The species Alexandrine parakeet or Alexandrian parrot (scientific name Psittacula eupatria, noble fatherland or of noble ancestry) is named after Alexander the Great, who is said to have first sent several of the birds from the Punjab to the west, where they became popular as exotic pets of rich and noble families.

The Hellenistic mosaic floor panel, made in Pergamon around the middle of the 2nd century BC (the time of Eumenes II and Attalus II) of natural stone, was part of a large mosaic floor, discovered by a team of archaeological excavators led by Richard Bohn on 23 June 1886, in the small "Altar Room" of Palace V of the Pergamon Acropolis. [1]

It is thought that Palace V, just to the north of the Temple of Trajan (see the model of the Pergamon Acropolis on gallery 1, page 4), was the king's official building, and the neighbouring Palace IV was the royal private residence.

The type of mosaic found in some of Pergamon's ancient buildings is known as opus vermiculatum (Latin, worm-like work), a technique invented in Greece, in which images are made of rows of coloured tesserae (small cube-shaped pieces of stone, and later also of glass). The subtle colouring of the mosaics imitated painting. Individual motifs, including mythical figures, animals and plants were surrounded by dark tesserae, which highlight the vibrant colours. Often, outlines marked by rows of tessarae were used as contours or to further heighten the pictorial effect, as in drawing. This mosaic artist has used only colour and tone for his subject in a painterly manner, resembling trompe l'oeil realism.

Such panels were known as emblemata, often made separately in the artist's workshop before being transported to the site and cemented into place with mortar. This method had the advantage of allowing the artist to prepare small, easily transportable areas of a floor in advance and leave the work of fixing and finishing to assistants.

Some mosaic artists signed their work. The earliest known signature is on the Stag Hunt mosaic floor in the House of the Abduction of Helen, Pella, Greece, signed "ΓΝΩΣΕΙΣ ΕΠΟΗΣΕΝ" (Gnoseis epoesen, Gnoseis created this).

However, we know almost nothing about these artists. The only surviving reference to a mosaic artist in ancient literature is by Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD), who mentions an artist named Sosos who worked at Pergamon:

"Pavements are an invention of the Greeks, who also practised the art of painting them, till they were superseded by mosaics. In this last branch of art, the highest excellence has been attained by Sosus, who laid, at Pergamus, the mosaic pavement known as the 'asarotos oecos': from the fact that he there represented, in small squares of different colours, the remnants of a banquet lying upon the pavement, and other things which are usually swept away with the broom, they having all the appearance of being left there by accident.

There is a dove also, greatly admired, in the act of drinking, and throwing the shadow of its head upon the water; while other birds are to be seen sunning and pluming themselves, on the margin of a drinking bowl." [2]

1. Palace V of the Pergamon Acropolis

The "Altar Room" is also referred to as the "Banqueting Room" (exhibition material for "Pergamon. Panorama der antiken Metropole", Pergamon Museum, Berlin, 2012.)

For a description and report of the discovery and excavation of the mosaic floor by the Berlin-born archaeological architect Richard Bohn (1849-1898), see:

Georg Kawerau and Theodor Wiegand, Altertümer von Pergamon, Band V 1: Die Paläste der Hochburg. Baugruppe V, pages 30-39 and 58-63, and numerous photographic plates. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Sources of images above:

Floor plan of the "Altar Room", fig. 39, page 32.

Photo of the mosaic floor of the "Altar Room" by Herr Senz, plate XXVI.

2. Pliny the Elder on mosaics

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, Book 36, chapter 60. At Perseus Digital Library.

See also:

K. M. D. Dunbabin, Mosaics of the Greek and Roman world. Cambridge University Press, 1999.

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