Early Roman Mosaic Materials in Southern Britain, with Particular Reference to Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum): A Regional Geological Perspective

Abstract

Mosaics represent one of the best known art forms in the Roman world. Their geometric patterns and designs, their figurative images, and their development through time have been extensively studied, and corpora have been assembled for certain provinces of the Empire. In Britain, the study of the surviving mosaics has led to the identification of certain late Roman ‘schools’ (stylistic groupings) of mosaics on the basis of shared stylistic attributes. Now it will be possible to place this work in a fuller context as the long-awaited corpus of all Roman mosaics known from Britain begins to appear. However, whereas the late mosaics undoubtedly show considerable regional distinctness, the position of the earliest work that pioneered the form in Britain is far less clear, perhaps because mosaics of the first and early second century A.D. are fewer and have excited much less interest.