30 x 26” marble, 3rd century AD, Tunisia.

3rd century marble 13x18.”

Ancient Roman banquet rooms often depicted the remains of feasts scattered around the floor. It is thought that the Romans copied a famous Greek artist's original floor (Sosos of Pergamon), which has not survived. The images on the  Roman floors were micromosaic, with individual marble pieces as small as 1/4"  and sometimes less.

This is a detail from a II Century Tunisian mosaic of Diana the Huntress.

Genuine antiquities (the bronze cross is 11th Cent. from Asia Minor and the Roman coins are 4th and 5th Cent.) are embedded in a mosaic inspired by those in the Galla Placida chapel and other mosaics in Ravenna, Italy.

Inspired by the "Beware of the Dog" mosaics often found at the entrance to homes in Pompeii, II Century.

Detail from the VI Century Basilica St. Vitale, Ravenna, Italy. The Empress Theodora was an Egyptian woman (with various rumors attached) who charmed the Emperor Justinian becoming his wife. She is said to have been an advocate for women's rights, unusual in this Byzantine era.

Inspired by I st. Century encaustic portrait by Greek or Roman artists in Egypt. Encaustic is a wax material infused with pigments having great endurance.

Image based on V Century floor, Tabgha, Israel.  Title from Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem.

Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower—but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.

Tennyson composed the poem in 1863 by the wishing well at Waggoners Wells.[

From VI Century Nirim synagogue, Ma'on, Israel. The original is a marble mosaic, probably embedded in the floor.

This seven candle menorah is from a VI Century Nirim synagogue, Ma'on, Israel. Seven branches were reserved exclusively for menorahs in the temple.