Abstract
The asàrotos òikos or “unswept floor” is a decorative theme found in Roman mosaics. The theme depicts scraps of food along other items, as if scattered across the room’s floor. According to Pliny the theme was first created by Sosus in Pergamon. The mosaic Pliny is referring to was never discovered; however, later Roman variations on this theme were discovered in both Italy and Tunisia. This article seeks to examine the changes made to the asàrotos òikos motif when it transitions from centre to periphery and from the first to the sixth century CE. This article explores the functions and meanings the theme has held in Roman thought during the first and second century CE, the change in perception and use of the theme during the third century in the provincial Roman towns of North Africa, the influence of the theme on Early Christian art – both in style and iconography, and the new meanings possibly assigned to the theme upon its later use in a Byzantine basilica.
Highlights
One of the less common themes of Roman mosaics is the asàrotos òikos or “unswept floor,” depicting refuse from the dinner table and other sweepings, scattered evenly on the room’s floor, as if they had been left there
The asàrotos òikos or “unswept floor” is a decorative theme found in Roman mosaics
This article seeks to examine the changes made to the asàrotos òikos motif when it transitions from centre to periphery and from the first to the sixth century CE
Summary
20-22, 24, 31-36. 8 Gauckler 1896: 213-214; Gauckler 1910: 132 n.388.3; Gauckler 1904: 2099 n.5; Parlasca 1963: 280; Foucher 1961: 297 n.4 pl.XVIII; Dunbabin 1978: 17 n.19. 9 Gauckler, 1910: 84 n.248 A4; Freshfield 1918: 145-146 fig.[39]; Renard 1956: 310; Blanchard-Lemée 1996: 73-78. Motif into late antiquity and Early Christian art asàrotos òikos emblema, the end of the first or the beginning of the second century AD, discovered at “Salonius House” of the third century CE in Oudna (Uthina), in the Bardo National Museum, Tunis, dimensions: 59.4x71.4x7.6cms. Paul Getty Museum, https://www.getty.edu/museum/conservation/partnerships/roman_mosaics/index.html asàrotos òikos emblema, the end of the first or the beginning of the second century AD, discovered at “Salonius House” of the third century CE in Oudna (Uthina), in the Bardo National Museum, Tunis, dimensions: 59.4x71.4x7.6cms. Sophisticated tastes, who could appreciate the many references and irony embedded in the theme In this elitist mode of viewing, artworks were not meant to be understood as merely depicting deities, heroes, myths or historical events.
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