Fishbourne Roman Palace gets spruce-up ahead of reopening
Teams have been delicately cleaning the 2,000-year-old decorative floors
The world-famous Roman mosaics in Fishbourne, near Chichester, have been getting a spruce-up ahead of the site’s reopening today, February 11.
Teams have been spending up to 10 hours at a time sweeping away dust from the 2,000-year-old decorative floors.
The site, owned by charity Sussex Past, has one of the biggest collections of in-situ Roman mosaics in the country.
Fishbourne Roman Palace curator Dr Rob Symmons said: "It's what we're famous for and it's what many of our visitors come to see, so keeping them clean is vital.
"Just the smallest amount of dust will attract creatures who feed off that and they will attract slightly bigger creatures and so on, which could cause untold damage to these incredibly important pieces."
Work ahead of reopening is focused on the Cupid riding on a dolphin mosaic, which was first laid in AD150.