Glass

This essay discusses the presence and distribution of glass in Byzantium and the different ways in which glass was used. Glassware, employed for the preservation and display of goods and above all as tableware, was in continuous use in throughout Byzantine history, and is found at both urban and rural sites. The greatest part of the glass produced during these eleven centuries was used in architectural decoration, that is, wall and floor mosaics, opus sectile, and as window glazing. Glass was also widely used in the production of jewelry and for the embellishment of metal jewelry and objects.

Mosaics

Although frequently identified as a Byzantine medium, mosaic was used throughout the Mediterranean, Christian and Islamic, during the Middle Ages. This chapter traces that use, highlighting key areas for research including questions of manufacture and possible reasons for mosaic’s popularity and longevity. It begins with a brief discussion about the making of mosaics and of the glass for mosaics, as well as the relationship between wall and floor mosaics, moving to explore a chronology of mosaic-making in Byzantium and beyond in two blocks, from Late Antiquity to the ninth century and from the ninth century to the fifteenth. In the process, apparent peaks and troughs in the quantities of mosaics manufactured are brought to the fore.

The Architecture and Decoration Varieties of Khirbat al Mafjar

The 8th century desert palace Khirbat al Mafjar remains (in present day Jordan) is a matchless specimen of Umayyad luxurious lifestyle and their perception for art. The palace is amalgamation of variety of decoration type like carved and moulded stucco, stone relief and birds and figure sculpture and also frescos paintings. It is famous for its well-preserved floor mosaics. Although credited to caliph Hisham (r. AD 724– 743) but his successor and also his nephew named as Al Walid II probably built this palace (r. AD 743– 44) . However after five years Al-Walid’s died and, the palace was smashed due to an earthquake. This article discusses the building designed structure and the ornamentation and decoration varieties used in the architecture. Though this palace is famous for its mosaics but this paper covers its main parts of architecture and all types of varieties. It’s an explorative study collected from historical data, literature and excavation reports and in the end it concludes that this palace is unique not only for its varieties but also the symbolic meanings of elements in the decoration. These symbols have some logic or reason of representing in the palace that explains the power and authority of the owner. In other words not just depiction of luxurious lifestyle but the aesthetics and symbolic both designs are the parts of this Umayyad era building.

The image of a city in the mosaics of the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem

Аниконическая иконография церковных соборов в виде архитектурных мотивов, которая представлена в мозаиках базилики Рождества Христова в Вифлееме 1169 г., встречается сравнительно редко. Известно несколько ее примеров в византийских и западноевропейских памятниках IXX вв. В рукописях IXXII вв. встречается комбинация архитектурных композиций и антропоморфных изображений участников соборов. Аниконические мотивы в Вифлееме соответствовали не только обращению к древней программе мозаик самой базилики при реставрации XII в. или идеологии и политике крестоносцев, но и традиции нефигуративного искусства византийского мира, существовавшей вплоть до XII в. Иконография городов в топографических напольных мозаиках Иордании получила особое распространение в VIII в., в чем очевидна связь с актуальностью аниконического искусства именно в этот период. Закономерно, если циклы напольных мозаик Святой земли послужили одним из источников монументальных мозаик базилики в Вифлееме. Aniconic iconography of Church Councils in the form of architectural and urban motifs, which is represented in the mosaics of the northern wall of the central nave of the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem in 1169, is relatively rare. Several examples of such type are known in Byzantine and West European monuments of the 9th 10th centuries. A combination of architectural compositions and anthropomorphic images of church fathers, emperors, participants of Councils could be found in manuscripts of 9th 12th centuries. The aniconic motifs in Bethlehem corresponded not only to the appeal to the early mosaic program of the basilica during the restoration of the 12th century or to the ideology and politics of the crusaders, but also to the tradition of non-figurative art of the Byzantine world, which existed until the 12th century. The Eastern Christian Monophysite tradition and Islamic monuments could also have an influence on the aniconic motifs in the mosaics of the Bethlehem basilica. The iconography of cities in topographic floor mosaics on the territory of Jordan became especially widespread in the 8th century some of the monuments were created during the period of the formation of iconoclasm, as in Umm al-Rasas and Main, which clearly shows the relation with the relevance of anionic art at that time. It is quite natural if such cycles of floor mosaics of the Holy Land served as one of the sources of aniconic monumental mosaics on the northern wall of the central nave in the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Bird images in the mosaics of Late Antique basilicas in the town of Sandanski (Blagoevgrad Region, SW Bulgaria)

This paper presents and analyses for the first time all data on bird images of two Late Antique basilicas of the Roman period (5th-6th c. AD) in the town of Sandanski (SW Bulgaria). A total of eight species have been recognised on the floor mosaics of both basilicas: Anas platyrhynchos, Bucephala clangula, Dendrocygna viduata, Nettapus coromandelianus, Marmaronetta angustirostris, Porphyrio porphyrio, Psittacula krameri, and Sypheotides indicus. Exotic birds of Palaeotropic (Ethiopian) and Indomalayan (Oriental) distribution confirm once again the active ancient Roman contacts with East and Trans-Saharan Africa and the Hindustan Peninsula.

Archeological tourism as a segment of cruise tourism offer on the example of Roman mosaics sites in Risan in the Bay of Kotor

Cruise tourism, most often, is related to the landing of a ship in one or more ports, i.e. tourist destinations, in which passengers and crew go ashore. In the richness of the offer that a port in the Adriatic and the Mediterranean offers to cruise tourists is certainly the part that can be called: culture, tradition, monuments, by which the areas on the map of world cruises are recognized. The port of Kotor, which is the main port for the reception of cruise ships in Montenegro, has for years achieved significant results in the reception and dispatch of cruise ships. Thus, through the port of Kotor, during 2018, 412 ships carrying 492, 475 passengers visited Montenegro. The paper, through the example of the Roman Mosaic site in Risan in the Bay of Boka Kotorska, analyses the effects of organized visits by tourists from cruise ships arriving to Kotor, and the importance and value of archeological sites in tourist cruising offer and the interaction between business and culture. The archeological site in Risan with the remains of the Roman Villa Urbana with preserved floor mosaics from the 2nd century represents a significant and attractive segment in the offer and development of archeological tourism as a subset of cultural tourism.

Wall Paintings in the House of Aion at Nea Paphos

This paper studies a collection of painted plaster fragments excavated between 1984 and 1989 in the northern part of the so-called House of Aion, that is, three small rooms (Nos 3, 13, 14, 15 and 7). The architectural context of these finds and their dating is first recapitulated: the house was constructed in the second half of the 4th century only to be demolished by a strong earthquake at the end of the century or the beginning of the following one. Most of the plaster pieces were small and of little significance in terms of the remaining colors, but a few from Room 7 were sufficiently well preserved to support a reconstruction of parts of five figural images (three muses, Apollo and a mask) and determine their hypothetical position in this room. Parallels, in painting and floor mosaics, range from Ephesos and Kos in the east to Vichen (Luxembourg) in the west. Based on the iIconographic identification, the 4th century AD Muses from Paphos could be recognized as: a standing Thalia holding a mask, a seated Urania and a standing Euterpe with a double flute in her hand, accompanied by Apollo holding a lyre. Together they constituted typical decoration of a Mediterranean Roman house, common from the early Empire through late antiquity.