Mosaic Museum

This Just In: Justinian built a lot. Of Stuff. In Constantinople.

Packing it all into our last day in the city, after having gone underground to his vast water cistern, we went to what was recently underground, the just-excavated site of the emperor's palace, where sprawling mosaics are some of the best preserved in the Byzantine world.

Amongst other themes of peaceful animals grazing or people going about their daily tasks, a surprisingly high proportion of the images depicted certain animals ferociously tearing into other animals, with ample amounts of blood portrayed:












These represented about half of the artwork . . .















Trouble by the Trunkful





And in a depiction familiar to American citizens:















Thus concluded our three week venture into Asia Minor, with the following morning holding our flight back to the Eternal City. In Rome studies would recommence shortly, but our forays into the Scriptures would be enhanced by our encounters with their place of origin.