Mosaics at the sepulchre / sepulchral mosaics. Burial and tesselated adornment in the Italic and Adriatic areas from the pagan beginnings to Christian Late Antiquity

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Achim Arbeiter
• Subject Area: Classical, Roman, Christian and Islamic Archaeology
• Term: from 2013 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 249155956

Particularly during Late Antiquity, sepulchral mosaics constituted an appreciated means of burial embellishment. At that time, the opus tessellatum tableaux which finished the coverings of tombs disposed in the ground provided the "classical" type of grave mosaics, whose overwhelming majority can be found in North Africa. While those African examples conveyed, in 1976, the essential subject matter of Noël Duval's groundbreaking remarks on this kind of monuments and while quite recently the Hispanic inventory, much narrower in comparison, has been the topic of a comprehensive study, there is, strangely, no overall treatise dedicated to the reservoir of funerary mosaics in Italy, in spite of the association of sepulchral domain and mosaic decoration having probably been introduced and developed precisely there.Our project which counts on the support assured by Prof. K. Dunbabin, a senior specialist in Ancient mosaics, aims chiefly at the establishment of a book of broad reference. The exhaustive compendium of sepulchral mosaic applications on floors, walls and vaults remains manageable since it comprises no more than approx. 150 items scattered over Italy and the adjacent Adriatic area. Today, those pieces are only to be traced individually or in small groups by means of consulting a large number of far-flung bibliographic titles. Their collective edition and research, unquestionably a desideratum, will allow us to disclose the variety they hold and the changes they underwent.Major attention will be paid to long-term developments, starting in the Late Republican age and trying, if possible, to circumscribe a specific stage within the formative process to which the emergence of the proper "grave mosaic" can be assigned. Another point concerns the transition from pagan to Christian circumstances: To what extent can we state persistencies of conventional patterns, and which traits correspond to the new faith? Accordingly, our endeavour will connect the domains of Classical and Christian Archaeology and thus acknowledge the continuity that presided transformation.Taking into account the spatial arrangements as well as the diverse social settings, our project is going to address the changing quantity and quality of mosaic adornment within the general furnishings of those last resting-places. The issue of mosaics gradually taking over the role of other genres is of special importance when it comes to mosaics placed at elevational positions (arcosolia, burial edifices).Ultimately, we are determined to examine stylistic and/or iconographic interactions among particular regions and territories, regarding notably the relationship between Italic and North African examples.The catalogue of sepulchral mosaics to be analysed deploys as broad a chronologic, geographic and formal range as to offer a very solid potential capable to promise intriguing scholarly results that are of great relevance to our knowledge of Ancient society.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants