Photo Gallery: Antioch Mosaics

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Mosaic of a funerary symposium, dating from the fourth century AD. It once decorated a room in the Antioch Necropolis (cemetary).

This mosaic was the only figured mosaic found in the cemetaries of Antioch. It was found in a small chamber surrounded by tombs. What may be loculi or perhaps benches for meals around the perimeter of the room were found in the excavation. The funerary banquet was a common scene for Roman tomb decorations. This mosaic is a compelling combination of reality and aspiration: banquets were the centerpiece of Roman rituals surrounding death, but the feast also represented the eternal bounty of the afterlife.

In the mosaic, two women recline on a curved couch (stibadium) decorated with stripes of red and green. A third woman, holding a scroll, sits on a low stool to the left of the dining couch. This is identified as the deceased. Behind her, two women enter with wineskins slung over their shoulders. Through a wooden door at the far right a servant girl has just entered the room and offers a jug and basin for washing hands. The multilobed, sigma-shaped table is of a type popular in the eastern Mediterraneans; in fact, one like it was excavated from a house in Daphne. The hanging curtain (parapetasma) fastened to the back wall by circular bosses recalls similar devices used to frame deceased couples on Roman sarcophagi.

Above the woman on the couch is the inscription "Mnemosyne" and on the right is the word AIWXIA, which could be an alternate/corrupt spelling of EYWXIA (banquet). Mnemosyne may be the name of the woman who owned the tomb chamber, or it could refer to a group of women in a funerary collegium who used the space for regular funerary banquets. In the latter case, "Mnemosyne" may be understood more generally as "Memory."

A wide geometric border punctuated by ten personifications surrounded this central scene. The corners were anchored by the turning points of the year, the Tropai. These busts were accompanied by standing personifications of the Seasons (Winter and Winter Solstice, the only two extant, are at the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College). To the left and right of the central banquet scene were two personifications, one of Agora (the Marketplace), the other of Eukarpia (Fertility), which are in the Worcester Art Museum. Thus the funerary banquet was framed by time - seasonal, calendarical, and eternal.

Late fourth century AD, Antioch, Necropolis (sector 24-L). Limestone, marble and glass, 5'10" X 8'10". Worcester Art Museum, inv. 1936.26. Information from Antioch: The Lost Ancient City, pp. 121-22.