Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (452 page)

 
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See
PETERBOROUGH WARE
.

 
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See
LONG MORTUARY ENCLOSURE
.

 
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A simple timber structure in which one or more corpses was placed, perhaps with some grave goods. As such it performed the role of sepulchre and in some cases it remained freestanding and was allowed to decay naturally. In most instances, however, an earthen mound (barrow) was raised over the structure. Mortuary houses were probably constructed as replicas of actual dwellings; in some cases the deceased were in fact buried in their own homes that were burnt or covered in a mound.

 
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A wall or floor decoration made up of many cubes of clay, stone, or glass blocks (
tesserae
) of different colours. Mosaics may be either
geometric
, composed of linear patterns or motifs, or
figured
with representations of deities, mythological characters, animals, and recognizable objects. Mosaics became extremely popular in the Graeco-Roman world. The earliest dated mosaic from Britain comes from the legionary fortress bath-house at Exeter dated to ad 55–60 55–60, closely followed by those in the Fishbourne Roman palace. The great age of mosaics in Britain, however, is the early 4th century
ad
. Mosaics were also a feature of the Byzantine empire, some of the finest mid 1st millennium
ad
examples being those at Ravenna, Italy.

 
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A person who makes
MOSAICS
.

 
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