2nd Centhury Mosaic depicting two animals (a dog and a hen) mounted as table

Near East (Apamea?), 2nd century AD, Roman Period
Marble moulding added in 2015

Provenance : Galerie Rive Gauche, Baron F. Rolin ; exposition “mosaïque romaine IIe siècle” in 1969.

Apamea is an archaeological site in Syria located near the Orontes river, 55 km north of Hama. Occupation of the site dates back to the Palaeolithic period during the Hellenistic period in 300 BC. The Seleucid king Seleucos I founded the city and named it Apamea
in honor of his first Persian wife Apama. In 76-75 BC, the Roman conquest brought ended the Seleucid period. A from the 1st century onwards, the city came into its own
importance, with some 500 000 inhabitants, the city was embellished with long colonnaded streets, grandiose porticoes and temples on high podiums. The urban habitat was adorned with vast peristyle mansions mosaics and enriched with marble furnishings.
From the 6th century onwards the city slowly declined and was destroyed by earthquakes in 1152 and 1170. The ruins occupy an area of 255 hectares of which only part has been excavated. Most of the ruins date back to Roman times. Among the dwellings excavated
the residence of the Roman governor of Syria, remarkable for its numerous mosaics-notably the large hunting mosaic (Musée du Cinquantenaire, Brussels), the partially destroyed mosaic of the Amazons discovered in 1968.