I just read about something that I think is pretty awesome. Let me preface the "awesome-ness" by reminding you that I am a mosaic artist (hence the name of my blog, "Mosaics by Kim Finlan"), and so I am very drawn to anything about mosaic. The awesome thing I read about was that an archelogist, on his first ever dig no less, uncovered a 1500 year old mosaic that was on the floor of the ruins of an ancient Jewish temple. The online article I read shows an image of the mosaic. In this mosaic, "two female faces flank a Hebrew inscription about rewards for people who perform good deeds" ( http://news.yahoo.com/ancient-mosaic-depicting-fiery-bible-story-discovered-163828071.html ). Click on the link in the parentheses to read the whole article. The mosaic, at least the portions left of it, are in amazing shape considering how old they are. They are estimated to have originated between 400 and 500 A.D. I was looking at the photo and analyzing the hand-cut pieces and noticing the shapes, use of coloring and space between each "tile" and noticed the obvious: many aspects of creating a mosaic haven't changed for hundreds of years. Mosaic artists over the centuries share these techniques in common as if it were an ancient language we all speak together. Mosaic has immense appeal to many artists, for one, because of the durability of it. The knowledge that your mosaic mural or floor will last potentially hundreds of years makes the hard work put into it a little more satisfying (in this writer's opinion). That must've been pretty exciting for the archeologist to behold artwork from 1500 years ago. I wonder if he moonlights in mosaic art? That would make that mosaic find even better!
