Ε΄ (5th) Ephoreia of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities

Four rooms of a roman villa decorated with mosaics were found south of the citadel of Sparta. In room A survived three mosaic panels, two of them with geometrical compositions (guilloches, lozenges forming crosses and intersecting circles forming petals) and one with a figural scene (a half-naked man and a child). Room B was decorated with nine panels consisting mainly of geometrical themes. In the central panel, a composition with geometrical motifs frames circles which feature fish, a woman reclined on a couch, a fishing cupid on a dolphin. A theatrical mask is depicted in another panel of the same floor. In rooms C and D, the geometric compositions feature mainly lozenges, star-like motifs and Solomon knots. The mosaics are of good quality, they are made with small tesserae in warm colours and they date to the middle of the 3rd c. They were conserved in the Ephoreia’s laboratory.