King David gets a facelift

A mosaic from a 6th-century synagogue in Gaza representing King David seated and playing his harp and surrounded by animals has been restored a second time. This pavement was discovered in 1965 and originally published in a black and white photograph, but when the pavement came into the possession of Israeli archaeologists, it was found that David’s head and one hand had disappeared. An initial restoration of the pavement made in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem proved unsuccessful, and a second restoration took place more recently when the museum’s galleries were rearranged. Computer technology, especially the use of Photoshop to correct the distortion of the missing parts as seen in the original photograph, was essential to the new conservation efforts.