NUOVE CONSIDERAZIONI SULLA PAVIMENTAZIONE MUSIVA DELLA VILLA SUBURBANA DI CONTRADA LANCINÈ, TUSA (ME)

In 1912, at Lancinè, near Tusa, Antonino Salinas discovered some mosaic floors from a 3rd century A.D. villa that had stood since the Middle Ages on the hill overlooking Alesa, a Roman town abandoned after the Byzantine period. The mosaics were dismantled in 1912 and transported by Paolo Orsi to the Museum of Messina in 1931, where they remained for many years. Then some fragments were transported to the Superintendency of Syracuse and reassembled on reinforced concrete slabs. At present, a part of these mosaics is exhibited in Tusa, in the Antiquarium Badia, while the rest is kept in the warehouses of Alesa, in S. Maria delle Palate. A reconstructive study of the fragments by Maria Amalia Mastelloni in 2001, based on some photographs from the archives of the Museo di Salinas, made it possible to reconstruct three floors of the villa: a T+U triclinium and two adjacent square rooms. The aim of this study is to revise this reconstruction on the basis of an accurate survey, a complete count of all the preserved fragments and the reconstruction of the geometric and metrological schemes. The aim is to date the mosaic floors of the Lancinè district with greater accuracy by comparing them with contemporary pavements