ROME: Italian archaeologists have uncovered a luxurious Roman home near the Colosseum, boasting an “unparalleled” mosaic featuring shells, marble and precious glass, the culture ministry said on Tuesday.

Three large ships ride waves in the mosaic towards a coastal city, its walls dotted with small towers and porticoes in a scene suggesting the owner of the more than 2,000-year-old home, or domus, had been victorious in battle.

The building, which dates to between the second half of the 2nd century BC and the end of the 1st century BC, is “an authentic treasure”, Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano said in a statement.

Brought to light after archaeologists discovered a series of walls in 2018, the domus is spread over several floors. So far only some rooms have been excavated, and the dig will continue well into 2024. Set around an atrium, the domus’s main room is a banquet hall styled as a grotto, which was used during the summer months, the ministry said.

The owner, a nobleman likely to have been a senator, would have entertained guests with “spectacular water games”, thanks to lead pipes set between the decorated walls, it said.

But what “makes the discovery exceptional is... an extraordinary wall covered with a so-called ‘rustic’ mosaic unparalleled in terms of the chronology and the complexity of the scenes depicted,” it added.

A “complex sequence” of scenes are depicted through “different types of shells, Egyptian blue tesserae, precious glass, minute flakes of white marble or other types of stone”, according to the ministry.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2023