Monday, November 12, 2012

Zeugma Mosaics

When I went on the Archaeology Magazine website for an article to blog about I saw an image of a Roman mosaic on the home page. The Roman mosaic was of a girl and it was familiar to me, because my family had purchased a mosaic picture from an art show in Lawernce, KS. The purchased art looked very similar to the piece on the site, so now I know that the artist who did the mosaic must have been inspired by the ancient Zeugma mosaic.
The article on the site was talking about a flood that occured in the year 2000, which had effected anicent Zeugma. Many people wanted to protect the ancient city and have been saving mosaics from the area. There is a museum of mosaics from Zeugma.
Zeugma was orignally named Seleucia, created by one of Alexander the Great's Commanders. Seleucia had been a military colony on the western side of the river. He also established another city, which was named Apamea. The second city was on the eastern side of the bank and was connected to Seleucia by a bridge. Later on the Romans conqueared Seleucia and renamed it Zeugma. In ancient Greek, Zeugma meant "bridge." Though, the bridge and Apamea did not survie.
In the imperial period the city Zeugma had became important to the Romans. Zeugma was a large and economical border city. Zeugma did not last too long, because it was attacked in A.D. 253.
The article said that the mosaics were important part of the houses attitude or the mood. In each room a mosaic told a story. It also said the mosaics reflected the owner of the houses interests or art taste.
I have always kind of liked mosaics, because mosaics can be compared  to the art style of pointillism or maybe puzzles. Mosaics seem to have movement in them. If the tiles are altered in a certain way like a line it brings life to the piece.
Here is the photo of the moszic:
Roman mosaics
The mosaic my family owns is not as vivid or deep in color and contrast as the orignal. Also the one at home is more stylized and simple. I guess not as realistic as this one.
I got all the information and picture from this site: http://www.archaeology.org/1211/features/zeugma_turkey_belkis_roman_mosaics.html

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