Mosaic pavement: male and female heads within a meander pattern,

ca. 400 CE

Princeton's expeditions of the 1930s at the ancient city Antioch-on-the-Orontes, located near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey, unearthed archaeological treasures of one of the most important cultural and political centers of the Roman Empire. Among the finds was a collection of mosaic pavements brought to Princeton, including one example that in 1951 made its way to the threshold of the Architecture Laboratory, where time continued to take its toll. Fortunately, the mosaic was rediscovered. In the summer of 2012 it was removed for conservation. The mosaic was reinstalled in the lobby of the School of Architecture in Spring 2013.