In the last three decades, scholars have made enormous advances studying ancient Greek and Roman mosaics. We have begun to understand not only when, where and how most ancient mosaics were made, but also how they were viewed and used by the people who created them. Now much of the recent progress in mosaic studies has been summarized for the layperson in two new books by acknowledged world experts: Roger Ling’s Ancient Mosaics and Katherine M. Dunbabin’s Mosaics of the Greek and Roman World.