Events Calendar – British School at Athens

Mosaic pavement showing the Horae from a villa in Patras. 2nd – 3rd c. CE. Archaeological Museum of Patras

Upper House Seminar

Dr Nikki Vellidis (BSA Cary Student), “Recognising ‘Hands’ of Mosaicists through Depictions of Women in the Mosaics of Imperial Era Greece”

Abstract: Information about the process of constructing mosaic pavements—the people, the timing, the cost—is largely absent from the archaeological record. The occasional signature provides some names and clues about the individuals behind the pavement, but these rarely include more than a single name and are surely not representative of all the labour involved in creating a mosaic. As such, this paper presents a new methodology for tracking the ‘hands’ of mosaicists by examining the design of foreheads on female figures in the mosaic pavements of Imperial Era Greece. Through a close study of mosaics from Kissamos (Crete), Chania (Crete), and Patras, this research begins the reconstruction of the network of craftspeople responsible for the decoration of domestic and public spaces in Imperial Era Greece.

Bio: Nikki Vellidis is the current Cary Student at the British School at Athens, where her research focuses on developing a methodology to track the ‘hands’ of individual mosaicists within the pavements of Imperial Era Greece. She received her PhD in Classical Archaeology from the University of Oxford (2025) as an Onassis Foundation scholar. Her doctoral research combined traditional art historical analysis with computational modelling to examine how domestic architectural spaces influenced mosaic design. She also holds an MA in Classical Studies from Columbia University. Alongside her research, she has been a part of field research projects in Crete, Astypalaia, and Thessaly and is currently preparing her first monograph for publication.

Hybrid lecture

Please note: this event will not be recorded

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