It’s believed that the mosaic was created at some point between AD 325 and 350. This was the time when the city of Constantinople was being founded.
At the centre is an image of a red rooster along with fruit. The rooster is surrounded by a vine scroll. A Greek inscription is at centre and reads: (mosaic) was completed on April 15 in the Indiction year 10 in the year 104. There is a geometric pattern surrounding these motifs. On the right side of the mosaic there is a very complex pattern.
The mosaic will be featured in the new Byzantine gallery, opening in 2011, at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada.
The galleries will be completed some time in 2011. For now I thought I would show a picture of a key artefact that will be featured in the Byzantine Gallery. It’s a mosaic that dates to the time when the city of Constantinople was being founded (AD 325-350).
Roberta Shaw is a former assistant curator of Egyptology at the Royal Ontario Museum. She will be discussing fashion in Ancient Egypt - the clothes, clothes and jewellery worn throughout Egyptian history.
Dr. Kei Yamamoto is an archaeologist who has done extensive work on the site of Abydos, excavating Middle Kingdom chapels at the Terrace of the Great God. At this lecture he will be discussing the significance of Abydos and the work that was done there in 1902-1903 by Charles Currelly, one of the founders of the Royal Ontario Museum. NOTE - This lecture is exclusively for members of the Friends of Egypt group at the museum.
Nine speakers from universities in Ontario and New York State will present their research on the ancient Aegean. The event is free if you have a museum membership - non-members will have to pay the usual museum admission fee.
The event will be held in the Eaton theatre, and is sponsored by the museum, the Hellenic Republic of Greece, Greek Communities of Canada and the Archaeology Centre at the University of Toronto.
The Royal Ontario Museum, in Toronto Canada, will be hosting Ontario Aegean Archaeology Day on Saturday March 6.
Nine speakers from universities in Ontario and New York State will present their research on the ancient Aegean. The event is free if you have a museum membership. Non-members will have to pay museum admission. The event is being held in the Eaton theatre.
The event is being sponsored by the museum, the Hellenic Republic of Greece, Greek Communities of Canada and the Archaeology Centre at the University of Toronto.
LECTURES:
Source - Royal Ontario Museum
10:30 am - Introduction: Paul Denis, ROM
Chair - 1st session: Professor Carl Knappett, Art, University of Toronto
10:40 am - Professor James Conolly, Anthropology, Trent University
Of Blades and Arrows: Hunters and Farmers of Antikythera in the Later Neolithic and Early Bronze Age
11:10 am - Dr. Jill Hilditch, Art, University of Toronto
As Far as the Eye Could See - Islandscapes and Community Space in the Early Bronze Age Cyclades
11:40 am - Professor Tristan Carter, Anthropology, McMaster University
Body Politics: Adornment and Identity in the Later 3rd Millennium BC Southern Aegean
For Dr. Robert Mason, an archaeologist with the Royal Ontario Museum, it all began with a walk last summer. Mason conducts work at the Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi monastery, out in the Syrian Desert. It’s still in use today by monks. The finds at the monastery date mainly to the medieval period and include some beautiful frescoes.
“I went for a walk into the eastern perimeter,” he said - an area that hasn’t been explored by archaeologists. What he discovered is an ancient landscape of stone circles, stone alignments and what appear to be corbelled roof tombs. From stone tools found at the site, it’s likely that the features date to some point in the Middle East’s Neolithic Period – a broad stretch of time between roughly 8500 BC – 4300 BC.
Dr. Robert Mason is an archaeologist at the Royal Ontario Museum, in Toronto Canada. He holds a PhD in Archaeological Science from Oxford University and a BA in Anthropology and Geology from the University of Toronto.
His work focuses on the analysis of archaeological material, such as stone and ceramic, by using scientific techniques. This research can answer many questions such as the source of material, how it was turned into an item and its approximate date. In addition to his responsibilities at the museum, he also teaches courses on these techniques at the University of Toronto.
His most recent fieldwork is at the site of Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi in Syria, which has been used as a Christian monastery whose finds date mainly to the medieval period. In the summer of 2009 he found, just to the east of the site, a landscape of stone circles, alignments and corbelled structures which appear to be tombs. From the stone tools found there he believes that the structures date to the Neolithic Period (8500 BC – 4300 BC).
Dr. Chen Shen is a senior curator at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto Canada. He also teaches at the University of Toronto as an Associate Professor in the Department of East Asian Studies.
He holds a PhD from the University of Toronto, an MA from the University of Oklahoma and a BA from Wuhan University, China. Dr. Shen came to the ROM in 1997 as the first Bishop White curator of East Asian Archaeology, an endowed curatorship.
His research focuses on unravelling the story of the first people of China. His team has uncovered the earliest known hominid site in China, dating back 1.66 million years. It’s known as the Guodi site and is located to the northwest of Beijing. He has also done work at the site of Zhoukoudian, which is where Homo Erectus fossils (Peking Man) were found in the early 20th century. They date to as far back as 770,000 years ago.
In his position at the ROM he has taken on responsibility for a collection that spans every time period of China’s past. As such he is curator in charge of the show The Warrior Emperor and China’s Terracotta Army which will be the largest Terracotta Warriors show ever to hit North America.
News of this exhibit has been leaking out in bits and pieces for weeks. But today the official announcement of it was made and full details have been released.
The exhibit will be hitting the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto Canada starting in late June. The precise exhibition start/end dates are being arranged.
As reported earlier the exhibit will be stopping at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary and the Royal BC Museum in Victoria BC. A stop in Montreal was announced several months back.
Planners and construction workers are hard at work building new 
Snow-weary Toronto residents are set to get some Aegean relief this Saturday. The 
For 
News of this exhibit has been leaking out in bits and pieces for weeks. But today the official announcement of it was made and full details have been released.
