Pygmies

Pygmies

When creating their mosaics, artists used pygmies to portray the native population of Egypt. Romans connected pygmies to Egypt as they believed them to live along the Nile. So the Romans chose the exotic pygmies to represent the natives as opposed to the lighter skinned Greco-Egyptian dwarves. These pygmies often are near mud huts with thatched roofs. ¹ (Versluys 271) This primative dwelling is used to denote that these people are of the less civilized part of the population. They are not doing lofty things like making offerings to temples but fighting animals or doing farm things. Degrading the natives like this reinforces the power the Romans held over these people. The East for a long time posed a threat to the Romans territorially and morally. Now the Romans are in control and demonstrate that through demeaning depictions or conquered people.

Of the lesser actions thses pygmies take part in, fights with animals are very common. "The hunting of crocdiles and hippopotami can be specifically connected ... with the period of the flood but would also bave been part of everyday life...[And such fights] must have produced a comical effect" ²(Versluys 283) These battles, on the one hand, signal to the viewer that this is a Nilotic scene of fertility and exoticism. The owner is trying to bring that exoticism into his house as if trying to get away from the mundaneness of Rome or even Pompeii. The comedy also seems to make the Egyptians a helpless people. They get attacked by animals and can't control nature like the Romans. Romans can go anywhere and literally set down order on the land by dividing it in to centuriae and cutting straight roads across it. The Egyptians can't even control the local fauna and are thus a lesser people to the Romans.

By making these scenes rather comical, the Romans were exhibiting the power of their empire. They could stereotype the people of Egypt in this way and belitte them as much as they wanted. This idea is indeed strengthened since pygmies and dwarves first started to appear in the early imperial age just after the conquering of Egypt.³(Versluys 288) Thus the Romans were flexing their new imperial power by not representing Egyptians as proper people but in a derogatory fashion as pygmies.

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Conclusion

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When creating their mosaics, artists used pygmies to portray the native population of Egypt. Romans connected pygmies to Egypt as they believed them to live along the Nile. So the Romans chose the exotic pygmies to represent the natives as opposed to the lighter skinned Greco-Egyptian dwarves. These pygmies often are near mud huts with

thatched roofs. ¹ (Versluys 271) This primative dwelling is used to denote that these people are of the less civilized part of the population. They are not doing lofty things like making offerings to temples but fighting animals or doing farm things. Degrading the natives like this reinforces the power the Romans held over these people. The East for a long time posed a threat to the Romans territorially and morally. Now the Romans are in control and demonstrate that through demeaning depictions or conquered people.

Of the lesser actions thses pygmies take part in, fights with animals are very common. "The hunting of crocdiles and hippopotami can be specifically connected ... with the period of the flood but would also bave been part of everyday life...[And such fights] must have produced a comical effect" ²(Versluys 283)

These battles, on the one hand, signal to the viewer that this is a Nilotic scene of fertility and exoticism. The owner is trying to bring that exoticism into his house as if trying to get away from the mundaneness of Rome or even Pompeii.

The comedy also seems to make the Egyptians a helpless people. They get attacked by animals and can't control nature like the Romans. Romans can go anywhere and literally set down order on the land by dividing it in to centuriae and cutting straight roads across it. The Egyptians can't even control the local fauna and are thus a lesser people to the Romans.

By making these scenes rather comical, the Romans were exhibiting the power of their empire. They could stereotype the people of Egypt in this way and belitte them as much as they wanted. This idea is indeed strengthened since pygmies and dwarves first started to appear in the early imperial age just after the conquering of Egypt.³(Versluys 288) Thus the Romans were flexing their new imperial power by not representing Egyptians as proper people but in a derogatory fashion as pygmies.

<-Artwork Dwarves ->

Conclusion