#Tesserae
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pompei79.bsky.social
Honouring all the young tesserae that didn’t grow up to be a mosaic.

A reused amphora housing thousands of loose white tesserae in the House of the Thiasus, #Pompeii.
#MosaicMonday
A close up of loose white tesserae A broken terracotta amphorae containing the loose, white tesserae A broken terracotta amphorae containing the loose, white tesserae
August 25, 2025 at 12:49 PM
alisonfisk.bsky.social
Spectacular octopus from the floor of the women’s changing room at the Central Baths in ancient Herculaneum.

This magnificent #Roman monochrome mosaic makes quite an impact!

📷 by me

#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology
My photo shows a black and white floor mosaic with a depiction of a very striking octopus in the women’s changing room at the Central Baths in ancient Herculaneum. The octopus with eight writhing arms is composed of small black tesserae (tiles) laid in a white tesserae background
September 22, 2025 at 11:36 AM
alisonfisk.bsky.social
Spectacular octopus from the floor of the women’s changing room at the Central Baths in ancient Herculaneum.

📷 by me

#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology
My photo shows a Roman floor mosaic depicting an octopus. The octopus is composed of small black tesserae (tiles) and has eight writhing arms with suckers and narrow curling tips. It is set against a white tesserae background. Octopus detail from a monochrome marine mosaic featuring Triton with a cherub and various sea creatures, including the octopus, dolphins and a cuttlefish, at the women’s changing room at the Central Baths in Herculaneum.
March 9, 2026 at 2:02 PM
maryrosemuseum.bsky.social
When you get under the tesserae of a Roman palace...
romanpalace.bsky.social Fishbourne Roman Palace @romanpalace.bsky.social · Dec 22
Okay.
Gloves are off.
It's a snip of our newly updated bio. Crucially it includes a reference to the FACT that the Mary Rose sank on its maiden voyage.
December 23, 2024 at 7:34 AM
alisonfisk.bsky.social
Spectacular Roman octopus mosaic from the floor of the women’s changing room at the Central Baths in ancient Herculaneum.

📷 by me

#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology
My photo shows a monochrome Roman floor mosaic depicting an octopus. The octopus is composed of small black tesserae (tiles) and has eight writhing arms with suckers and narrow curling tips. It is set against a white tesserae background. This octopus detail comes from a monochrome marine mosaic featuring Triton with a cherub and various sea creatures which include the octopus, dolphins and a cuttlefish. From the floor of the women's changing room at the Central Baths in Herculaneum.
September 14, 2026 at 10:13 AM
drnwillburger.bsky.social
#MosaicMonday: colourful #Roman glass tesserae found in Geneva/Switzerland, dating 3rd/4th c. AD. 

Mosaic cubes were made of stone, pottery, tile, or glass. Glass tesserae were rather fragile. They were used rather rarely in floor mosaics to provide colours that...🧵1/2

#archaeology 🏺
A pile of small glass mosaic cubes in shades of blue, green, and yellow, on a white surface.
October 6, 2025 at 6:41 AM
alisonfisk.bsky.social
Spectacular googly-eyed octopus does battle with a lobster in this 2,000 year-old Roman mosaic from Pompeii! 🐙 🦞

Fantastic fishy onlookers too! 👀

From the House of the Geometric Mosaics. Now at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.
📷 by me

#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology
My photo shows a polychrome mosaic depicting Mediterranean marine life using earthy-coloured tesserae (mosaic tiles) against a black tessarae background. At the centre of the mosaic is a pale-coloured octopus composed of off-white and light brown tesserae with some of its writhing tentacles wrapped around the body of a lobster composed of light red, and pinky-brown tesserae. The octopus has an egg shaped body/head and it stares at the viewer with large eyes made of brown and pink circles with black centres. The octopus and lobster are surrounded by various species of large and small Mediterranean fish and a mollusc, including an eel and a flat fish. On the left hand side of the scene there is a small kingfisher bird on top of a rock. Some of the fish appear to be watching the fight between the octopus and the lobster This mosaic comes from the House of the Geometric Mosaics in Pompeii. Now on display at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.
October 6, 2025 at 11:34 AM
reblambert.bsky.social
Roman tesserae
November 13, 2024 at 12:21 PM
mangomakes.bsky.social
Her name is tesserae (tess for short) :))
#art #oc #gunmetalolympus
July 23, 2026 at 7:59 AM
thesereneartist.bsky.social
𝔾𝕠𝕠𝕕 𝕄𝕠𝕣𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝔹𝕤𝕜𝕪 ♡
ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴀ ᴡᴏɴᴅᴇʀꜰᴜʟ ᴅᴀʏ ~
𝑻𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑫𝒂𝒘𝒏 ~ ​
​"ᵀʸʳⁱᵃⁿ ˢᵒᵛᵉʳᵉⁱᵍⁿ"
#AiArtCommunity #AiArt
#AiCommunity #MidJourney
November 20, 2025 at 11:57 AM
bwallower.bsky.social
#MosaicMonday
Very pleasingly designed floor in tepidarium of women's baths in Herculaneum.
Geometric mosaic floor with design of trailing lines of black on white tesserae that form right angles and cross to make swastika like patterns. In spaces between trails of tesserae are rectangular panels that feature small images of eg vase, sun/flower, animal.
September 22, 2025 at 2:08 PM
durotrigesdig.bsky.social
Detail of an opus signinum (pink tile and mortar) #Roman floor with black and white tesserae roundels and crosslets

Simple but effective 😍

From a 2nd century AD townhouse at Watling Court #London dug in 1978 and in the collection of London Museum (opening later this year 🤞)

