Swallows

Specifications.

Single copy. Mosaic. Smalt tiles 10 x 10 mm on the reinforced concrete bottom. Weight of about 50 kg. Disc thickness 45 mm. Diameter 850 mm is as large as to hide under the sundial a manhole cover which in the garden area is always in the «wrong» place.

Price 80 000 r.

The sundial is designed to measure time not more than 300 km from Moscow meridian. The scale is marked in terms of day saving time. Swallows against the blue sky is one of the common themes of ancient mosaics. For Greeks swallows were a symbol of the returning home. They believed that swallows bring the spring, and the image of these birds accelerate the spring arrival.

Landscape with swallows (Spring Fresco) from room Delta 2, Akrotiri, Thera (Cyclades), Greece, ca. 1650—1625 BCE. Fresco, 7′ 6″ high. National Archaeological Museum, Athens.