The Colchester Roman Circus Mosaic

The mosaic is the product of a community project initiated by the Colchester Archaeological Trust and made possible by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The discovery of the Roman chariot racing track at Abbey Fields, Colchester, in late 2004 provided the inspiration for the project.

The mosaic shows a chariot race in progress featuring eight quadrigae -- four-horse chariots. The artwork was created by artist Peter Froste who based his design on a type of Roman mosaic pavement which depicts a bird's eye view of a chariot race in a circus. Over 1500 children helped make the pavement, using more than 200,000 tiles to complete the work.

The full-sized mosaic was unveiled on 19th January 2008, in appalling weather conditions, by Griff Rhys-Jones. An exhibition in the nearby former Garrison Riding School included finds from excavations in the area of the Circus itself, a replica racing chariot made for Channel 4's 'Time Team' special and companion mosaics made by students of a local school.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Archaeology
• History
• Mosaic
• Roman
• Chariot
• Racing
• Circus
• Colchester
• Archaeological
• Trust
• Essex

[james9149]

I know - the expectation was that you can pause playback to read them!

[kopynd1]

BETTER MOSAIC THAN WHATS IN THE BARDO MUSEUM TUNIS

[CVNO2010]

Great mosaic.

[Mazie13]

Im in this woooo

[BAJR]

another great video added to BAJR TV.

Great project people!

[sdapeze]

Well done Tim. The credits are too fast though. Couldn't read them properly. Sdapeze