Floor mosaic of deer walking
Medium:Limestone tesserae
Geography: Eastern Mediterranean, possibly Syria
Date: 6th century AD
Period: Early Byzantine period
Object number: 983.219.4
Credit Line: Gift of Dr. Elie Borowski
Gallery Location:Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Gallery of Rome and the Near East
DescriptionMosaics were found in many domestic, civic, and religious buildings throughout the Roman world. They served to decorate walls and ceilings, but also functioned as attractive and hardwearing floors in high-traffic areas. Most of the mosaics in the ROM’s collection were in fact floor pavements. In this display case, four of them are located on the floor to demonstrate how they would have been seen in Antiquity.
