What are Mosaics? Mosaics, one of the oldest forms of surface decoration,date back to the 4th - 3rd millennium BC. Mosaics take on a painted effect by forming pictures or patterns from compositions of small pieces of various colored materials (glass, stone, ceramics, metals, ect). The most well known mosaics were produced during the Byzantine Empire (4th to6th century) in Ravenna, Italy. Today, in the age of computers, mosaics have taken on anew form. In 1995 Rob Silvers utilized computers to combine thousands of photographs to make digital mosaics, the inspiration for these puzzles.