Iseum floor
→ Bruno Ammann
Floor created by Bruno Ammann, based on the Roman floor in Herculaneum. The mosaic technique used is opus scrutulatum, literally “shield technique”. From the 1st century AD, there are also examples of this technique in Herculaneum, Stabiae and Pompeii.
This mosaic technique is characterised by the use of irregularly shaped marble or stone slabs of various qualities and colours, of similar sizes, placed on a background of rectangular or square white mosaic tiles without decorative shapes.
Pliny the Elder states in Naturalis Historia XXXVI.185 that opus scutulatum was used for the first time in Rome at the beginning of the Third Punic War (149 BC) in the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, but there is no archaeological evidence to support this claim.
In this floor, the tiles are made of both white marble and travertine; the slabs are made of stones used in ancient times (Egyptian, Greek and Roman) and in more recent times.
