 Mosaics date back as far as Ancient Greece (4 th century BC). Well-to-do Greeks of the 4 th century had their floors covered with elaborate mosaics, much like a carpet design.  The designs and color were not that advanced due to the use of natural pebbles. These were mainly limited to black backgrounds and white figures.  During the next century, Greeks began to use small cubes cut from stone to give a greater range of color, and would sometimes add fragments of glass.  These small cubes of stone and glass are called tesserae, which is the basic ingredient in mosaics today.

 Small pieces of different colored glass, stone, ceramic tile, beads, shells, scraps of wood, cardboard, or paper.  Plaster - a composition, as of lime or gypsum, sand, water, and sometimes hair or other fiber, applied in a pasty form to walls, ceilings, etc., and allowed to harden and dry

A close up of a mosaic from Thessaloniki, Greece Photo taken by Brendapokorny