The laying of the mosaic began at last this week with a patch of the black and white border, within a wooden frame set to the final depth (35mm). The screed was thoroughly wetted, as it would draw the moisture from the mortar (a very fine lime mortar from Limebase), which was laid to a shallow depth of 10cm. The lines of tesserae were then placed as close together as possible and tamped down under a wooden board, violently and repeatedly struck with a mallet. This drove the tesserae down and pushed the mortar up betwen them. A thin wash of mortar was then brushed into the cracks to fill the remaining voids, with the excess gently sponged away.