Abstract
Recent excavations at Herod the Great’s Promontory Palace at Caesarea Maritima (Israel) have revealed a series of glass mosaic fragments found out of their original context but assumed to be part of a decorative mosaic in the palace’s triclinium, or dining room. This paper argues that these glass fragments were a part of a triclinium wall mosaic and can be dated to the time of Herod the Great. Roman governors used the palace after Herod’s death and during the late 1st and early 2nd centuries CE, altering the original Herodian décor and making dating of the ex-situ glass fragments difficult. Analysis of coeval Roman examples of mosaic and glasswork along with an analysis of Herod’s own architectural aspirations provide ample evidence that these fragments can be dated to the Herodian period. As such, these fragments are some of the earliest examples of glass mosaics in Judea and illustrate the influence of Roman art and design with Herodian material culture.
How to Cite
Meyer, A., (2015) “Herodian Glass Mosaics: A Study of the Promontory Palace’s Triclinium Mosaics”, Capstone, The UNC Asheville Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship 28(1).
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