Aphrodisias (Byzantium), Mosaics

1. Descriptions – Chronology

1.1. The Complex to the North of the Temple of Aphrodite

The mosaics in the ‘Complex to the North of the Temple of Aphrodite’ include the opus sectile of the passage and the mosaics with geometric motifs in the northern and southern room. There is also a hunting scene in the southern room and a figure considered the personification of a season in the northern room. A coin of 375‑392 discovered in the southern room marks the terminus ante quem for all three floors. After comparing them with mosaics in Antioch and Sardis, the main researcher Sheila Campbell dated them to the years 350‑375.1

1.2. Bishop’s Palace

Mosaics have been discovered in the northern arched room and the two rooms of the western side of the so-called ‘Bishop’s Palace’. The decoration of the first room follows the technique of opus sectile, while the two other rooms are decorated with geometric motifs. These mosaics, due to their similarity in style with those of the previous group, are dated to 350‑375. Two fragments from a wall painting representing the Charites (the Three Graces) and a Nike were also found.2

1.3. Four-Gate House

Mosaics with geometric motifs were found in the northern room of the ‘Four-Gate House’ of Aphrodisias, while scenes with animals were found in the southern room: a lion with a bull, a tiger with a snake, a dog with a hare and a bird, a leopard with a deer. They are dated to the early 5th century due to their thematical affinity with mosaics of the same period in Sardis.

1.4. Roman Basilica

The ‘Roman Basilica’ is decorated with geometric mosaics, which, thanks to the discovery of an inscription, were dated to the years of Flavius Constantine, between 365 and 380.

1.5. The Priest’s House

Τhe mosaics of the ‘Priest’s House’ were found in seven different spaces and all consist of geometric compositions. They are dated to the mid- or the late 5th century due to their themes and style.

2. Iconographical Comments

According to the analysis of Ernst Kitzinger regarding the themes of the late antiquity mosaic decorations,3 the first early Christian mosaics, dated to c. 300, cover small areas and consist of purely geometric patterns arranged in panels. In the late 4th century the first geometric "carpets" appear, with their geometric pattern covering the entire floor. In the 5th-6th century zoomorphic representations are preferred, with the artists reproducing scenes from the wildlife. According to their iconography, the mosaic "carpets" of Aphrodisias have been dated to the transitional phase between the geometric compositions and the scenes with animals. Some motifs that we find in the mosaics of Aphrodisias, such as the swastika and Solomon’s knot, probably served as apotropaic symbols.4 The repetitive presence of the same motifs on the floor probably aimed to multiply the power of these magic symbols, so that the faithful would be better protected. The zoomorphic themes of the mosaics in Aphrodisias belong to the same spiritual and artistic atmosphere as do the literary works of the early Byzantine period, in which scenes of the Creation dominate and the animals assume allegorical meanings. The symbolic and allegorical character of the animals is present in mosaic representations as well.5




1. Campbell, S., The mosaics of Aphrodisias in Caria. The corpus of mosaic pavements in Turkey (Toronto 1991).

2. Campbell, S., ‘Signs of prosperity in the decoration of some 4th5th c. buildings at Aphrodisias’, JRA Supplement 20 (1996), pp. 187199.

3. Kitzinger, E., ‘Stylistic developments in pavement mosaics in the Greek East from the Age of Constantine to the Age of Justinian’, in La mosaique greco-romaine: Colloque International du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (Paris 1965), pp. 341352.

4. Maguire, H., ‘Magic and geometry in Early Christian floor mosaics and textiles’, JOB 44 (1994), pp. 265274.

5. Maguire, H., Earth and Ocean: The terrestrial world in Early Byzantine art (Pennsylvania 1987).