These mosaics are from the sixth century. Some lovely pictures from the ancient church of Qsar-Libya. (the ancient city of Theodoureas). The city was rebuilt by Justinian in the name of his wife Theodora. The curious thing about this archaeological site is that even being part of a church, the mosaics are representations of animal figures and even pagan. Let’s hope that they survived the recent conflict.
These images are from a public site on Facebook. Some more images here and here.
The mosaics are really beautiful, but I do not believe there is anything really curious about them. We should only consider the taste of the local clientele and the existing iconographic patters upon which the local workshops would be working.
As for the conditions of antiquities after the conflicts in Libya, there is certainly need for updated documentation. Check the following links:
1. http://www.archaeological.org/news/aianews/4604
2. http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//RTV/2011/04/27/RTV1204511/
3. http://www.cultureconflictcooperation.com/1/post/2011/09/a-call-to-protect-libyan-antiquities.html
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Animal and pagan depictions do not seem to have bothered some Christians of the Early Byzantine period so much; one of the churches at Petra has a rather similar set of mosaics, including one of Okeanos (a pagan anthropomorphised concept).
Okeanos was the father of all the gods in ancient Greek mythology, as attested by Homer. Hesiod had other influences but it makes no doubt that in the 4th and 5th c. Pagan religion considered Homer as the supreme authority.