page_title: Mosaics of Delos
section_title: Arrangement and location
hierarchical_section_title: Mosaics of Delos / Characteristics / Arrangement and location
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Theaterviertel auf Delos, Kykladen, Griechenland
context_page_description: The mosaics of Delos are a significant body of ancient Greek mosaic art. Most of the surviving mosaics from Delos, Greece, an island in the Cyclades, date to the last half of the 2nd century BC and early 1st century BC, during the Hellenistic period and beginning of the Roman period of Greece. Hellenistic mosaics were no longer produced after roughly 69 BC, due to warfare with the Kingdom of Pontus and subsequently abrupt decline of the island's population and position as a major trading center. Among Hellenistic Greek archaeological sites, Delos contains one of the highest concentrations of surviving mosaic artworks. Approximately half of all surviving tessellated Greek mosaics from the Hellenistic period come from Delos.
  The paved walkways of Delos range from simple pebble or chip-pavement constructions to elaborate mosaic floors composed of tesserae. Most motifs contain simple geometric patterns, while only a handful utilize the opus tessellatum and opus vermiculatum techniques to create lucid, naturalistic, and richly colored scenes and figures.
context_section_description: While some mosaics have been unearthed from religious sanctuaries and public buildings, most of them were found in residential buildings and private homes. The majority of these houses possess an irregular-shaped floor plan, while the second largest group were built with a peristyle central courtyard. Simple mosaics were usually relegated to normal walkways, whereas rooms designated for receiving guests featured more richly decorated mosaics. However, only 25 houses of Delos feature opus tessellatum mosaics and only eight houses possess the opus vermiculatum-style motifs and figured scenes. The vast majority of decorated floors feature only simple geometric patterns. It is also more common for opus vermiculatum and opus tessellatum mosaics to be found in upstairs rooms than on the ground floors of ancient Delian homes. With the exception of the House of Dionysos and House of the Dolphins, the courtyards of peristyle homes in Delos feature only floral and geometric motifs.
caption: A Delian mosaic bearing the central rosette motif surrounded by a single-wave border pattern[25]
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-HX9V", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2014:09:23 09:33:38", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2328", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[37, 23, 13219/250]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[25, 16, 51/1000]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSAltitude": "2929/1000", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[10, 18, 11]", "GPS GPSStatus": "A", "GPS GPSMeasureMode": "3", "GPS GPSDOP": "14161/10000", "GPS GPSSpeedRef": "K", "GPS GPSSpeed": "491/500", "GPS GPSTrackRef": "T", "GPS GPSTrack": "34197/100", "GPS GPSImgDirectionRef": "M", "GPS GPSImgDirection": "147", "GPS GPSMapDatum": "WGS-84", "GPS GPSDate": "2013:09:24", "GPS GPSDifferential": "0", "Image GPSInfo": "17416", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0]", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail ImageDescription": "", "Thumbnail Make": "SONY", "Thumbnail Model": "DSC-HX9V", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail DateTime": "2013:09:24 13:18:09", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "18072", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9932", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "9", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:09:24 13:18:09", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:09:24 13:18:09", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "3453/320", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "55/16", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "21/4", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4464", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3349", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "17342", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "7DA51E01C15A46F8AB047012B02F546B", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[107/25, 1712/25, 33/10, 59/10]", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4128"}