Most of the surviving mosaics from Delos date to the last half of the 2nd century BC and early 1st century BC. The paved walkways of Delos range from simple pebble or chip-pavement constructions to elaborate mosaic floors composed of tesserae. Mosaics have been found in places of worship, public buildings, and private homes, the latter usually containing either an irregular-shaped floor plan or peristyle central courtyard.
About Mosaics of Delos in brief
Most of the surviving mosaics from Delos date to the last half of the 2nd century BC and early 1st century BC, during the Hellenistic period and beginning of the Roman period of Greece. The paved walkways of Delos range from simple pebble or chip-pavement constructions to elaborate mosaic floors composed of tesserae. Most motifs contain simple geometric patterns, while only a handful utilize the opus tessellatum and opus vermiculatum techniques to create lucid, naturalistic, and richly colored scenes and figures. Mosaics have been found in places of worship, public buildings, and private homes, the latter usually containing either an irregular-shaped floor plan or peristyle central courtyard. Some of the styles and techniques found at Delos are evident in Roman art and mosaics, although contemporary Roman examples from Pompeii, for instance, reveal significant differences in the production and design of mosaics in the western versus eastern Mediterranean. The majority of Delian mosaics comprise broken ground into pieces of marble set floors; other flooring bases are composed of rammed earth or gissrne flagstones in kitchens and latrines. While some mosaics were unearthed from religious sanctuaries, most of them were found in residential buildings and public homes, while some of them have been unearthed from private homes. The most common type of flooring is broken ground, while the most common ground is broken into broken ground. Thin strips of lead set into the cement often are often used to distinguish the geometric-patterned mosaics but are absent in the more complex geometric- patterned ones, but are present in the tes sellated tesssellatum mosaics.
The same wealthy patrons who commissioned paintings and sculptures at Deloas may have also been involved in hiring mosaic artists from abroad. Delos contains one of the highest concentrations of surviving mosaic artworks. Approximately half of all survivingTessellated Greek mosaics from the HellENistic period come from Deloras. The island was assaulted by the forces of Mithridates VI of Pontus in 88 and 69 BC, during the Mithridatic Wars with Rome. Despite the invasions by Pontus, the island was only gradually abandoned after Rome secured a more direct trading link with the Orient that marginalized Delos as a pivotal midway point for trade leading to the East. In 167 or 166 BC, after the Roman victory in the Third Macedonian War, Rome ceded Delos to the Athenians, who expelled most of the original inhabitants. The Roman destruction of Corinth in 146 BC allowed Delos to at least partially assume the former’s role as the premier trading center of Greece, Delos’ commercial prosperity, construction activity, and population waned significantly after the invasion by Mithridate. A handful were dated to the Classical period, with one mosaic attributed to the Imperial Roman era. The composition of the Delos mosaics and pavements include simple pe bble constructions, chip- pavement made of white marble, ceramic fragments, and pieces of t Tesserae, and a mixture of ceramic fragments.
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This page is based on the article Mosaics of Delos published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
