West Meets East: Roman Mosaics of Ionia

Abstract

Tradition and innovation were for centuries characteristic elements of the cultural development of Ionia, that landscape of western Anatolia, whose intellectual achievements became groundbreaking for the European continent and beyond. Whereas there are dominant the contacts with Egypt, Mesopotamia and Persia in Greek times, with the taking over of the Pergamenian Kingdom by Rome and with the establishment of the proconsular province of Asia (129-126 v. Chr.) new trends were initiated from Italy which are reflected in workmanship and art. Taking charge of pavement-types in the facilities of public and private buildings is one of the phenomena that document the cultural exchange between West and East. New results of archaeological and historical research in recent decades in the urban centers of Ionia provide insight into the sociological related interlacing of Hellenistic and Italo-Roman shapes of technological and decorative design on floor coverings. In this paper will be discussed in the light of selected examples discovered in different ancient centers of western Anatolia the way of Greek pebble- and tessellated-mosaic to the Italo-Roman floor spaces.