the highest visual impact. The majority of mosaics were produced and laid on site. However, a number of floor mosaics display the use of the emblemata technique, in which panels of the image are created off-site in trays of terra-cotta or stone. These trays were later placed into the setting-bed on the site. At Delos, colored grouts were used on opus vermiculatum mosaics, but in other regions this is not common. There is one example of colored grout used in Alexandria on the Dog and Askos mosaic. At Samos, the grouts and the tesserae are both colored. Studying color here is difficult as the grouts are extremely fragile and vulnerable. Scientifics research has been a source of interesting information with regard to the grouts and tesserae used in Hellenistic Mosaics. Lead strips were discovered on mosaics as a definiting characteristic of the surface technique. Lead strips are absent from the mosaics here. At Delos, lead strips were common on mosaics in the opus tessellatum style. These strips were used to outline decorative borders and geometric decorative motifs. The strips were extremely common on opus vermiculatum mosaics from Alexandria. Because lead strips were present in both styles of surface types, they cannot be the sole characteristic of one type or the other. Tel Dor mosaic A rare example of virtuoso Hellenistic style picture mosaic found in the Levantine coast. Through a technical analysis of the mosaic, researchers suggest that this mosaic was created by itinerant craftsman working in situ. Since 2000, over 200 fragments of the mosaic have been discovered at the headline of Tel Dor, however, the destruction of the original mosaic is unknown. Excavators suggest that earthquake or urban renewal is the cause. Original architectural context is unknown, but stylistic and technical comparisons suggest a late Hellenistic period date, estimating around the second half of the second century B.C.E. Analyzing the fragments found at the original site, researchers have found that the original mosaic contained a centralized rectangle with unknown iconography surrounded by a series of decorative borders consisting of a perspective meander followed by a mask-and-garland border. This mosaic consists of two different techniques of mosaic making, opus vermiculatum and opus tessellatum. Alexander mosaic An example is the Alexander Mosaic, showing the confrontation of the young conqueror and the Grand King Darius III at the Battle of Issus, a mosaic from a floor in the House of the