2016.53.4: Mosaic with geometric design: fragment with inscription (four of four fragments from a floor)

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2016.53.4

Title

Mosaic with geometric design: fragment with inscription (four of four fragments from a floor)

Classification

Mosaics

Work Type

mosaic

Date

2nd-3rd century CE

Places

Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Samaria (Palestine)

Period

Roman Imperial period

Culture

Roman

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/226979

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Stone tesserae

Dimensions

47 cm h x 95.3 cm w x 5.1 cm d
(18 1/2 x 36 3/4 x 2 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Stadium Building at Samaria/Sebaste, excavated; by the Joint Expedition to Samaria (Harvard University, Palestine Exploration Fund, Hebrew University Jerusalem, British Academy, the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem) (1931), dispersed; to Fogg Museum of Art, 1931.

NB: Excavated under the authority of the British Department of Antiquities, Jerusalem. Transferred to the Fogg Museum of Art in 1931 and accessioned in 2016.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Joint Expedition to Samaria, 1931-1933

Accession Year

2016

Object Number

2016.53.4

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

One of four fragments of a large, square floor pavement with a geometric design (2016.53.2, 2016.53.3, 2016.53.1) and inscription. This black and white mosaic fragment depicts a partial Greek inscription reading EUTROPIOU. The letters are framed within a tabula ansata, the rectangular tablet shape with dovetail handles. Here, only the right handle is preserved.

Commentary

This mosaic was found in a public space: the north colonnade of the Stadium at ancient Samaria (1). The Greek inscription may name a patron responsible for funding the mosaic or the building in which it was located. Inscriptions sometimes occur in public or religious buildings to attest to a patron’s responsibility for the creation of a pavement or larger building project. The text is most often in Greek or Latin although in later pavements of the Syria-Palestine region it may be in Hebrew or Aramaic, most often in religious buildings (2). In some instances, the inscriptions become the central element of the pavement, often at the doorway or threshold into the space (3).

1. J. Crowfoot and K. Kenyon, The Buildings at Samaria (London, 1942) p. 49.

2. For a list of inscription types in Palestinian mosaics see R. and A. Ovadiah, Hellenistic, Roman and Early Byzantine Mosaic Pavements in Israel, (L’Erma di Bretschneider, 1987), p. 183.

3. For example, the Hebrew inscription of the Rehov synagogue in the Beth Shean Valley which contains 29 lines of text and is the largest known mosaic inscription in Israel, in R. Talgam, Mosaics of Faith: Floors of Pagans, Jews, Samaritans, Christians, and Muslims in the Holy Land (Jerusalem, 2014), p. 329-332, fig. 414.

Publication History

• John W. Crowfoot, Samaria Excavations: The Stadium, Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement (1933), vol. 65, pp.62-73
• Michael Avi-Yonah, Mosaic Pavements of Palestine, Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities in Palestine (1934), vol. 3, pp. 26-73
• John W. Crowfoot, Kathleen Kenyon, and E.L. Sukenik, The Buildings at Samaria (London, 1942)

Verification Level