Experts unravel the mysteries of this breathtaking 2,000-year-old mosaic depicting Alexander the Great in battle

A famous Roman mosaic depicting Alexander the Great reveals new insights into antiquity. As part of an ongoing restoration, researchers have discovered that the stones of the artwork came from quarries across Europe and North Africa.

The 2000 year old mosaic comes from the ruins of Pompeiithe ancient Roman city that was buried under volcanic ash in 79 CE after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Archaeologists found the artwork on the floor of an extravagant mansion in Pompeii known as the House of the Faun in 1831. About ten years later it was moved to the National Archaeological Museum of Napleswhere it has been housed ever since.

According to the museumthe ‘fragile’ mosaic has undergone a long, complex conservation process since 2020. The first phase focused on research using non-invasive methods, including video microscopy, infrared thermography And portable x-ray fluorescence. This is evident from a study published this week in the journal PLOS Oneresearchers identified ten colors of tesserae in the mosaic – including shades of red, yellow, green, blue, pink, white, black, gray and brown – as well as a variety of ‘micro-textures’ that were ‘masterfully combined to enhance artistic effects’.

The mosaic depicts a battle: surrounded by a mess of fighting cavalry, Alexander wields a long spear. Opposing him is another leader often identified as the Persian king Darius III. The mosaic probably shows the Battle of Issus in 333 BCE, in which Alexander took on the Persian leader and emerged victorious. From Persia, Alexander continued his conquest to the east. By the end of his life, in 323 BCE, the Macedonian king had acquired an empire stretched from the Mediterranean to modern-day Pakistan.

“By any standard, the Alexander Mosaic is one of the most impressive works of art from antiquity and the most important mosaic from the Roman period,” the researchers write in the study. “The image of Alexander depicted in the mosaic’s central scene is perhaps the most iconic and well-known representation of his face in ancient art.”

Mosaics were a blooming art form in the Roman Empire, where artisans pioneered the processing of tesserae (cubes of stone, ceramic and glass). Today they are among the best preserved pieces of Roman art.

The researchers found that the mosaic’s creators “paid particular attention to Alexander’s face.” Living Scienceby Laura Geggel. Its face is made up of different shades of pink tesserae, each with their own “luminescence effects,” according to the study. This variation is likely related to the unique chemical composition of the stones.

On the mosaic’s surface, experts discovered natural wax and plaster, likely left over from previous conservation efforts. The researchers sorted the mosaic’s tesserae material into four main groups: vitreous (vitreous), calcium carbonate-based, silicate-based, and a combination of the last two. Based on similarities between the tesserae and the mining areas around the Mediterranean, they say the rocks could have come from Italy, Greece, the Iberian Peninsula and Tunisia.

Some white tesserae resemble Marmor Lunensis—a marble extracted from quarries in the Apuan Alps in Italy, which the Romans mined between the first century BC and the third century AD. The light pink stones could be that Breccia Nuvolata marble, found throughout the Mediterranean, while the darker ones can be shades of pink Marmo Rosafrom Portugal.

The restoration process is still ongoing. As the authors of the study write: “The combination of these new data, together with information obtained from a new instrumental research campaign planned for the mosaic surface in the final stages of restoration work, will further our knowledge of this superlative work of ancient art enrich. .”