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The mosaic pavements of the 4th insula at the university excavations at Philippoi

Αρχαιολογία

• Γούναρη, Εμμανουέλα Γ.

The article deals with the mosaic pavements that have been uncovered atthe house of the 4th insula east of the Roman Forum at Philippoi. The housebelongs to the 4th century AD and in the 5th century it was divided in twohouses, while in the 6th century part of the northern house was transformedinto a number of storerooms. The majority of the pavements belong to the4th century, because a coin of Licinios was found in the bedding of the mosaicin the antechamber of the small triclinium. Only the pavement in thenorthwestern room belongs to the second phase because the room wascreated when the house was expanded on to the arcade on the northern partof the insula. Most of the floors are black-and-white and their content isgeometric but in the great triclinium there is a polychrome figured mosaic.Their state of preservation is not always good, because they have suffereddamage mostly through the remodeling in the 6th century.In the small triclinium the floor is covered with a black-and-white all-overpattern composed of alternating crosses and octagons. This motive appearsin the beginning of the 4th century in the West and this must be one of theearliest examples in the East. In the antechamber of the triclinium only asmall part of the pavement is preserved. It is a band with intersecting circles,also in black-and-white but with filling motifs in black, red, yellow and white.This band surrounded the center of the floor, which must have been coveredwith an all-over pattern or with a grid of panels. The arcades in the greatatrium of the house were also covered with mosaics of which only the one inthe east arcade is preserved. The pavement is composed of three successivepanels. The pattern of the northern panel is the peltae, the second panel iscovered with a chessboard-pattern of chevrons and the third is covered with the key meander.The mosaic in the great triclinium is more complex and figured. It iscomposed of two decorative boarders that frame the main subject. The outerboarder has the same subject on the northern and southern side, of alternatingoctagons and squares, but on the western and eastern it has different subjects,on the western intersecting circles and on the eastern four-pointed stars. Onthe western side, in front of the entrance there is also an inscription referredto the owner of the house. The inner band has the same subject on all sides,the swastika-meander of spaced single-returned swastikas with a square ineach space. Inside these bands there is a band with a triple guilloche that frames the central subject. On the eastern side the floor is composed of a grid of panels each one containing a hunter or an animal, but on the other threesides the subject is the marine thiasos, with Nereids on sea monsters, dolphinsand putti. The center of the floor was destroyed by the 6th century fountainbut either the marine thiasos continued or it had a central panel, an«emblema».The floor in the northwestern room was composed of three zones fromwest to east, all in the black-and-white-technique. Each zone occupied all thelength of the room and was covered with an all-over pattern. The pattern ofthe eastern and western zones was the peltae and that of the central was theintersecting circles. A band with a row of lozenges boarded the central zoneand on the northern and southern side there was also a band with four-pointedstars. In these two bands for the filling motifs red and yellow were also used.From these patterns some are very common, as the intersecting circlesand the swastika-meander, but others are unusual in Greece during the EarlyChristian period, as the adjacent lozenges and the chessboard-pattern ofchevrons. All geometric mosaics are black-and-white, according thetechnique that was common during the roman imperial time throughout theempire, but the figured pavements in the great triclinium are polychrome.The mosaics of the house in the 4th insula at Philippoi show that theworkshop that made them was important. It had a long tradition and knewthe technique that was common during the imperial time but also knew thenew trends and patterns from the West. The existence of an important workshop is not surprising because Philippoi was a big city and there existed important workshops in other arts, such as sculpture.

• History and Archaeology

• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)
• Archaeological site location

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