Roman villa and mosaic found in Turkey

[guy]

 

There continue to be wonderful Roman discoveries in modern Turkey. This discovery is in the southern Turkey of province of Hatay.

 

 

 

https://www.dailysabah.com/life/history/roman-villa-mosaic-uncovered-in-southern-turkey-during-construction

[caesar novus]

16 hours ago, guy said:

There continue to be wonderful Roman discoveries in modern Turkey. This discovery is in the southern Turkey of province of Hatay.

This appears to be near the key Roman city of Antioch, sadly erased in 1268. I'm trying to avoid a chore so will riff a few half baked observations.

Wiki sez in 1268: "The people of Antioch fought fiercely, but the Muslims scaled the walls by the mountain near the citadel and came down into the city. The people fled to the citadel, and the Muslim troops started to plunder, kill and take prisoners. Every man in the city was put to the sword – they numbered more than a hundred thousand." Another source is cited with surrender, lower death toll, yet physical destruction.

Is Turkey able to protect it's digs? There seem to be a mixed record, and Turkey appears increasingly on edge. BTW thanks for not toadying up to the recent dictatorial "rebranding" to "Turkiye" which even the CIA country factbook does. As english speakers we name things as we like, not what propagandists propose. I called Leningrad as St Petersburg even when visiting at a time there was no expectation yet of returning to that traditional name. I haven't switched to the new tinpot dictator name for Burma and am undecided about Bombay.

Just anecdotally, I thought the pattern was that digs and especially underwater sites couldn't be protected against looters or development. Eg. Eurasianet said threatened “Allianoi is as significant as the Roman baths at Baden-Baden in Germany, Bath in England, and some big baths in Italy, but it was the only one that was very well preserved,” he said. “We couldn’t make the government understand this significance.” Although the Ministry of Culture designated Allianoi as a protected archaeological dig in 2000, the government’s support for the dam project never wavered."

Although what protection can even a well intentioned gov't do with devastating inflation? The Guardian recently said about Turkey: "independent economists showed consumer prices had risen by 175% in June compared with a year earlier. ENAG said prices had risen by 71.4% since the start of 2022." ... "and caused the lira to plunge to a record low, pushing up costs in a country that is dependent on imported materials, especially energy." Our family fortune was wiped out by a mere 20% inflation in the 70's as a century of frugal enterprise and investment went up in smoke.

CIA factbook sez "increasing poverty and unemployment; endemic corruption;" ... "three credit ratings agencies downgraded Turkey’s sovereign credit ratings, citing concerns about the rule of law and the pace of economic reforms." UNESCO sez "deeply regrets the lack of dialogue and information" on protected Roman monument "conversion of the Hagia Sophia and <> to mosques come as Erdogan tries to muster nationalist supporters in the midst of an economic crisis created by the pandemic."

On the optimistic side, Turkey seems to be balancing the east/west conflict surprisingly well. While it gives refuge to targeted Russian superyachts, it provides high tech drones to Ukraine. It keeps to the letter of the treaty about who can pass their strait to Black Sea and apparently just refused passage to a Russian shipment of stolen grain, as well as warships from the west. It seems to have mixed feelings about NATO, but this affiliation led to teflon treatment from Russia who carefully avoided bombing some Turkish assets in Ukraine.

And I included my longest video in a Roman museum playlist for one of Antalya Turkey. If I have this cued up right, you can navigate thru this list on a laptop with shift+N or P (something like 2 finger touch for mobile):

 

Edited July 6, 2022 by caesar novus

[caesar novus]

8 hours ago, caesar novus said:

Is Turkey able to protect it's digs? There seem to be a mixed record,

Is the below item in my Ruins playlist representative of how they protect Ephesus, crown jewel Roman site? Unsupervised at opening time and selfies past the "do not pass" line; hopefully they had surveillance cameras for more serious hanky panky:

 

Edited July 6, 2022 by caesar novus

[guy]

 

The Hatay Archaeological Museum has a wonderful collection of Roman antiquities. Here are some of the fabulous mosaics in its collection: