The Regional Ministry of Culture and Historical Heritage of Andalusia has located three new mosaics during the latest archaeological excavation campaign in the Casa de Patio Rodio, in the Archaeological Ensemble of Italica (Santiponce, Seville). Specifically, there are two examples of mosaics with black and white tesserae and a third with polychrome tesserae, covering a surface area of some 16 square metres, 75% more than what has been known to date.
The archaeological work, scheduled to be completed on 22 June, is being carried out in the eastern part of the Patio Rodio House, which was partially excavated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and corresponds to the access area and rooms adjoining the large central courtyard. These excavations revealed the existence in these spaces of some fragments of mosaic pavements, although the scarce confirmed information on them seemed to indicate that they were very deteriorated or lost.
This discovery will provide a more complete view of the architectural configuration of this building than was previously known. This was explained by the director of the archaeological work, Fernando Amores, a lecturer at the University of Seville.
This residential building was initially discovered in 1873 by Demetrio de los Ríos and was partially excavated by different researchers between 1930 and 1942. Since 2014, a multidisciplinary team led by Fernando Amores, from the University of Seville and incorporating researchers from other academic institutions, has been developing a General Research Project, called ItálicUS, which has the general objectives of deepening historical and heritage knowledge of the domestic areas of the Roman city of Italica.
