{"id":17836,"date":"2022-11-01T15:13:25","date_gmt":"2022-11-01T15:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.museudemertola.pt\/new-mertola-mosaic\/"},"modified":"2022-11-27T16:09:29","modified_gmt":"2022-11-27T16:09:29","slug":"new-mertola-mosaic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.museudemertola.pt\/en\/new-mertola-mosaic\/","title":{"rendered":"New Mosaic of M\u00e9rtola"},"content":{"rendered":"

“After the heat of the summer, the gods favoured us<\/strong>“<\/em>, says Virg\u00edlio Lopes, researcher at M\u00e9rtola’s Archaeological Camp (CAM), in jest. As part of the ongoing excavation, conservation and enhancement work, an extraordinary mosaic was identi\ufb01ed in July, close to the two baptisteries known since 2013, on the slope of the castle. ‘M\u00e9rtola has the power to surprise us and reveal new features<\/em><\/strong>‘, says the archaeologist. The 5-by-4-metre mosaic may be extended into the area adjacent to the village’s cemetery. It was designed for an interior space that the CAM team believes could be a chapel integrated in an Early Christian religious complex, ‘a world that followed the Roman period, but in which M\u00e9rtola maintained cultural and religious relevance, even without a bishop<\/strong><\/em>‘.<\/p>\n

In the 19th<\/sup><\/span> century, archaeologist Est\u00e1cio da Veiga identified the fragment of a turtle or terrapin in the same area and had it drawn in watercolour. The piece was lost, but the record remained. ‘Today, we are convinced that Est\u00e1cio found part of this mosaic, because the medallion with the piece fits this programme<\/em><\/strong>‘, says Lopes. ‘And in turn, this mosaic is a ‘sibling’ of another one already found above the cryptoporticus. It was produced by the same group of artists.<\/em>‘<\/strong> This \ufb01guration has parallel ones in Menorca, and Virg\u00edlio Lopes believes that the inspiration for the mosaic, tentatively dated from the 6th<\/sup><\/span> century, came from the Eastern Mediterranean. ‘It is the period for which we have more gravestones, many of which are written in Greek<\/strong>‘, he says. ‘It could have been that community that commissioned an artistic programme like this, which re\ufb02ects the best that was then being done in the Mediterranean basin.<\/strong><\/em>‘<\/p>\n

The mosaic has already undergone ‘conservation and restoration first aid’ and is awaiting a decision on how it can be best protected and displayed<\/strong>.<\/em>‘<\/p>\n

Text: Gon\u00e7alo Pereira \/ Photos: Ant\u00f3nio Cunha \/ Drone photos: CAM \/ National Geographic<\/span> Magazine, October 2022.<\/p>\n

Article at:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/nationalgeographic.pt\/historia\/grandes-reportagens\/3253-o-novo-mosaico-de-mertola<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“After the heat of the summer, the gods favoured us“, says Virg\u00edlio Lopes, researcher at M\u00e9rtola’s Archaeological Camp (CAM), in jest. As part of the ongoing excavation, conservation and enhancement work, an extraordinary mosaic was identi\ufb01ed in July, close to the two baptisteries known since 2013, on the slope of the castle. ‘M\u00e9rtola has the… Ler mais New Mosaic of M\u00e9rtola<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17754,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[131],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.museudemertola.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17836"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.museudemertola.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.museudemertola.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.museudemertola.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.museudemertola.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17836"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.museudemertola.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18007,"href":"https:\/\/www.museudemertola.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17836\/revisions\/18007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.museudemertola.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.museudemertola.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.museudemertola.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.museudemertola.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}