It was a shape often used for formal documents. First, the use of a tabula ansata was a calculated move. Here, both the image and the inscription speak to the viewer.

After you have finished your meal, you will tell us what you need.” CE See Scheibelreiter-Gail 2012: 148) is a mosaic tabula ansata with a quotation from the Odyssey ( Hom Od. For instance, in the front of the reception room of Apamea’s Maison du Cerf (5th c. Some welcome inscriptions were quite the mouthful and likely took a moment for guests to read, process, and appreciate. The ‘Have’ mosaic from Pompeii juxtaposed with a welcome mat that both welcomes guests and communicates a certain Southern identity. The famous ‘ HAVE‘ (“Welcome”–a variation on ‘ Ave’) mosaic from Pompeii’s House of the Faun is a well-known mosaic inscription that ushered in Roman visitors. Additionally, certain words could serve to set the tone for guests entering a household, just as a welcome mat does for us today. Writing was and is a means of delineating and mapping space. Inscriptions often preceded ancient doorways, just as tabulae (inscribed tablets) could demarcate the sacred boundaries of temples. Doorways and thresholds were an important locus of power in Greco-Roman antiquity–but we might also think of them as an epigraphic opportunity.

Mosaic shapes in vision