This mosaic floor, one of the finest yet uncovered from the ancient world, has been found in the ruined city of Palmyra in the Syrian desert. It dates from about AD 260 and shows the hero Bellerophon, mounted on Pegasus, killing a chimera. He is wearing a widerimmed Roman helmet with a red streamer and is flanked by two eagles bearing wreaths of victory. Unusually, he has trousers and an embroidered tunic, the costume of Palmyra’s Sassanian Persian neighbours, and an opensleeved coat of the sort worn by Palmyrene aristocrats.

“Dozens of late Roman pavements representing Bellerophon are known from the western provinces, but this is the only one found in the Near East”, said the Polish archæologist Michel Gawlikowki in the magazine Current World Archaeology.