Roman Domus
Encyclopedia
The Roman domus is a Roman-era house just outside the walls of Mdina
Mdina
Mdina, Città Vecchia, or Città Notabile, is the old capital of Malta. Mdina is a medieval walled town situated on a hill in the centre of the island. Punic remains uncovered beyond the city’s walls suggest the importance of the general region to Malta’s Phoenician settlers. Mdina is commonly...

, Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

. The building dates back to the last half of 2nd century BC. As in other buildings of the same period, its pavements incorporate mosaic compositions which are comparable to those of Pompeii
Pompeii
The city of Pompeii is a partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Along with Herculaneum, Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning...

 and Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

. This museum was one of the very first to be opened to the public in Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

.

The area of the domus was also used as a burial ground during the Muslim period. A number of built graves were uncovered in that area of Medina.

The best features of this domus are its well-made polychrome mosaics found in the Peristyle
Peristyle
In Hellenistic Greek and Roman architecture a peristyle is a columned porch or open colonnade in a building surrounding a court that may contain an internal garden. Tetrastoon is another name for this feature...

 and the surrounding rooms. Two types of tesserae were employed: opus vermiculatum
Opus vermiculatum
Opus vermiculatum is a type of mosaic which draws an outline around shapes using tesserae. This can be one or more rows and then contrasted in the background, typically with Opus tessellatum. The outline created is often light and offset by a dark background for greater contrast...

, in the centre of the pavement; opus tessellatum
Opus tessellatum
Opus tessellatum refers to a type of mosaic made from tesserae. Opus tessellatum is usually used for background consisting of horizontally or vertically arranged lines ....

, larger tesserae to create three-dimensional designs all around the main image. The picture sought to imitate a highly popular motif which may be fist painted by an artist from Sophos. The domus also shows fine painted wall plaster imitating coloured marbles and showing partly stylized architectural elements which would place them somewhere between the 1st and 2nd Pompeian Styles
Pompeian Styles
The Pompeian Styles are four periods which are distinguished in ancient Roman mural painting. They were originally delineated and described by the German archaeologist August Mau, 1840 – 1909, from the excavation of wall paintings at Pompeii, which is one of the largest group of surviving examples...

. Bath accessories, statues and amphorae complete the display of this site.
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