Maggie McCracken, Class of 2025, College of the Holy Cross



The mosaic is dated to 526-540 CE.
​​This was at the beginning of what is now termed the Medieval period, which spanned about 1,000 years starting in the mid 400s. The Roman Empire had recently fallen apart and the Byzantine Empire replaced it, but was centered farther east in Constantinople or present day Istanbul. The empires were similar in many ways and in fact many of the people of one became the people of the other. They most likely carried over similar technologies and daily ways of life. In the transition there were other overlaps and some adaptations. For example, religion was mixed, so even though Christianity was the religion of the early Byzantine Emperors (such as Justinian who ruled 527-565) older and outside ideas, stories, and symbols mingled with those from the Byzantine culture. The mosaic was the floor of a private home in Daphne, a suburb just outside of Antioch, a city in south Turkey near the border with Syria. Both the Roman and Byzantine cultures utilized mosaics. Since this is a floor mosaic, rather than a wall or ceiling, it is classified as Roman culture even though it was created in Byzantium.