Uncovering Antioch: The Ancient City and Its Lost Treasures of Mosaic Art

The story of the making, loss, and recovery of some of the greatest treasures of antiquity, raising questions about ancient mosaic art and its creation, the work of archaeology, and museum practice. In 1932, after years of fundraising and flurries of letters back and forth, an archaeological team from Princeton University gathered in Antioch, Syria.They expected to find sculptures, frescos, palace walls, and busts.Instead, all across this ancient Roman metropolis, they stumbled upon one site after another of extraordinary mosaic treasure, incomparable in number, quality, and historical significance. There were some three hundred of them in all, glories of color and design, stones and pieces of glass heaped up into spectacular images.Many of them were vast, room-sized tableaus, commissioned by wealthy Antiochenes for their villas.They depict banquets, drinking contests, olive harvests; lions, leopards, peacocks, and gazelles; legends, scenes from mythology, Cupid and Psyche, Narcissus a