The image in the mosaic panel for the month of June depicts three figures in a small structure. June was the end of the wheat harvest in much of the Roman world, so perhaps the trio represent agricultural workers taking a break at a taberna vinaria (tavern selling wine) or a thermopolium (shop selling hot food).
However, since this calendar seems to center on the most important religious festival in each month, this scene may depict our theoretical harvesters purchasing torches at a booth for the Dies Lamparadum, the Day of the Torches, a festival on 24 June at the end of the wheat harvest honoring Ceres and Proserpina with a night-time torchlight procession.
Though one may imagine there was at least a little wine-drinking afterwards…
🌾 🏺 🌾 🏺 🌾 🏺 🌾 🏺 🌾 🏺 🌾 🏺 🌾 🏺 🌾 🏺 🌾
Featured Image: June Fragment of a mosaic with the months of the year. First half third century CE. Discovered in the city of Thysdrus, Roman province of Byzacena, (modern El Djem, Tunisia). Archaeological Museum of Sousse. Photo: © Ad Meskens, 2012 via Wikimedia Commons (X). License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
Read More:
MacKendrick, Paul Lachlan.The north African stones speak. University of North Carolina Press, 1980, p. 79.
Shaw, Brent D. Bringing in the Sheaves: Economy and Metaphor in the Roman World. Toronto, Ontario: University of Toronto Press, 2013. pp. 173-176 and 240-241.
EDIT 11 June 2026: Oops, forgot to reblog this on the first of the month. 🫣
