New Mosaic	Volume 50 Number 5, September/October 1997
by Giovanni Lattanzi

Image of Neptune from newfound mosaic (Giovanni Lattanzi) [LARGER IMAGE]

Alate first-century A.D. mosaic discovered in the town of Vasto, in Abruzzo, may be the largest one of Roman date in Italy. So far 860 square feet have been brought to light, but the excavator, Andrea Staffa, the archaeological superintendent of Abruzzo, says it may cover 1,200 square feet. Discovered on the floor of a bathhouse, it has black-and-white images of Neptune, another god riding on a dragon's back, and a goddess, as well as geometrical patterns. In the 1950s another large mosaic with images of fish and marine animals was found nearby.

© 1997 by the Archaeological Institute of America www.archaeology.org/9709/newsbriefs/mosaic.html

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