Zeugma Mosaics

Determined not to spend the weekend meandering in the local WalMart equivalents, I made an arrangement with a fellow teacher to visit the new Gaziantep Museum, built to house mosaics from the Roman city Zeugma on the western banks of the Euphrates. Actually it had been a bronze-age village and had quite a history before its Roman incarnation. It was a “passage” across the Euphrates for both trade and military purposes. Alexander the Great passed through twice on two campaigns to the east. There was no bridge as we might imagine it, but there were a number of small islands that could be linked by rafts or pontoon like structures. A Roman Legion (IV) was actually garrisoned there, and Zeugma was on important trade routes that ran both north-south and east-west. In short, some people got very rich.

The rich people built their MacMansions (villas) on the Euphrates and then began to look for ways they could outdo their neighbors in the conspicuous consumption realm. Mosaics turned out to be the answer. I hadn’t realized it, but the way the Romans cooled their villas in these extremely hot climates was to pour water on the floor. Since there was no source of marble anywhere nearby, they used mosaics as flooring instead. First they just used the local white and tan pebbles. Then they began to get more creative, and a whole group of mosaic artists moved to Zeugma. The resulting floors were true works of art. They managed to depict light and shadow and drapery with unbelievable realism. Sadly, the city was reduced almost to ruin at the end of the third century AD, first by the invading Persian armies and then an earthquake. There were some church records after that but then Zeugma kind of disappeared.

Until very recently, no one knew exactly where the historic Zeugma had been located and of course, no one knew of the existence of these amazing mosaics. However, as part of the GAP – the regional Anatolian development project, which involves damming the Euphrates in several places for both power and irrigation – a dam was being built near the probable site of Zeugma. I don’t know the circumstances that led to the uncovering of the villas and mosaics, but the archeological teams (Turkish, French and Australian) did manage to save the mosaics and move them to Gaziantep. Sadly, there was a problem with looting. One team completely uncovered and photographed a beautiful piece depicting the wedding of Dionysus and Ariadne. However, two thirds of it was subsequently stolen. They found parts of other looted Zeugma mosaics in Texas, one at Rice University and another in a private collection in Houston. Those have been returned.

The villas are now underwater, but it is believed most of the city lies above the water line and is waiting to be excavated. I hope they are right. I could be an amazing find.