Zeugma Museum, Gaziantep: State of the Art Display of Roman Mosaics

A few months ago, I happened to come across an article in the inflight magazine of one of Turkey's airlines about the newly opened state-of-the-art museum in Gaziantep which housed the mosaics salvaged from the Roman villas of Zeugma, an ancient town on the west bank of the Euphrates which was submerged in the waters of the Birecik Dam in the early 21st century. The article aroused my curiosity about this brand new purpose-built mueseum, and I decided to take a look at it during my next visit to southeastern parts of Turkey.

The mosaics rescued from Zeugma used to be displayed in the much smaller Archaeological Museum in the city centre of Antep; but due to lack of space in the museum, only a small fraction of the mosaics can be shown to the public. As part of the grand scheme to raise the international profiles of Antep as a tourist destination for cultural visitors from all over the world, the city government of Gaziantep decided to invest in building this modern museum on a piece of land just a short drive outside the city centre, which is big enough to exhibit all the mosaic panels salvaged from the large-scale rescue operations at the site of Zeugma by a team of archaeologists from both Turkey and abroad.

Although the new museum is already open to visitors, some parts of the exhibition space still remained closed  to the public until the remaining mosaic panels are properly restored. For the time being, about 60% of the mosaics taken from Zeugma are on public display, and the admission ticket costs just 5TL, a very reasonable amount considering the tremendous efforts involved in the salvage operations and the priceless qualities of these mosaic panels. Come to think about it, 5TL is almost like a bargain when you take into account that the admission to the site of the ancient city of Bergama now costs a staggering 20TL. There are good reasons to believe that once all mosaic panels have been installed inside the museum, the admission ticket will get a price hike.

It is not difficult to get to the new Zeugma Museum by public transport. From the city centre of Antep, tthere is a direct bus which would stop right in fron tof Zeugma Museum. Just look out for signs on the bus that says 'Zeugma Muzesi'. Alternatively one can take any buses from downtown Antep that pass by the neighbourhood of Karsiyaka, tell the driver you want to visit the Zeugma Museum and ask him to let you off at a T-junction about 5 minutes by foot from the side of the museum. For those coming from the direction of Antep's otogar, the inter-city bus station, take any bus that has the sign 'Sumerbank' on the front, the bus will pass by the frontside of this huge white building, and there is a bus stop just 100m from the front entrance of the museum. 

The difference between this new purpose-built museum and most other museums in Turkey famous for their mosaic collections - notably the one in Antakya - is, the Zeugma Museum is designed based on the concept of presenting the mosaics to the public by re-creating, as far as conditions allowed, the 'original' way in which these mosaic panels were found when they were first discovered in the respective houses in Zeugma. In other words, mosaic panels were placed side by side one another in the midst of life-size models of half-ruined Roman columns, houses, and villas with fountains and pool that sought to replicate the spatial and contextual atmosphere of that particular part of Zeugma where the mosaics once lay. The mosaic panels exhibited on the ground floor of the museum were placed according to the order they were found in Zeugma. 

Zeugma, meaning 'bridge' or 'bridge of boats', was an important crossing point on the Euphrates, given the settlement's location at the narrowest point of the river that also served as the border between the Roman and the Persian Empire until the second century AD. Due to the town's strategic location on the Silk Road, it was a key trading centre and a military garrison and reportedly had had up to 80,000 inhabitants at its height.  

The beautiful mosaics found in Zeugma were commissioned by the town's rich and affluent residents for their luxury houses and villas on the slopes of the hills overlooking the Euphrates - a bit like the way modern millionaires asked well-known artists and interior designers to decorate their luxury countryside residence on the Côte d'Azur or Marbella. Many of the mosaics found in Zeugma were made by mosaic masters from the town of Samsat, also on the west bank of the Euphrates, near present-day Adiyaman.

