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.
The well preserved tiles once decorated a bathhouse during the Roman Empire's zenith.
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TechTranscript
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.
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