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Surviving tiles from those ruins told the archaeologists what materials had been used - hand-tooled limestone and Dead Sea stone, as well as imported marble - and that the inlay had been the ornate “Opus Sectile” style.

The type of flooring is known as opus sectile, Latin for "cut work", and "considered to be far more prestigious than mosaic tiles floors", according to Frankie Snyder, from the project's team.

And the earlier its date the more surely was it a mosaic, not in the form of tesserae, but in the manner known as “opus sectile.”

Two varieties of mosaic can be distinguished, that in which marbles, stones, and coloured glass are cut into cubes only and the so-called sectile mosaic in which elaborate scenes and groups of figures are represented, the coloured pieces being sawn into shapes to fit in with the design.

The Tablinum in the house of the vestals and the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol were paved with sectile mosaic.