The mosaic from the building (church?) on the eastern fringes of Tel Shiqmona

The mosaic that was discovered in a building, which was probably a church, in Area D/E. The tesserae are limestone, occurring in shades of white, black, turquoise, red and yellow. The central carpet is surrounded by c. 17 white rows populated with small black rhombuses; the rows are enclosed within a frame consisting of a single black row. The pattern inside the frame is a sort of rope coiled in two directions. The pattern of the central carpet is one of intertwined circles that from diagonal spindles and concave squares, with squares inside the latter. The colors in the pattern of intertwined circles are muted, whereas the colors of the surfaces between the spindles and the squares are accentuated, thus forming a motif of adjacent Maltese crosses. The remains of two rows of crosses were preserved from the pattern, with three crosses in the western row and two in the eastern row. Squares decorated with different patterns appear between the crosses in the two rows, three of which were preserved in the western row and six, in the eastern row. The mosaic pavement is ascribed to the third phase of the building. The mosaic should be dated to the beginning of the seventh century CE, based on the ceramic finds. (fig. 1). (Extrait du résumé anglais.)