Labyrinths | Ancient Labyrinths | Christian Labyrinths
Ancient Labyrinths
Traditional labyrinths, whatever they are made from, are flat. You can stand back and follow the route to the centre with your eyes. A basic labyrinth can easily be made more complex and decorative.
Roman mosaics, already based on complex linear patterning, were easy to develop into labyrinths. There are six surviving examples in Britain. Several Roman mosaics feature Theseus and / or the Minotaur. Some are bordered by stylised depictions of city walls – suggesting that the designer associated the labyrinth with human creativity rather than the forces of nature.
Completely different is the striking labyrinth laid out in 324 AD in the Christian basilica of Reparatus at Al Asnam (in what is now Algeria). Here a labyrinth-like pattern (left) centres on a word-square panel (below right). No matter which direction you take from the central letter, you end up spelling out ‘Sancta Eclesia’ – Holy Church – as if the church is both at the centre of things and everywhere.
You need a rich and complex commercial empire to produce sophisticated mosaics, but even after the Roman Empire fell, labyrinths were still made although using very different materials.
In Britain several labyrinths were cut in turf. Eight still exist, and there is documentary evidence for others. It is not clear how old these structures are; references to most of them begin in the 17th century. Turf mazes were created in Germany, where three still exist.
In Scandinavia, particularly Sweden, similar labyrinths were made using lines of stones. Recent analysis of the lichen on the stones suggest that the earliest examples date from the 13th century, though most seem to have been constructed in the 16th and 17th centuries.