PICTURES ON THE FLOOR

In the 1,600-year-old ruins of a sumptuous villa, near Piazza Armerina in central Sicily, archaeologists have uncovered the finest late-Roman mosaics ever found. The villa was destroyed in a landslide 500 years ago. Buried under 16 to 26 feet of earth and rubble, the floors thus far excavated have turned out to be a treasure of stone and glass picture-carpets.

The villa was apparently built by one Ancius Petronius Probus, Rome's proconsul for Sicily in 406 and an ancestor of Pope Gregory the Great. Down the corridors of time, conquering Byzantines, Saracens and Normans trod its glittering floors. About a third of them have now been uncovered.

Gingerly rolling back the tide of earth in one hall, 13 feet wide, the excavators found a mosaic picturing an African big-game hunt (see opposite page). After uncovering 72 feet of the hall, the end of the mosaic was nowhere in sight. Fishing scenes and pictures drawn from the myths of Hercules and Orpheus embellished other rooms of the villa. Probably the most startling discovery was the mosaic floor of what archaeologists guess was once a girls' gymnasium. Theresa laurel-crowned prizewinner and her willowy companions disport themselves in skimpy woolen garb--an unmistakable preview of today's "Bikini" style of undress.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.