📷 2021 #MosaicMonday
Roundel of black and white tesserae with four crosses outside set in a pink mortar floor
February 16, 2026 at 6:35 AM
durotrigesdig.bsky.social
Recut #Roman roof and hypocaust tile set in simple square patterns between more hard-wearing white and black tesserae

A small (and often overlooked) detail from the 4th century AD, 70m long corridor / porticus mosaic in the North wing of @bignorvilla.bsky.social West #Sussex

#MosaicMonday
Geometric pattern of red, white and black tesserae from a Roman floor mosaic
July 28, 2025 at 6:05 AM
durotrigesdig.bsky.social
There's something faintly Mark #Rothko about this corner fragment of 4th century AD floor from Catherine Street, Exeter #Devon

Lifted from a #Roman townhouse and now in the wonderful @rammuseum.bsky.social

#MosaicMonday
Corner fragment of a Roman mosaic floor with large red tesserae border and smaller blue, white, cream and red tesserae forming square frames and interlocking guilloche designs, lifted, placed in a frame and displayed on a museum wall
May 26, 2025 at 4:51 AM
followinghadrian.bsky.social
For #InternationalDogDay 🐶, this incredible mosaic floor from Alexandria depicting a dog seated next to a gilded vessel. This Ptolemaic mosaic was made using the opus vermiculatum technique (small, closely set tesserae).

Bibliotheca Alexandrina Antiquities Museum.
August 26, 2026 at 7:02 PM
emmarothsf.bsky.social
Fragmente des roten Fadens
Mosaik aus roten Tesserae
July 27, 2025 at 4:08 PM
drnwillburger.bsky.social
For #ReliefWednesday a #Roman relief from Ostia depicting a tesserae workshop: two men are cutting stones to prepare tesserae (little cubes) for mosaics. Two other men are bringing stone slabs to be cut, while a fifth man is telling where to put the slabs. 1/2

🏺 #archaeology
This relief shows five men engaged in the preparation of mosaic tesserae. Two men in the center are actively cutting stones into small cubes for mosaics, using tools and working intently with the stone slabs before them. To the left, two other men approach carrying large, triangular stone slabs to be processed. On the right, another man gestures with his right arm raised, directing where to place a slab, indicating oversight and organization within the workshop scene. The figures wear tunics and some have pointed head coverings, and a woven basket for finished cubes is placed nearby.
August 27, 2025 at 7:18 AM
vgboxart.bsky.social
TESSERAE
TESSERAE
November 4, 2025 at 4:56 AM
chapps.bsky.social
These fragments from a Roman villa in Spain are not from a mosaic but from a fresco. If you look closely you’ll see a grid of lines, many following the contour of the figures, much as tesserae do on mosaics. This trompe-l’oeil technique simulates mosaics. 1/ 🏺

1st-2nd c. Museo de Málaga
📸 me
Fragment of a fresco depicting part of a human face, mostly the eyes. Thin lines form a grid pattern, simulating the edges of tesserae. Fresco fragment showing a naked torso of a woman, her legs and pubic area covered in a red himation (cloak). Her right hand carries a basket laden with fruit, which look like giant globes of grapes. Grapevine leaves appear in the background. A Dionysian scene. The faux tesserae grid lines follow the curves of the body. Fresco fragment depicting some sort of half-human creature with wild hair and bare torso, gesturing upwards with his right hand and holding a branched stick with his left. The faux tesserae grid lines follow the curves of his garment and body. Fresco fragment with the torso of perhaps a god with golden skin, a red himation flowing outwards and partially covering his or her legs. Perhaps Dionysos?
October 1, 2026 at 8:15 PM
romanpalace.bsky.social
CUPCAKE #TWANG!🧁

We can definitively confirm that cupkakes are more Twangable than cuddly googly-eyed tesserae. 👨‍🔬
December 17, 2024 at 1:27 PM
drnwillburger.bsky.social
In the basket on the right already cut tesserae can be seen. Tesserae were not only made of stone, but also of other materials such as glass or pottery.

📷relief: Dan Diffendale via Flickr flickr.com/photos/dandi...
Mosaic cubes made of Samian ware (pottey) Mosaic cubes made of glass mosaic cubes made of stone
August 27, 2025 at 7:18 AM
nataliehaynes.bsky.social
You seemed to like the Paphos mosaics yesterday, so here’s another pic! Look at the shadows these two have, all picked out in tiny tesserae. Wonderful 🐕
November 26, 2024 at 9:17 AM
emmarothsf.bsky.social
Scherben des goldenen Zeitalters
Mosaik aus goldfarbenen Tesserae
July 27, 2025 at 4:06 PM
chapps.bsky.social
Abbondanza! This large mosaic emblema uses a limited palette of stone tesserae to depict baskets of fish and fruit, symbols of abundance from the sea and land. It probably once decorated the floor of a Roman villa's triclinium (dining room). 🏺

1st-2nd c. CE, Carthage. #BritishMuseum
📸 me
Large rectangular section of a mosaic floor. It depicts a round wicker basket at the bottom, spilling out a variety of fish, eels, and crustaceans. At the top, a tube-like wicker basket is on its side, with an intricate diamond pattern around the rim - it holds masses of fruit, probably figs, as fig leaves stick out at the bottom). The background is made of white tesserae, and the scene is contained within a thick black border.
December 2, 2025 at 5:43 PM
sapinuwa.bsky.social
One has to see with their own eyes to understand fully how crazy the color grades in Roman mosaics' tesserae are🏺
Closeup of Orestes' leg in Iphigenia and Orestes mosaic of Capitoline Museums Closeup showing Orestes' butt and back, the grading colors of the tesserae are better seen
June 22, 2025 at 9:20 PM