Enormous Roman Mosaic In Turkey

Live Science

A huge Roman mosaic that was uncovered in southern Turkey by archaeologists from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.  The well preserved tiles once decorated a bathhouse during the Roman Empire's zenith.

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00:00 I'm Michael Hoff and I have unearthed a massive Roman mosaic.

00:06 The mosaic is spectacular because it is extremely large.

00:11 As far as we are aware, it looks to be the largest mosaic of its kind ever found in southern

00:19 Turkey.

00:20 It's also unusual in its preservation.

00:24 It's extremely well preserved.

00:26 The part that we have excavated, and we have uncovered approximately 50% of it, it looks

00:31 to be in pristine shape.

00:34 We were surprised to have found a mosaic of such size and of such caliber in this region

00:43 of Turkey, an area that had usually been off the map, off the radar screen of most ancient

00:50 historians and archaeologists, and suddenly this thing comes into view.

00:55 It does cause us to change our focus about what we think rough Cilicia was like in antiquity.

01:03 Why is this find so important?

01:06 The reason why is because this region is not well understood in terms of history and archaeology.

01:14 It's not a place where archaeologists have spent much time working in, and therefore

01:19 everything that we find adds more evidence to our understanding of this area of the Roman

01:29 Empire.

01:30 We're beginning to understand that it was perhaps more Romanized, more in line with

01:36 the rest of the Roman world than had been suspected before.

01:41 I lead a team of 60 students and scholars from the University of Nebraska, other United

01:47 States institutions, and as well as our sister school, Ataturk University in Turkey.

01:55 We have an opportunity to get down and get dirty, uncover objects that had never been

01:59 seen before by modern eyes, so that students get a touch of the artifacts, they can measure

02:07 the objects, they can understand what it might have been like in antiquity, to visit a Roman

02:13 temple, to walk on a mosaic pavement, to celebrate in an athletic arena, to go into an ancient

02:23 bath and experience what it might have been like, to actually walk into a still standing

02:28 Roman building from 2,000 years ago.

02:30 It's a rush.

02:31 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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