El mosaico pavimental de la basílica de Illa del Rei (Menorca, Baleares)

The ecclesiastical complex of Illa del Rei is located on a coastal islet in the port of Mahón (Menorca, Balearic Islands). It was discovered by chance when a mosaic appeared which was made available in 1888 by a drawing by H. Llorente. New archaeological excavations undertaken in 2008 and 2013, have made it possible to re-examine the previous studies of the church’s pavement mosaic. This paper revises the mosaic taking into account the unpublished documents from the end of the 19th century deposited at the Real Academia de la Historia (Spain), a substantial photographic collection never studied in detail, particularly a series produced by the German Archaeological Institute in the early 1970s, as well as the photographs taken by Pere Engels in 2007, and by ourselves in 2008 and 2009, in the deposits of the Museu de Menorca (Mahón), where they have been stored on cement panels since their transfer in 1950. In addition, the remains of the in situ mosaic rediscovered in the excavation in the north aisle of the church, despite its poor state of preservation, has also been analyzed. All this information, as well as the re-study of the unpublished documents and the data provided by the recent archaeological excavations, facilitate a better understanding of the mosaic, its iconography, iconology, and chrono-cultural framework.