ROMAN MOSAICS OF BRITAIN VOLUME II SOUTH-WEST BRITAIN. This item is unavailable.ROMAN MOSAICS OF BRITAIN VOLUME II SOUTH-WEST BRITAIN

Roman Mosaics of Britain is the culmination of more than seventy years of combined research and meticulous draughtsmanship by the authors, who are both in the forefront of mosaic scholarship. Their work, to be published in four volumes, is a complete illustrated catalogue of every known Romano-British mosaic - nearly 2000 in all - of which almost 450 feature in Volume II. Presented in the form of a county gazetteer, each mosaic is described, with drawings, photographs of figured elements and references. In many cases, the entry is illustrated by one of the authors' detailed paintings, which are faithful to the colour and composition of each mosaic. This volume contains some of the finest Romano-British mosaics ever uncovered. The South West has Britain's greatest concentration of figured mosaics, including, at Hinton St Mary, one of the earliest depictions of Christ. Several pavements illustrate scenes from Virgil's Aeneid or Ovid's Metamorphosis . As well as the organisation of the craft, the history of mosaic discoveries, building types, room function, figured work and schemes are considered. Each county has its own detailed introduction.

David S Neal FSA (b 1940) began his archaeological career 1957 assisting with the excavations at Verulamium. From 1961 he worked for the (then) Ministry of Works as an archaeological illustrator, and in 1975 became full-time archaeologist with (what became) English Heritage, on his retirement joining Stephen Cosh in the writing and illustration of the mosaic corpus from 1993. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters in 1992.

Stephen R Cosh FSA (b 1950) studied archaeology at Reading University, and has since specialized on Roman villas and mosaics, and their illustration. He embarked on the Romano-British mosaic corpus project with David Neal from 1993. Reading University conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Letters in 2006.