Mosaic art has a long history and can be dated back to ancient Mesopotamia, more than 5,000 years ago.

The earliest decorated mosaics in the Greco-Roman world were made in Greece in the late 5th century BCE, using black and white pebbles.

The transition from pebble mosaics to more complex tessellated mosaics possibly originated in Hellenistic-Greek Sicily during the 3rd century BC.

Crete, being an important center of the Minoan civilization, also had mosaics during the Bronze Age (800 BC).

The Roman period in Crete, which lasted from 69 BC to the end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century AD, saw the creation of Roman mosaics in the region.

The basic materials used in Roman and Late Antique Cretan mosaics consisted of stones of white marble, black limestone, and red limestone or igneous rock.