The mosaic floor of a Roman villa has been recreated using 140,000 cubes of stone and tile after five years of painstaking work.
The floor is the only one in the UK made entirely by untrained volunteers.
Around 25 of them have been involved in making the mosaic over the last five years working one day a week with between two and five people involved each day.
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They spent the first two years hand-making the 140,000 stone and tile cubes, tesserae, using the same tools as the Romans for the floor at Avalon Marshes, near Glastonbury, Somerset.
Over the following three years they recreated a series of mosaic designs copying ones from villas excavated in Somerset – like Whatley, Hurcot, Newton St Loe and Lopen, among others.
The stone used for the mosaic cubes is the same local material that the Romans used, with white, blue and grey lias, yellow Doulting stone and red made from tiles.
The individual cubes were created using a hammer and a hardie – which is similar to a chisel set upright in a block of wood – and were laid in a bed of lime mortar.
Different parts of the design were inspired by mosaics on real villas to create a best of Roman Somerset medley.
The original designs came from Whatley Roman villa, Hurcot villa, Newton St Loe villa, Lopen villa among others.
The elephant mosaic from Whatley Roman villa has been recreated on a smaller scale than the original.
The villa near Nunney was discovered in 1837 and excavated 1848 and 1958 as reported by Need To Know.
Dr Richard Brunning, an archaeologist with the South West Heritage Trust, has led the project.
He said: “We believe it is the only recreation of a Roman mosaic in the UK made entirely by untrained volunteers, using the same materials and techniques as the Romans did.
“The finished result is a great testament to the dedication of the volunteers, who have produced a great work of art despite having no prior experience.”
According to experts at Avalon Archaeology, Roman mosaic elephants in continental Europe usually appear more realistic and have the correct size of ears.
But historically British mosaicists seem to have been more conservative in their ear depictions – perhaps because they had never seen an elephant and so couldn’t imagine an animal having such big ears in relation to its head.
The Romans often included optical illusions in their frescoes and mosaics. One example is a design from the Newton St Loe villa.
Some people see a flower, or star, or four converging cubes, or four converging Toblerone shapes.
The dolphin design was inspired by Lopen villa in the south of Somerset, which was discovered by chance in 2001.
The dolphin design was initially sketched out in the wet lime mortar before its gradual formation using tesserae after which a thinner mortar wash was applied to fill in the cracks then washed off.
The viewer can decide whether the surrounding waves are black or white.
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