Three mosaics from 2nd century BC were found in the ancient Greek city of Zeugma, which is now Turkey’s southern province of Gaziantep. Excavation of Zeugma began in 2007 and continues today with hopes of uncovering the entire city, including houses that are underwater from past floods caused by modern construction.
Head of the excavations, Professor Kutalmış Görkay:
“There are still unexcavated areas. There are rock-carved houses here. We have reached one of these houses and the house includes six spaces. We have also unearthed three new mosaics in this year’s excavations,”
“From now on, we will work on restoration and conservation. We plan to establish a temporary roof for long-term protection. We estimate that the ancient city has 2,000-3,000 houses. Twenty-five of them remain under water. Excavations will be finished in the Muzalar House next year.”
Watch a video from National Geographic below:
Actually, those are not totally Greek mosaics in real sense. This city, Zeugma built last period of Alexander the Great thus, last period of Hellenistic era, and it was a trade city. After short while the city was captured by Roman empire. It was an early Roman empire era. Most mosaics and objects belongs to the Roman empire. And mostly there are trade objects, trade gods and the war gods in the majority. Yes, they had trading gods:)