UNL archaeological team unearths giant Roman mosaic in southern Turkey

An overhead perspective of the roughly 40 percent of the mosaic uncovered so far. Researchers expect its total area to be about 1,600 square feet when fully unearthed next summer. The mosaic is near a third-century imperial temple in the city of Antoichia ad Cragum, near the Mediterranean on the southern Turkish coast. The geometric patterns and ornamentations are quintessentially Roman in design, said Michael Hoff, Hixson-Lied Professor at UNL and the director of the excavation. A view of the mosaic uncovered thus far, along with what appears to be a 25-foot-long Roman bath. Researchers, students and workers spent two months unearthing and cleaning the mosaic this summer. The Roman bath uncovered during the summer. A detailed photograph of the tesserae, or tiles, that make up the massive Roman mosaic. A University of Nebraska-Lincoln archaeological team has uncovered a massive Roman mosaic in southern Turkey -- a meticulously crafted, 1,600-square-foot work of decorative handiwork built during the region's imperial zenith. It's believed to be the largest mosaic of its type in the region and demonstrates the reach and cultural influence of the Roman Empire in the area in the third and fourth centuries A.D., said Michael Hoff, Hixson-Lied professor of art history at UNL and the director of the excavation. "Its large size signals, in no small part, that the outward signs of the empire were very strong in this far-flung area," Hoff said. "We were surprised to have found a mosaic of such size and of such caliber in this region -- it's an area that had usually been off the radar screens of most ancient historians and archeologists, and suddenly this mosaic comes into view and causes us to change our focus about what we think (the region) was like in antiquity." Since 2005, Hoff's team has been excavating the remains of the ancient city of Antiochia ad Cragum on the southern Turkish coast. Antiochus of Commagene, a client-king of Rome, founded the city in the middle of the first century.