Art in an Early Global World at WAM: A WAM/College of the Holy Cross CollaborationMain MenuAmanda Luyster17d39c1ecea88fb7ff282fe74a410b89478b8327Created by the Worcester Art Museum and the College of the Holy Cross, with the Worcester Public Schools AP Art History class of 2024. Financial support provided by the Medieval Academy of America and "Scholarship in Action" at Holy Cross.
Exacavation of a bath complex with mosaic floor in Antioch in 1938.
1media/Antioch mosaic floor_thumb.jpg2024-04-14T08:04:11-07:00Amanda Luyster17d39c1ecea88fb7ff282fe74a410b89478b8327448012Excavation photo showing Mosaic Floor with Animals from the Bath of Apolausis, Antioch, Syria, 1938, Antioch Expedition Archives, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, no. 4092.plain2024-08-18T09:32:33-07:00Zoe Zimmer726b0bce27fe407b566d2fd9122871e9e9ddcf50
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12024-03-28T13:30:38-07:00Where was the Floor Mosaic made?9google_maps2024-08-15T10:33:07-07:0036.134608, 36.140127Maggie McCracken, Class of 2025, College of the Holy Cross
This mosaic, like other mosaics, was installed in situ, in its permanent location. That means it was made in Daphne in the house it was found in centuries later. Daphne is a suburb of Antioch, today in south east Turkey (see map). A photograph of excavations in 1938 at a bath complex with mosaic floors in Antioch can be seen to the right. The WAM's floor mosaic with a border of vines and animals was in a private home rather than a public building. The materials, mostly limestone, could have been locally obtained. Limestone is a stone quarried in many locations, including the eastern Mediterranean area.
Early film footage of Princeton University's excavations at Antioch in 1932 are online. One of these films shows the process of raising a mosaic so that it could be moved; a similar process must have taken place when WAM's mosaic was lifted and moved.
