A monastery built during the Hellenistic and Roman periods era and a 1,500-year-old mosaic was unearthed in the city of Izmir (former ancient Greek city of Smyrna) in Turkey, during a raid by security forces which captured two suspects conducting an illegal excavation.
Later, experts from the Izmir Archeology Museum investigated the site, and the local authorities secured the area.
The mosaic will be taken to a museum after initial studies are performed.
Hunkar Keser, the Izmir Archeology Museum director, that the team came to the region following the Turkish police advised them of the find.
“We discovered the floor mosaic. This place was used as a monastery and had a basilica,” said Keser.
Explaining that the team estimates the monastery was used between the fourth and fourteenth centuries, Keser said the mosaic was precious archaeologically.