The Cultural Mosaic Under the Tesserae: Local Identity in the Iconography and Compositions of Roman Floor Mosaics

Author

Taylor Carr-Howard, Scripps CollegeFollow

Graduation Year

2017

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Art History

Reader 1

Michelle Berenfeld

Reader 2

Mary MacNaughton

Terms of Use & License Information

Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

© 2017 Taylor Carr-Howard

Abstract

This thesis examines the way the medium of mosaics was adapted locally by the cities of Antioch (modern Antakya, Turkey) and Thysdrus (modern El Djem, Tunisia) during the second and third centuries CE. Compositional differences indicate different conceptions of the medium and locally specific iconography draws on viewers’ local knowledge and experience to situate the city and its inhabitants within the broader context of the Roman empire.

Recommended Citation

Carr-Howard, Taylor, "The Cultural Mosaic Under the Tesserae: Local Identity in the Iconography and Compositions of Roman Floor Mosaics" (2017). Scripps Senior Theses. 1052.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1052