Excavated: 1912 (GdS 1912, 292 (October 14-15); NSc 1912, 436; Vaglieri).
Mosaic: SO IV, 71 nr. 99, tav. 177 (top).
Inscription: CIL XIV S, 4549 nr. 18.
Date: 190-200 AD (SO IV); 200-210 AD (Clarke).
Meas. of tesserae: 0.015-0.02 (SO IV).

Photos and drawings:

Front room and back room (ss)

Front room and back room (dga)

Front room and back room (gh)

Front room and back room (gh2)

Statio 19 + statio 18 (centre + right) (gh2)

Text and depiction (Alinari; 1920-1930)

Text and depiction (Calza 1931, fig. 23)

Text and depiction (DAI; 1935)

Text and depiction (DAI; 1936)

Text and depiction (top) (DAI)

Text and depiction (DAI)

Text and depiction (top) (SO IV)

Text and depiction (bs)

Text and depiction (kh; 2013)

Text and depiction (kh; 2014)

Text and depiction (kh; 2016)

Text and depiction (kh; 2016)

Text and depiction (kh; 2016)

Text (kh; 2014)

Text (kh; 2016)

Depiction (fish) (kh; 2014)

Depiction (fish) (kh; 2016)

Depiction (left ship) (kh; 2014)

Depiction (left ship) (kh; 2016)

Depiction (right ship) (kh; 2014)

Depiction (right ship) (kh; 2016)

Mosaic

Most of the west part of the floor of the back room has been preserved. In the north-west corner is a west-east running black band, four tesserae wide, coming from the passage between the front and back room, and continuing to the north. About halfway the back room is part of a narrow black band, running north-south, creating two halves.

The only trace of a black frame in the front room is in the south-east corner, next to a black rectangle. It runs north-south in front of the brick column. In the front room are a single line of text and a depiction of two ships and a fish. Ancient and modern restorations are numerous.

At the east end of the front room is a single line of text in a tabula ansata with solid black ansae (h. of letters 0.15). We read:

NAVICVI.KARTHAG.DESVO

Wickert adds sic, presumably because of the I instead of L before KARTHAG. Before and after KARTHAG is a dot. Suggested reading:

NAVICVL(ari) KARTHAG(inienses) DE SVO

Depictions

In the middle part of the mosaic and in the north-west corner the sea is indicated by horizontal lines. Two ships are depicted with a fish to the left. According to Becatti there was a small boat below the fish, and indeed a stern and a bow seem visible on the photo published by him. A tiny ship can also be seen on NADIS inv. nr. 642. Becatti furthermore describes an object in the north-west corner, consisting of two black rectangles with a white square inside, one op top of the other, looking like the lighthouse. This object too can be seen on NADIS inv. nr. 642. Today only three black lines remain. On an old photo there seems to be a large piece of white stone in a rectangular area below the ships.

Becatti
Fish and ship. A sinistra è un pesce corto e tozzo, dalla larga coda e dalla bocca appuntita, in basso è una piccola scapha ricurva senza vele, quasi cancellata da un restauro.
Lighthouse. Sul margine Nord in basso sono due rettangoli neri contenenti un quadratino bianco, una sopra all'altro, dei quali il più piccolo in basso, che somigliano ai piani del faro ostiense, che sarebbe allora volto verso Ovest.
Ships. Nel centro sono raffigurate due navi dello stesso tipo con prua obliqua senza tagliamare, ma ambedue le prue sono state rifatte in antico, alterandole. L'alta poppa con acrostolio ha due timoni poppieri, l'albero maestro ha la vela quadra, detta acato, appesa al pennone, retto dai sospensorî. L'albero è fissato dalle sartie e quei grossi segmenti neri a intervalli regolari fra le due sartie, espressi in ambedue le navi in corrispondenza dell'albero, potrebbero interpretarsi come griselle, ma bisogna tener presente che in alcuni monumenti l'albero spesso è rappresentato con una decorazione a fasce parallele chiare e scure, sicchè in questo, come nell'altro mosaico n. 161, è probabile che con questo motivo si voglia indicare non già le griselle, ma questa decorazione ad anelli dell'albero maestro. La vela è resa con il reticolato irregolare dei ferzi, delle bende e degli imbrogli. Nella nave di destra, di più piccola alberatura, lungo il fianco pare raffigurato un parapetto o una transenna con pilastrini neri.

Masonry

The back room has a rear wall of opus latericium and side walls of opus vittatum mixtum B. On Vaglieri's plan the south wall has a double width and does not touch the back wall. The north wall also has a double width, but touches the back wall with a thinner continuation. On the plans of Vaglieri and Gismondi a north-south running wall is shown in the back part of the back room, to the north of the black band. This wall is also present on the model. In the east half of the back room the model has a bench against the north wall and a door in the south wall.

Interpretation

Carthago, modern Tunis, is very close to Gummi (18 kilometres as the crow flies), the port found in statio 17 to the south. Stationes 17 and 18 both have a tabula ansata with solid black ansae.

In Ostia we hear of a curator navium Karthaginiensium and domini navium Carthaginensium. For more information see the section Masters, superintendents, skippers, traders, merchants.

The size and importance of Karthago were such that we may expect the import of various commodities from the harbour, but on the square it may have been restricted to grain.