Mosaics are patterns and pictures, usually on the floor, and made up of small pieces of stone known as tesserae. The tesserae would mostly have come from local materials, generally from within five miles. So the colour palette of any mosaic will derive from the locality and each mosaic will have subtle, and not so subtle, differences from other ones, independent of all other factors of design and construction. The size of the tesserae also has an influence on the effect of the design or picture.
The time spent in laying mosaics was significant, as was the amount of material needed. In one recent reconstruction blue-grey limestone was used for the outline, hard chalk for the in-filling (while softer than limestone, it is a better white), tiles for red and a brownish-yellowish ironstone for the fourth colour. A three-metre square could involve over 36,000 cubes and would take at least a week to lay. It is suggested that tesserae making might have been a winter activity of the craftsmen, to build up the stock. Roman mosaics are expensive luxury items and, in modern terms, we should be thinking in terms of tens of thousands of pounds, depending upon the elaboration and size.
Mosaic construction involves setting tesserae into a bed of mortar. The direct method is most probable for many sites and elements. This involves the tesserae being set directly and freehand into the mortar without any preparation beforehand. Then there is the indirect method. The great advantage of this is that it can be prefabricated off-site. In the indirect method the tesserae are laid down in the required pattern in a sand bed, then strong pieces of material are glued onto the surface. This holds the pattern in place and the sheet could be rolled up and then laid down in the prepared situation in a mortar bed. Once this has set the glue can be dissolved with hot water, the sheet lifted off and the mosaic cleaned up
The designs in mosaics are interesting. There are similarities in design, motifs and themes between some mosaics. In some cases these are close enough to suggest workshops of mosaic designers and workers who operated in geographically restricted areas. These areas seem to hinge upon the presence of Roman administrative/political centres with the clients or patrons of the mosaic schools being the elite based on such centres.
However, rather than an ordered semi-centralised mosaic craft industry, it is probable that it was a bit of a 'mix and match', with mosaic designers, a few master craftsmen and more jobbing semi-skilled workmen all involved in the process at different levels. If you can only afford the cheaper mosaic workers, then their advice, as well as quality of execution would be different from that of a top-rate master mosaicist.
Where mosaic have clear themes in their decoration there has been much debate about the level of meanings that might be found in them. At one level there are 'simple' themes such as the presence of a drinking vessel. This might indicate that the room it was in was perhaps a dining-room. Bath-houses often have themes to do with water such as fish. The presence of Roman gods might be the owner of the villa to showing off his learning. On the other hand it has been argued that these themes might be related to late Roman mystery religions - it being argued that some villas were not only homes and public reception places but could also be the centre for groups of like-minded people joining in pagan and perhaps Christian worship.
The mosaics at Butser follow the excavation evidence.
Created 15 November 2003 - Updated 15 November 2003