Cryptic Mosaics Depicting Medusa Discovered in Ancient Roman Villa

Archaeologists excavating an ancient villa once used by the Antonian emperors of Rome uncovered two mosaics that feature one of the most infamous characters in Greek mythology, the beautiful, but deadly, Medusa, according to Live Science.

The murals were found in the Villa of the Antonines, a site named after the dynasty of emperors that include Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Veras, and the emperor Commodus who was most famous for taking part in gladiator battles in the Colosseum.

At a presentation held during the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America this January in New Orleans, researchers said the mosaics likely date from the 2nd century C.E. 

The mosaics show Medusa, who famously had hair made of venomous snakes and whose stare could turn a person into stone, looking off into the distance. During the presentation, Timothy Renner, a professor of classics and general humanities at Montclair State University in New Jersey and the co-director of the team excavating the site, pondered whether the contemporaneous visitors to the villa were curious about what was going through Medusa’s mind in the murals. 

The mosaics were found in two niches that had been cut into the walls of a 69-foot circular room in the villa, one in the northwestern section and the other in the southeastern. “Finding those mosaics [was] a pleasant surprise,” Chatr Aryamontri, also a professor at Montclair State and co-director of the archeological team, told Live Science. Aryamontri added that noting that most of the villa’s decorations were removed during the 18th and 19th centuries.

According to the two directors, the circular room was possibly a reception area for those who lived at the villa, and while Medusa heads were often used for decoration in the 2nd century it’s unclear if the “villa’s owners ordered [the mosaics] specifically or whether they were created on the whim of the artist who worked on the room.”

Live Science reports that the area around the villa saw a great deal of looting and “troop movement” during World War II and that artifacts are often found during excavations, which began in 2014. Among the researchers’ goals is to create an archaeological park in the site sometime in the future.