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Inscriptions on Romano-British Mosaics and Wall-Paintings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2010

Roger Ling
Roger Ling
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Art History, University of Manchester, Roger.ling@manchester.ac.uk
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Extract

The article reviews the principal surviving examples of inscriptions on mosaic pavements and wall-paintings in Roman Britain. For some of these it makes tentative suggestions towards new readings or seeks to adjudicate between the conflicting readings of earlier commentators. The eleven inscriptions examined belong to different classes: signatures, dedications, good luck messages, labels, and literary or pseudo-literary glosses upon figure-scenes. The existence of the inscriptions implies that viewers were expected to be literate, or at least that being literate, if not actually well-educated, was socially important.

Keywords

Roman BritainRoman mosaicsRoman wall-paintingRoman inscriptionsliteracy in Roman BritainRoman villas
Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 38 , November 2007 , pp. 63 - 91
Copyright
Copyright © Roger Ling 2007. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

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