hearing
If we think about how the mosaics were created, it is easy to imagine the atmosphere of a building site, with its many noises: the tapping of the lapidarius structor, who broke the stones to create the tiles; the movements of the pictor parietarius, who pierced the medium on which he or she had drawn the shapes, to blow through coal dust that would have impressed the image onto the wall or floor.
Today, admiring the mosaics of Agrigentum means surrendering to the quiet of the Archaeological Museum where some of them are kept, or to the silence of nature while walking through the ancient streets of the Hellenistic-Roman quarter.
touch
In the Italic terra sigillata tableware found in the domus of Agrigento there are some very fine decorations obtained with the rolling method: wide rows of engravings that initially appeared only on a band in the inner base of plates, later became more and more widespread and numerous, including on the external walls.
And so the ancients would have felt the different depth and sculptural quality of the figures represented on their utensils.
taste
In the domus of the most affluent families it was customary to have dinner in the triclinium, lying on the beds while servants brought dishes to the table.
The menu was, as a rule, composed of three first courses, two different types of roast and dessert.
After the starter, wine with honey was usually sipped while, between one course and another, the servants took care to keep the table supplied with hot sandwiches.
sight
Though the Hellenistic-Roman quarter now has only the lowest part of the perimeter walls of the domus, at the time of Agrigentum, these houses, which now appear calm, would have been a mixture of bright colours.
The Romans loved to sumptuously decorate where they lived: the walls were adorned with fine paintings, the floors were covered with polychrome or black and white tiles that formed mosaics and even everyday utensils were brightly coloured.
