The earliest known mosaic floor to depict Christ was laid in a remote Roman villa in Dorset around 325 CE. (Discovered under meadow grass in 1963 it was moved to the British Museum.) The larger end of this mosaic measures 17 feet by 15, the smaller end, 16 feet by 8. Why lay this magnificent floor in rustic Dorset? "The Face in the Floor" gives the origins of this floor an imaginative history.