anything I have seen.  However, I could find no information on these mosaics.  The museum is currently in the process of moving to a new space, and much of the collection is off display until that move in 2018.  























All photos are copyright protected property of  Brenda Pokorny unless otherwise noted.
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