The Römisch-Germanisches Museum was constructed on the site of a 3rd-century villa. The mosaic was excavated on this site in 1941 and the museum was built around it. The finest work of its kind in northern Europe, the mosaic adorned the dining room of a Roman villa. It is made of over a million pieces of limestone, ceramics and glass and covers an area of about 70 square meters. It depicts a drunken Dionysus, god of wine, surrounded by Cupid, Pan, dancers, satrys and vignettes of the delights of the table. Its incredible state of preservation is due to the protective covering it received from the burned-out remains of the villa falling on it when sacked by a Germanic tribe in the 4th century.