The sea within. Mosaics with marine themes from Roman Sardinia and their polysemic relationship with the spatial context in domestic and thermal settings

Abstract

Although limited in number, Sardinian Roman mosaics depicting marine scenes offer new and interesting avenues for study. This iconographic theme is one of the most common subjects in Roman mosaic production and aims to evoke ideas such as prosperity and the pleasures of life through images of marine animals, fishing scenes and marine thiasos. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the meaning of these images in relation to the architectural environments, more specifically domus and thermae, decorated with this type of mosaic.