African Mosaics at LA’s Getty Museum

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Two thousand years ago, in the region of North Africa now known as Tunisia, African workshops were busy creating elaborate mosaic floors to embellish the homes and public buildings of the Roman Empire.

These mosaics were known for their vivid colors, created from multiple hues of limestone, often in combination with pieces of colored glass or marble. The original vibrant colors of the mosaics were achieved entirely through the nature of the materials themselves—no pigments or dyes were used.

Because of the popularity of North African mosaics during the Roman period, modern Tunisia now possesses one of the world’s richest collections of ancient Roman mosaic works.

For the first time in the United States, “Stories in Stone” brings together such works from the national museums of Tunisia.

The exhibition includes 26 of the finest mosaic pavements from Tunisia’s national collection, divided into four themes: nature, theater and spectacle; myths and gods; and conservation and technique.

The exhibition is organized to display each mosaic work within a variety of key contexts. Each appears alongside an explanation of its meaning, its historical context and a visual representation of its original Roman site location, if known. At the same time, the exhibition tells the story of the conservation of ancient mosaics.