Roman mosaic of the Ocean God from the Museum of Faro is the first National Treasure of the Algarve

The Roman mosaic of the Ocean God, from the Museum of Faro, was recognized as the National Treasury at the meeting this Thursday, 3 […]

The Ocean God (detail of the mosaic)

The Roman mosaic of the Ocean God, from the Museum of Faro, was recognized as the National Treasury at the meeting this Thursday, May 3, of the Council of Ministers. This is the first museological piece below Évora to deserve this classification, the highest existing nationally.

This recognition was long awaited by Marco Lopes, director of the Municipal Museum of Faro, who, in an interview with Sul Informação, he did not hide his satisfaction with the Government's decision.

«The classification as National Treasure is the maximum recognition that a museological piece can achieve in Portugal. The fact that we now have one in the museum increases our responsibility, but also our protagonism, which from now on, more than local and regional, is national», considered Marco Lopes.

«This is an exceptional piece, both for its size, and from an artistic point of view and as a testament to the Roman presence in Faro, then Ossónoba, which was an important port city in the province. It's a fabulous set,” he added.

Bearing in mind that this piece is the first to receive this classification in the region, the fact that it belongs to the Museum of Faro it also makes, «in the context of the Algarve's museums, we start to be on a level above».

To get here, we had to wait about three years. «It was not easy. We made the application in 2015. Since then, the proposal has gone through the different technical services of the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage, who thought they had conditions to obtain the classification».

Marco Lopes highlighted the role of «two renowned archaeologists, specialists in the Roman period», João Paulo Bernardes, from the University of Algarve, and Catarina Viegas, from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon, who studied the mosaic and helped to justify this classification.

Roman Mosaic Room of the Ocean God

From then on, “it was a great suffering with the legal procedures”, which led to the process “going from the top down”. In 2017, the process took a decisive step, when it was unanimously approved by the Section of Museums, Conservation and Restoration and Intangible Heritage of the National Council of Culture, «which brings together experts in heritage issues».

This approval took place in February 2017, but it was only more than a year later that the classification of the Ocean God mosaic was approved by the Council of Ministers.

During this period, Marco Lopes tried to understand the progress of the process, without having been able to obtain answers from the Ministry of Culture and its services.

It ended up being the deputy Cristóvão Norte [farense deputy of the PSD elected by the Algarve circle] who obtained them, following a question he addressed to the Government on the progress of the process, in March. At the time, the Ministry of Culture informed that the matter would go to the Council of Ministers shortly, which happened today.

However, the PS Faro has already gone public to congratulate the Government “for the classification of the Roman mosaic of the Ocean God as National Treasure, as well as all the external researchers and technicians/teams of the Municipal Museum who, over the last three decades, contributed to this classification, as well as the municipality of Faro in these same mandates».

This classification, says Marco Lopes, opens the door for more Algarve museum pieces to be recognized as National Treasure. «I know the collection of the Algarve's museums well and I think there are pieces that are able to obtain this classification», he believes.

mosaic of the ocean god

Discovered in 1926, between Ruas Infante D. Henrique Ventura Coelho, in Faro, the mosaic was then reburied again, only to be rediscovered again in 1976 during construction works.

Dating back to the end of the XNUMXnd century or beginnings of the XNUMXrd AD, it would be part of a public building related to maritime activities, perhaps the headquarters of a professional corporation (school). The sponsors of the mosaic inscribed on it, for eternity, their names, as was common in Roman society.

The head of Oceano is treated as a mask and the association of the Winds (Euro and Boreas) – which personify the natural forces – with the head of Oceano, is not the most frequent in the representations of the god (Lancha, 1985:117).

All the iconography and other decoration present in this mosaic, as well as the inscription of the names of the sponsors, in addition to indicating the North African origin of its executors, constitute a whole program of affirmation of a city and its socio-economic vitality; a city that lived off seafood and its preparations and exported a little to the entire empire.

Hence the central theme of this mosaic: Ocean, father of all waters, which gives rise to the Winds, whose breath favors navigation, trade. Cosmology and human geography inspire this mosaic and not mythology or scenography (Lancha, 1985:119,120).

Bibliography:
LANCHA, J.(1985) "The "Ocean" Mosaic discovered in Faro (Algarve)”. Proceedings of the Municipality of Faro🇧🇷 Vol.XV. Faro🇧🇷 p.111-124.

 

Another recommended reading:
The Ocean God's Roman Mosaic Room has now reopened in the Museum of Faro

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