Piazza Armerina mosaic question

[Martin Moser]

First of all we need to be aware that the mosaics are abstractions of the original patterns, dictated by the size of the individual mosaic stones in relation to the size of the figure. If you compare the patterns with surviving originals this becomes immediately clear. In the research on tunics I did so far I have gone through several hundred surviving orbiculi/tesserae/paragaudae/clavi. Although the swastika comes up as part of a running pattern I do not recall having seen one as a central, dominating, singular motif. Of course, as with all the other surviving artifacts, we only see a tiny snapshot of what was.