Geometric Mosaics of Baetica

Abstract

With the present research we present a preview of an ambitious investigative project currently being carried out that pursues the study and analysis of all the geometric mosaics of Roman Baetica, most especially their composition and/or geometric design. Additionally, we offer a general view of the investigative course of action, the method, and the technique among other things, and an overview of the obtained results up to this point. The sheer quantity of floor mosaics obtained from within the territorial borders of ancient roman Baetica and the complexity of this assignment due to the utilized methodology make it so that our research advances rather slowly. Even so, we currently have more than half of the mosaics of Baetica catalogued and analyzed. The study´s progress and a rather large portion of the catalogue of geometric designs have been recently published and are available at: Vargas Vázquez 2014, íd. 2016. Throughout this research we hope to demonstrate the importance of the mosaic in the roman province of Baetica as a highly prized and demanded element, in both urban and rural environments. We seek to highlight the geometry of the mosaic expressed in its various and interesting forms, designs and/or compositions that are both simple and complex, and in many cases fruit of a marketed and evident creativity, singularity, and originality.

Keywords

• baetica
• geometric mosaic
• geometric design
• composition
• tesserae