House of the Cascade

The House of the Cascade is a Roman-era building located in Utica, Tunisia. It is typical of most of the Roman houses excavated to date in North Africa in that it looks inwards to a central courtyard around which the majority of the rooms are arranged. Two smaller courtyard gardens in the western part of the house provided additional light and air. In other respects the house presents some unique aspects. It is one of the earliest town houses from the Roman period hitherto excavated in North Africa. Likewise the figurative mosaic with the fish mosaic in the cascade pool (itself unique) predates others with similar motifs in North Africa by at least a century. Finally, the ‘skewed’ articulation of the pavement in the large triclinium (apparently designed to maximise the view to the central courtyard and garden for the most important dinner guest), seems to be a unique feature. The excavations performed of the house gives us valuable insight into the development of urbanisation at Utica as well as the domestic architecture and evolution of mosaics in Roman Tunisia. Although the majority of the pavements at the house lack the vivid colours and imaginative designs of the mosaics exhibited (e. g. the Bardo National Museum in Tunis), this is made up for by their unusual variety and overall good state of preservation. There are several themes running through the design of the house an

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