1. Pebbled Mosaics

The mosaics of Priene belong to the Hellenistic period and are made from pebbles or polygonal tesserae. The first category includes the floor revealed in the so-called “Sacred House” (House 22). The discovery of the upper part of a marble statue identified with Alexander the Great has led to the assumption that the building was a sanctuary, the “Alexandreion”, reported in a 2nd c. BC inscription from Priene.¹ The mosaic lies in a room to the east of the building’s courtyard and consists of white and blue-black pebbles, while a wave is formed on its periphery. The eastern part of the floor is interrupted by a posterior wall and, as a result, only part of the mosaic is visible. A marble table and a circular stone pedestal, possibly belonging to a statue, were also found in the same room. These features support the assumption that the room may have been a devotional space, probably dated to the first half of the 3rd c. BC, in any case earlier than the second half of the 2nd c. BC, when a fire broke out destroying the entire western part of the city.²

Another pebbled mosaic has been found in a room of the so-called “House 8Α”, dated in the 3rd c. BC. The room is to the south of the building’s courtyard. The mosaic covers the central part of the room and is surrounded by a step 2 cm high and 1 m wide. The step served as a base accommodating up to seven couches. This indicates that the room was an andron. The relatively large size of the room implies that it was not a private space, but was hired to individuals or clubs for holding symposiums.³ The mosaic was decorated with plain, geometrical patterns, including a black external band and a few concentric central shapes. A black circle and a black square, including an inscribed white full disc, are successively depicted from the periphery to the centre of the mosaic.

2. Mosaics from Polygonal Tesserae