A mosaic floor featuring an image of a lion has been unearthed in northwestern Turkey at the site of the ancient Greek city of Prusias ad Hypium by researchers from the Konuralp Museum, Turkish media reported on November 17.
The mosaic served as the floor of a room situated on the upper edge of the city’s third-century B.C. theatre, Hürriyet reported. The interior walls of the room, which is thought to have been used by a cult of Dionysus, were covered with marble plates.
The floor was decorated with white, blue, yellow, green, and brown tesserae surrounding the lion image, while geometric patterns were used as a border.
A sculpted head depicting Alexander the Great, and statues of Medusa and Apollo, have also been recovered at the site. To read about how different ancient cultures incorporated lions into their art and religious practices, go to "When Lions Were King."
Düzce Mayor Faruk Özlü stated that they encountered a new artifact every day during the excavations in Konuralp, adding, “We discovered a unique mosaic in Turkey. This mosaic is an important element of the Ancient Theatre here that has not come to light."
"We had previously found a statue of Medusa, a statue of Apollo and a statue of Alexander the Great here. This is the fourth important artifact we found, a work called the Lion Mosaic. Archaeologists state that it is a unique artifact," he added.
READ MORE: Student Uses AI To Decipher Ancient Greco-Roman Scroll And Wins $40K Prize.
