Discover the Orpheus Mosaic from Newton St Loe (pdf, 0.5 MB)

The Orpheus Mosaic from Newton St Loe
The Orpheus mosaic from Newton St Loe was built by
the Romans, almost destroyed by the Great Western
Railway and in store for over 100 years.
The History
In 1837 a Roman villa was uncovered at Newton St Loe near Bath, during the construction of the
Great Western Railway. The remains included several mosaic floors, one of which illustrated the
story of Orpheus, a famous mythical poet and musician, charming a circle of wild animals.
The Orpheus mosaic was lifted and re-laid at Keynsham Railway Station where it remained until
1851, when it was donated to the Bristol Institution, a forerunner of the Bristol Museum & Art
Gallery. In 1871 the Institution moved to new premises and the mosaic remained in storage.
Repeated moves to different stores left the floor in a fragmentary state - it was last laid out in the
1930s, then put away again and thought to have been completely lost. After World War II the
mosaic, still stored away, endured both the ravages of time and a fire and, until recently, was
considered beyond reconstruction. Between 1992 and 2000, members of the Association for the
Study and Preservation of Roman Mosaics (ASPROM) painstakingly identified its fragments and
proved more of it survived intact than previously thought. In 2000, the mosaic was carefully
pieced together and put on temporary display at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery for the first time in
70 years. Since then, the mosaic has been in store where it has been made more easily available
to several researchers, however, from 3 August 2013, visitors to the museum will once more be
able to see Orpheus charming wild animals.
The Design
Floors made of small cubes or tesserae have been produced for over 2000 years. Designs would
have been chosen from a pattern book and a highly skilled craftsman would produce the most
artistic and complicated pieces. Their apprentices worked on plain borders, backgrounds and
repetitive patterns.
One of only nine identified ‘Orpheus mosaics’ in Britain, Orpheus is shown seated on a bench
playing a kithara - a type of lyre. He wears a cap, belted tunic, cloak and high boots. On the right
a fox leaps up to the kithara. The circular frieze shows seven animals running to or from each
other. Trees separate the animals, a lion, a hind, a bear, a bull, a feline (possibly a panther), a
leopard and a stag. Designs using circles of animals with Orpheus are peculiar to Britain: this
may be the earliest, dating from the late AD200s to the early AD300s. The sense of movement
achieved in the animals and the elaborate colouring of the figure of Orpheus is unparalleled. The
design may have been modified at some point: the animals are arranged in pairs, except for the
bear, and some are separated by trees, others not. Was the bear an afterthought or was the
design reduced to seven animals from eight?

Roman sites and museums with Roman
collections
King's Weston Roman Villa
Long Cross, Lawrence Weston, Bristol BS11 0LP
Website: http://www.bristol.gov.uk/page/leisure-and-culture/kings-weston-roman-villa
The Roman Baths, Bath
Abbey Churchyard, Bath, Bath & N.E. Somerset BA1 1LZ
Website: http://www.romanbaths.co.uk
The remains of a Roman baths and temple complex built around hot springs.
National Roman Legion Museum
High Street, Caerleon, Gwent NP18 1AE
Website: http://www.museumwales.ac.uk
Roman antiquities and displays about military life in Britain under Roman control.
Corinium Museum
Park Street, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 2BX
Website: http://www.coriniummuseum.org
A collection of Roman antiquities including large mosaic floors, with reconstructions of a
Roman dining room, kitchen and craftsman's workshop.
Chedworth Roman Villa
Yanworth near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL54 3LJ
Website: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/chedworth-roman-villa
The remains of one of the largest Roman-British villas in the country. Visitors can see
mosaics, two bathhouses, a hypocaust and latrine!
Related websites
www.asprom.org
ASPROM (Association for the Study and Preservation of Roman Mosaics) - a wide variety of
articles relating to mosaics in Britain, including design, construction, and the buildings in
which they have been discovered.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans
A series of articles about different aspects of Roman history including the Romans in Britain.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/handsonhistory/romans
This site is designed for Key Stage 2 pupils but is just as interesting and as much fun for
adults to explore!
http://www.britishmuseum.org
Explore the Roman and Romano-British collections at the British Museum.