Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Sunday, October 17. 2010

Some rich guy's floor: The Lod Mosaic

As I live and learn, I no longer view Roman civilization as "ancient." Old, but not ancient. Those folks were a lot like us, and lived a lot like us.


Roman floor mosaics and wall paintings were the usual fashionable decor of the time, and typical for the homes of the prosperous. Naturally, the floor mosaics are better preserved than wall mosaics or wall paintings.


In 2009 we were fortunate to make our way to the Bardo Museum in Tunis to see the world's largest collection of Roman mosaics. They have so many, you even walk on them to get from one display room to another. This was decor, mind you - not fine art.


The Lod mosaics are a recent find, very-well preserved. They are now displayed in NYC.


 


Here's the story of the Lod mosaics.

Posted by Bird Dog in History, Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 18:31 | Comments (2) | Trackback (1)

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Picked the wrong day to go to Manhattan
Memo to file: Do not drive to Manhattan on the day of the New York Marathon. You can't get there and, if you do get there, you cannot get out. Here's the Marathon map. We had an urge to see the Lod Mosaic and the Miro show at the Met. Just a quick visit,
Weblog: Maggie's Farm
Tracked: Nov 07, 21:04

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Mosaics are almost always taken away from the excavation site - even though you would think they are a permanent part of the historical building. That's because people say "Oh, I'll just take this one little stone, nobody will notice" - which destroys the mosaic over time.

We have seen this repeatedly in "minor" archaeological sites here in Israel, and elsewhere.

The other alternative is to cordon off the entire floor, or place it under plexiglass.

It's sad not to be able to see the mosiacs in situ, but it's the only way to preserve them.
#1 Ben David on 2010-10-18 02:07 (Reply)
You are correct in that. I have a half dozen squares from a mosaic floor in NE Spain that I acquired in about 1963.

The flip side of that one is that it was about 2/3 gone already. I didn't hurt it any worse than it already had been.

That's not to excuse myself, but the tiles that I took were already rolled out into the (dirt) walkway. I'll cheerfully send them back if everyone else does.
#1.1 jefferson101 on 2010-10-26 22:37 (Reply)

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