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• 1 2024-02-15T12:14:37-08:00 Floor Mosaic Purpose 17 Why was the floor mosaic made plain 2024-02-29T11:36:18-08:00
  Maggie McCracken, Class of 2025, College of the Holy Cross

  Why was this floor mosaic made and how was it used?

  This piece was made as decoration of a private home. It brought color and design into the room, giving the residents and visitors cause to spend time in the room to admire it. It was also the flooring in that room. Image walking across it in bare feet and it cooling you and the room on a warm Mediterranean day. Also, instead of having packed dirt floors or carpets, the tiles served as a cleanable surface. That is its practical function but it also may have served as an announcement of wealth and had symbolic significance. Vines, a basket of grapes, and creatures especially peacocks are symbols of eternal abundance.
  
  Connection
  One of the main purposes of this object is to be the floor of a room. Similarly, but nearly a millennium later, the Spanish Paneled Ceiling is a form of domestic architecture. In both cases the part of the room was commissioned. Also, both utilize rhythmic motifs that appear in many mediums over the Medieval world.