Amongst the museum's collection of Zeugma mosaics is this huge floor mosaic of the Sea God Poseidon, surrounded by different varieties of marine creatures. The depiction of the various types of fish, sea snakes, octopus etc. are so vivid and congenial, this is probably my favourite piece amongst the entire collection.

As one moves from one panel of mosaic to another, one just cannot help but to be moved by the sheer determination and tremendous efforts put  in by all the archaeologists who tried their best to race against time to salvage as much mosaics as possible from the site of Zeugma. Many of the mosaics on display at the museum were rescued often at the very last-minute from the waters, literally just hours before the house in which the mosaics were located was to be inundated by the rising waters. Huge water damage marks can still be seen on several of the mosaic panels, which serve as a reminder to the precarious fates once faced by these pricess treasures. 

Apart from the threat of the ever-rising water levels from the dam, the mosaics of Zeugma were also susceptible to threats from artefact thieves and treasure hunters. The theft and smuggling of cultural and historical artefacts located in Turkey is a huge business, in part due to the lack of any detailed inventories of the artefacts and inadequate anti-theft security measures in most museums and historical sites. The mosaics at the excavation site of Zeugma were no exception. There were several cases of parts, even whole mosaic floor, at Zeugma being stolen by treasure hunters and smuggled out of the country during the winter months when the excavation works at Zeugma were halted to harsh weather conditions in winter. In their attempts to race against time and the relic robbers, the archaeologists involved with the salvage operations in Zeugma even undertook to continue their excavations throughout the winter months to prevent any further loss of mosaics to artefact smugglers.    

This particular piece of mosaic panel, a depiction of the legendary lovers Metiokhos and Parthenope, also has a very legendary story in real life. The mosaic panel was itself victim of cultural artefact thefts. When the mosaics on the pavement of a Roman villa were found by the archaelogists, the upper part of the two figures were already missing, and it took a long time and a lot of luck before the missing parts were identified by chance by a researcher, who came across the missing mosaics at the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas. Unlike the fateful love affairs of the protagonists, this story has a happy ending: after decades of separation, the two lovers were finally reunited in this museum in Antep after the Turkish government sucessfully asked for the return of the stolen mosaics from the US.

The 'Gypsy girl' is probably the most famous piece of mosaics in the entire collection. You find it on cups, mugs, magnets, books, posters, postcards, and countless other items which can be purchased at the museum shops outside the main entrance of the Zeugma Museum. Actually the Gypsy Girl is just part of a huge piece of mosaic panel that covers the length of an entire wall, but sadly enough most of the mosaics on this panel had been stolen by artefact smugglers before they could be removed to the museum. Only a small fragment of the original mosaics escaped the attention of the smugglers. This particular piece of treasure is termed 'the Mona Lisa' of the East, as her eyes seem to follow you no matter from which direction you look at her. The Gypsi Girl mosaic is now on display behind a special protective glass inside a darkened room specially designed to enhance the effects of her glaze.

Approximately half of the display space on the second floor of the museum complex is still not open to the public as of November 2011, as restoration works of mosaics recently removed from the archaeological museum in the city centre were still being carried out.

One unique characteristic of this museum is the use of interactive multi-media technology to introduce the mosaics to the visitors. In addition to the screen room where films with regard to the history of Zeugma and the way the priceless mosaics were removed and restored by archaeologists, there are touch-screen information panels with details about each panel of mosaics on display, the background of myths and stories depicted in the mosaics, the history behind the re-discovery of these pieces, and enlarged pictures of the fragments. There are also simulated games such as jigsaw puzzles and image projectors which, equipped with a movement sensor, would illuminate the floor with simulated images of different mosaic panels whenever someone moves within the scope of the movement sensor. The simulated images are shown to be at the bottom of a pool with fishes swimming and leaves floating around. The faster visitors move their feet over the projected image, the faster the fishes and the leaves in the waters would swim and float.

The Museum is open daily except Monday. Entry is 5TL as of November 2011.

Copyrights@2011. All text and photos by YC Cheng. All Rights Reserved.