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I've been digging for ancient-era portrayals of ancestral Amazigh and other Northwest African peoples. So far, most of what I've been able to dig up are Roman mosaics from North Africa that portray mostly Roman-looking subjects rather than anyone recognizable as indigenous, but then I found this from an Algerian mosaic.
It shows dark-skinned African people who appear to be in chains. Some of them have ocher-reddened hair like Egyptian portrayals of Kushites, yet none of them seem to be dressed in recognizably Kushite-style clothing. I suppose it's not impossible that they could have been brought from West or Central Africa, but what are the odds that they could be native Northwest Africans like the Numidians? Their Roman-style garments would suggest some Roman or other Mediterranean cultural influence.
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The roman mosaic ‘Triumph of Dionysus‘ in Algeria depicts the ritual procession of Bacchus in a tiger-drawn chariot, surrounded by maenads, satyrs and drunks, commemorates the god's triumphant return from the conquest of India
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quote:Originally posted by the lioness,: The roman mosaic ‘Triumph of Dionysus‘ in Algreia depicts the ritual procession of Bacchus in a tiger-drawn chariot, surrounded by maenads, satyrs and drunks, commemorates the god's triumphant return from the conquest of India
Even if this was true, how do you account for the black captives looking more African than Indian?
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^^^Maybe the author thought Indians looked like that remember they called India, "Eastern Ethiopia" during this era.
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Interestingly the animals depicted are those usually associated with Africa, there's even a domesticated Camel probably based off of Garamante or Saharan Traders.
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sculpted phallus (broken) at the entrance of the temple of Dionysus in Delos, Greece
-Triumph of Dionysus, Roman mosaic, Algeria
-Triumph of Dionysus, Roman mosaic, Algeria
Triumph of Dionysus, Roman mosaic, Algeria
quote:Originally posted by Tyrannohotep:
quote:Originally posted by the lioness,: The roman mosaic ‘Triumph of Dionysus‘ in Algreia depicts the ritual procession of Bacchus in a tiger-drawn chariot, surrounded by maenads, satyrs and drunks, commemorates the god's triumphant return from the conquest of India
Even if this was true, how do you account for the black captives looking more African than Indian?
The scene has been depicted many times it is clearly Dionysus the ancient Greek god of wine, winemaking, grape cultivation, fertility, ritual madness, theater, and religious ecstasy. His Roman name was Bacchus. A satyr is also depicted in the scene, following the mythological story (figure at left, hoved feet, bottom picture) Why do the dark skinned persons supposed to be Indians look the way they look? It could be because the artists didn't know how they looked or for some other reason. I don't know
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Sétifis (Berber language: Sṭif), was a town of in Roman in northeastern Algeria. It was the capital of the Roman era province called Mauretania Sitifensis,[1] and it is today Setif in the Sétif Province (Algeria). The name of the city, is of Numidian origin and in Berber means "black" (aseṭṭaf). Setifis (or Sitifis) was founded in 97 AD by the Romans, during the reign of Nerva, as a colony for Roman veterans. It was the capital of the Roman era province called Mauretania Sitifensis While in certain areas under Vandal and Byzantine control, most of Mauretania Sitifensis (until 578 AD) was ruled by Berber kingdoms like the Kingdom of Altava. Only the coastal area around Saldae and Setifis remained fully Romanized. Mauretania existed as a tribal kingdom of the Mauri people (who gave their name to the wider term Moors) on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, from at least the 3rd century BC. The Mediterranean coast of Mauretania had commercial harbours for trade with Carthage since before the 4th century BC, but the interior was controlled by Berber tribes, who had established themselves in the region by the beginning of the Iron Age.
Mauretania became a Roman client kingdom of the Roman Empire in 33 BC. The Romans installed Juba II of Numidia as their client-king. When Juba died in AD 23, his Roman-educated son Ptolemy of Mauretania succeeded him. The mad Emperor Caligula had Ptolemy executed in 40.[3] Emperor Claudius annexed Mauretania directly as a Roman province in 44, under an imperial (not senatorial) governor.
Not depriving the Mauri of their line of kings would have contributed to preserving loyalty and order, it appears: "The Mauri, indeed, manifestly worship kings, and do not conceal their name by any disguise," Cyprian observed in 247, likely quoting a geographer rather than personal observation, in his brief euhemerist exercise in deflating the gods, entitled On the Vanity of Idols.[
Book 13 – Zeus sends Iris to the halls of Rhea, ordering Dionysus to make a war against the impious Indians if he wants to join the gods on Olympus. Rhea gathers the troops for Dionysus. Catalogue of heroic troops including seven contingents from Greece and seven peripheral contingents.
Book 14 – Catalogue of semi-divine troops, also gathered by Rhea for Dionysus. Dionysus sets his army in motion until they encounter the first Indian contingent, led by Astraeis. Hera deludes Astraeis to go to battle against the Bacchic troops. Maenads and satyrs massacre the Indian troops until Dionysus takes pity of them and turns the waters of the neighbouring lake Astacid. The Indians try wine for the first time.
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He was a patron deity and founding hero at Leptis Magna, birthplace of the emperor Septimius Severus, who promoted his cult. In some Roman sources, the ritual procession of Bacchus in a tiger-drawn chariot, surrounded by maenads, satyrs and drunks, commemorates the god's triumphant return from the conquest of India. Pliny believed this to be the historical prototype for the Roman Triumph
The most famous part of his wanderings is his expedition to India, which is said to have lasted several years. According to a legend, when Alexander the Great reached a city called Nysa near the Indus river, the locals said that their city was founded by Dionysus in the distant past and their city was dedicated to the god Dionysus.These travels took something of the form of military conquests; according to Diodorus Siculus he conquered the whole world except for Britain and Ethiopia.[156] Returning in triumph (he was considered the founder of the triumphal procession) he undertook to introduce his worship into Greece, but was opposed by some princes who dreaded its introduction on account of the disorders and madness it brought with it (e.g. Pentheus or Lycurgus).
Dionysus was a god of resurrection and he was strongly linked to the bull. In a cult hymn from Olympia, at a festival for Hera, Dionysus is invited to come as a bull; "with bull-foot raging". Walter Burkert relates, "Quite frequently [Dionysus] is portrayed with bull horns, and in Kyzikos he has a tauromorphic image", and refers also to an archaic myth in which Dionysus is slaughtered as a bull calf and impiously eaten by the Titans.[28] A sculpted phallus at the entrance of the temple of Dionysus in Delos, Greece.
The snake and phallus were symbols of Dionysus in ancient Greece, and of Bacchus in Greece and Rome
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Mosaics from the Villa of the Nile, near Leptis Magna Hunting scene ca. 300 CE–ca. 400 CE Tripoli, National Museum
Leptis or Leptis Magna, also known by other names in antiquity, was a prominent city of the Carthaginian Empire and Roman Libya at the mouth of the Wadi Lebdam in the Mediterranean.
Originally a 7th century BC Phoenician foundation, it was greatly expanded under Roman Emperor Septimius Severus (r. 193–211), who was a native of the city. The 3rd Augustan Legion was stationed here to defend the city against Berber incursions
quote:Originally posted by Tyrannohotep: I've been digging for ancient-era portrayals of ancestral Amazigh and other Northwest African peoples.
How about these?
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