LINCOLN, NEBRASKA—The damaged marble head from a statue of Aphrodite was discovered at the coastal site of Antiochia ad Cragum, where archaeologists have been uncovering the largest Roman mosaic ever found in Turkey. The 1,600-square-foot mosaic, which features geometric designs, covers the floor of a plaza outside a Roman bath. Scholars think the piece of sculpture may have been headed for a lime kiln near the site, where it could have been burned and reused in concrete. It had been thought that southern Turkey was not greatly influenced by Greek and Roman culture, but the presence of a statue of Aphrodite suggests otherwise. “We have niches where statues once were. We just didn’t have any statues. Finally we have the head of a statue. It suggests something of how mainstream these people were who were living here, how much they were a part of the overall Greek and Roman traditions,” said Michael Hoff of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
