The Roman Domus

The heart of the domus (home) is this courtyard surrounded by a roofed corridor supported by columns, an arrangement that is known as a peristyle. This time-honoured Mediterranean formula admits light and air into the building, while permitting one to cross between the different rooms around the courtyard without being exposed to sun and rain.

The floor of the courtyard was superbly finished with mosaics around the middle of the first century BC. The geometric pattern is designed to create an illusion of depth, and is executed in coloured marble chips that measure up to one centimetre across. The central panel showing a bowl with two birds, on the other hand, is executed with much smaller marble fragments, and may have been pre-fabricated and imported to Malta. The cylindrical marble object on the left is the original well-head of a large underlying cistern for the storage of rainwater.

Some of the adjoining rooms of the domus are visible in the background. More statuary that was found in the vicinity is exhibited here. All the three figures that are visible have been dated to the first century AD. The head on the figure facing the viewer has been identified as Emperor Claudius and the other figures probably represented other members of his family.

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