Mosaics

Mosaics have a history that's some 4,000 years old or more, utilizing terracotta cones and being pressed point-first into a background for decoration. Pebble pavements began using using various colored stones to make patterns by eighth century BC. Though it was the Greeks who turned the raised pebble technique into an art form, with precise geometric patterns and detailed scenes of people and animals.

By 200 BC, specially manufactured pieces, or tesserae, were being made in order to create more detail along with a larger range of color to works. Some tesserae were so small, just a few millimeters in size, that it was possible for mosaics to imitate paintings.

(image of a mosaic from Centocelle. Roman, 1st century AD)