The Lopen Mosaic

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London towards the end of the Roman Empire seems to have been in such dire economic straits that it could not support a full-time mosaic workshop to provide floors for its dining rooms and baths, a new study suggests. Instead, provincial mosaicists from Somerset were called in to make a large pavement discovered in the City, one of the few known from the 4th century. 
The demand for mosaics in London was not sufficient to sustain local groups, Steven Cosh and David Neal reported last month, and the Old Broad Street mosaic found in the 19th century in the heart of Roman Londinium was almost a duplicate of one found more recently at Lopen, near Yeovil. This in turn was one of a number of “South Western Group” mosaics that seem to have been made by craftsmen based at Ilchester, also in Somerset, which have been found in the town and the vicinity. 

The Ilchester school specialised in mosaics with mythological scenes, rather than just depictions of deities: half of such scenes known from Roman Britain were found within 20 miles of the town. Among the most famous is that from Low Ham, with scenes from Virgil’s Aeneid, possibly based on the owner’s illustrated manuscript, the researchers surmise. There are also hints of the arrival of Christianity in Britain: the famous Hinton St Mary mosaic has what is generally accepted as a portayal of Christ at its centre. 

The Ilchester school was a spin-off from a long- established centre of mosaicists at Cirencester, and a coin of Valentinian I found below one of the floors shows that they were operating after AD364. Mr Cosh and Dr Neal are publishing their meticulous large-scale drawings of 444 of these southwestern works of late Romano-British art, including examples from as far west as Cornwall, in the second volume of Roman Mosaics of Britain, which will shortly be available from the Society of Antiquaries at Burlington House or from the publishers, Illuminata, at Barham in Kent.

Click on the panel below to go to the mosaic site.

This panel is a reconstruction of part of the mosaic using loose tesserae from the original.

It is set into the floor of the church.

Photo by John Wynds