Happenings 03
COLLECTIONS / Best of Museum

Fragment of a mosaic floor from the nave of a basilica

From three separate excavations came to light parts of a mosaic floor in the nave of a paleochristian basilica, next to the byzantine church of Taxiarhes in Ano Poli. Based on the preserved mosaics, the nave of the basilica was decorated with panels that consisted of diverse compositions with four-leaf peltes (type of light shield), rotae sericae (wheels) bearing cross patterns and a winding shot with grapevine and ivy leaves. The main theme consists of panels with interlace. The central panel consisted of two vessels flanked by two deer and two peacocks in a natural background. Out of the four smaller preserved panels, the one does not survive, the other two depict birds, probably a partridge and a duck walking in a natural background and the fourth grapevine and grape. All the above symbolic themes refer to the christian paradise.

Code

ΒΨ 23

Type

Mosaic detached

Chronology

End of 5th c.

Dimensions

Length: 4,30m., width: 2,40 m.

Material of Construction

Marble and tile tesserae on plaster

Origin

Thessaloniki, Ano Poli, 2 & 41 Moreas street, 49, Moreas-Mouson street