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Washington, United States
loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !

Friday, July 07, 2017

a horse for the harvest

See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Outside the town of Fraga in Spain lie the ruins of the Roman Villa Fortunatus. This villa dates from the third century AD, but its beautiful series of animal mosaics is thought to have been installed a century later.  The series is an agricultural calendar, with an animal representing each month.  Though it's a farming calendar, few of the animals portrayed are domesticated.  This is one of the few: the horse of September with a vine, representing autumnal games and the grapes to be harvested.  At least that's what I've figured out from trying to translate this page on the mosaics, which is part of a fascinating look at the site overall.

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