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.

Transcript

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

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

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

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

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

00:31it looks to be in pristine shape.

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

00:44an area that had usually been off the map, off the radar screen of most ancient historians and archaeologists,

00:51and suddenly this thing comes into view.

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

01:02Why is this find so important?

01:07The reason why is because this region is not well understood in terms of history and archaeology.

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

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

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

01:34more in line with the rest of the Roman world than had been suspected before.

01:40I lead a team of 60 students and scholars from the University of Nebraska,

01:46other United States institutions, and as well as our sister school, Ataturk University in Turkey.

01:54We have an opportunity to get down and get dirty, uncover objects that had never been seen before by modern eyes,

02:04so that students get a touch of the artifacts, they can measure the objects,

02:08they can understand what it might have been like in antiquity,

02:12to visit a Roman temple, to walk on a mosaic pavement, to celebrate in an athletic arena,

02:21to go into an ancient bath and experience what it might have been like,

02:25to actually walk into a still standing Roman building from 2,000 years ago.

02:30It's a rush.

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