Mosaics at the sepulchre / sepulchral mosaics. Burial and tesselated adornment in the Italic and Adriatic areas from the pagan beginnings to Christian Late Antiquity

特别是在古代晚期，墓葬马赛克构成了一种受欢迎的墓葬装饰手段。当时，镶嵌在地下的坟墓上的镶嵌作品提供了“古典”类型的坟墓马赛克，其中绝大多数可以在北非找到。1976年，那些非洲的例子传达了Noël Duval关于这类纪念碑的开创性评论的基本主题，而最近的西班牙清单，相比之下要窄得多，已经成为了一个全面研究的主题，奇怪的是，没有一篇全面的论文专门研究意大利葬礼马赛克的宝库，尽管坟墓领域和马赛克装饰的联系可能正是在那里引入和发展的。我们的项目得到了古代马赛克资深专家K. Dunbabin教授的支持，主要目的是编写一本广泛参考的书。在地板、墙壁和拱顶上的墓穴马赛克应用的详尽纲要仍然是可管理的，因为它包含不超过大约。150件物品散落在意大利和邻近的亚得里亚海地区。今天，这些作品只能通过查阅大量遥远的书目标题来单独或小范围地追踪。他们的集体编辑和研究，毫无疑问是一种渴望，将使我们能够揭示他们所拥有的多样性和他们所经历的变化。主要的注意力将放在长期的发展上，从共和晚期开始，如果可能的话，尝试在形成过程中限定一个特定的阶段，在这个阶段可以分配适当的“坟墓马赛克”的出现。另一点涉及到从异教环境到基督教环境的转变：我们在多大程度上可以陈述传统模式的持久性，哪些特征符合新的信仰？因此，我们的努力将连接古典考古学和基督教考古学的领域，从而承认主持转变的连续性。考虑到空间安排和不同的社会环境，我们的项目将解决这些最后休息场所的一般家具中马赛克装饰的数量和质量的变化。马赛克的问题逐渐取代了其他类型的角色，当涉及到放置在高处的马赛克（石碑、墓葬）时，这一点尤为重要。最终，我们决定研究特定地区和地区之间的风格和/或图像相互作用，特别是关于意大利和北非例子之间的关系。要分析的墓葬马赛克目录涵盖了时间、地理和形式的广泛范围，从而提供了一个非常坚实的潜力，能够承诺有趣的学术成果，这些成果与我们对古代社会的了解有很大的相关性。

Particularly during Late Antiquity, sepulchral mosaics constituted an appreciated means of burial embellishment. At that time, the opus tessellatum tableaux which finished the coverings of tombs disposed in the ground provided the "classical" type of grave mosaics, whose overwhelming majority can be found in North Africa. While those African examples conveyed, in 1976, the essential subject matter of Noël Duval's groundbreaking remarks on this kind of monuments and while quite recently the Hispanic inventory, much narrower in comparison, has been the topic of a comprehensive study, there is, strangely, no overall treatise dedicated to the reservoir of funerary mosaics in Italy, in spite of the association of sepulchral domain and mosaic decoration having probably been introduced and developed precisely there.Our project which counts on the support assured by Prof. K. Dunbabin, a senior specialist in Ancient mosaics, aims chiefly at the establishment of a book of broad reference. The exhaustive compendium of sepulchral mosaic applications on floors, walls and vaults remains manageable since it comprises no more than approx. 150 items scattered over Italy and the adjacent Adriatic area. Today, those pieces are only to be traced individually or in small groups by means of consulting a large number of far-flung bibliographic titles. Their collective edition and research, unquestionably a desideratum, will allow us to disclose the variety they hold and the changes they underwent.Major attention will be paid to long-term developments, starting in the Late Republican age and trying, if possible, to circumscribe a specific stage within the formative process to which the emergence of the proper "grave mosaic" can be assigned. Another point concerns the transition from pagan to Christian circumstances: To what extent can we state persistencies of conventional patterns, and which traits correspond to the new faith? Accordingly, our endeavour will connect the domains of Classical and Christian Archaeology and thus acknowledge the continuity that presided transformation.Taking into account the spatial arrangements as well as the diverse social settings, our project is going to address the changing quantity and quality of mosaic adornment within the general furnishings of those last resting-places. The issue of mosaics gradually taking over the role of other genres is of special importance when it comes to mosaics placed at elevational positions (arcosolia, burial edifices).Ultimately, we are determined to examine stylistic and/or iconographic interactions among particular regions and territories, regarding notably the relationship between Italic and North African examples.The catalogue of sepulchral mosaics to be analysed deploys as broad a chronologic, geographic and formal range as to offer a very solid potential capable to promise intriguing scholarly results that are of great relevance to our knowledge of Ancient society.