Roman mosaic: a bird, insect, and acanthus
Detail of a Roman floor mosaic depicting a border of an inhabited acanthus spiral (rinceau) including two birds and an insect -- perhaps a grasshopper -- originally part of a bath. The motif of the "inhabited" floral spiral is popular in the later republic. For examples in relief sculpture compare with details from the Ara Pacis (13-9 BCE). The mosaic is dated second to early first century BCE (according to the Capitoline Museums); Ant. Com. Inv. 32359 From the Via S. Lorenzo in Panispern...
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This richly colored mosaic portrait of an unnamed woman was discovered among the ruins of the Roman city of Sepphoris in the Galilee. Sepphoris was probably destroyed by an earthquake in 363 C.E. The mosaic floor was protected because it was in a building built into a hill. As a result of the earthquake, the mosaic was buried and left undisturbed beneath the rubble that fell from above.