A recently found building with floor mosaics in ancient Halikarnassos

Abstract

In recent years, substantial building activities in the city of Bodrum, ancient Halikarnassos, have brought to light a number of buildings with elaborate<br/>floor mosaics. Some of the buildings seem to be private dwellings, but at least one can be identified as a basilica. Part of a building in Eskiçeşme, near the<br/>harbour of Bodrum, seems to belong to a private dwelling. Besides more rooms grouped around two yards, the building includes two rooms with unique floor<br/>mosaics of which one depicts a Nilotic scene, one of the first examples of this motif to survive from western Asia Minor. Such Nilescapes had a revival in the<br/>provinces of the Near East during Late Antiquity, to which period these pavements presumably belong as well.