Executive Summary

This project will encourage active learning in a module focused on the academic study of Roman art, through direct participation in the process of creating a Roman-style mosaic. It fulfils the aims of the pedagogic interventions fund by encouraging an active and performative participation by learners. This is an innovative approach in the teaching of ancient art, which is usually studied in terms of iconography and historical development of mosaics.

Here students will learn the real constraints and opportunities offered by the techniques of ancient mosaic and can apply this knowledge to their academic study of the development and use of mosaics as part of Roman domestic decoration. In turn, their academic study will feed into their patterns which they have studied, to see the practicalities involved in creating them. This will also help them to further understand workshop practices in the ancient world, the use of pattern-books, and the possibilities for errors to arise, all aspects of the study of mosaics which are touched on in the module more broadly.