Mosaic Floor Uncovered in Smyrna

IZMIR, TURKEY—Türkiye Today reports that a small room with a mosaic floor has been found in a structure built between the fourth and sixth centuries A.D. at the site of Smyrna, an ancient port on the Aegean coast, by a team of researchers led by Akin Ersoy of Izmir Katip Celebi University. The building is situated on Agora North Street, one of the city’s main streets. The floor measures about 10 feet wide by 13 feet long, and features geometric panels, plant motifs, and intertwined loops known as Solomon’s Knot, a popular image believed to have offered protection from evil and misfortune. Ersoy explained that the mosaic floor had previously been uncovered in the nineteenth century and incorporated into a hospital complex. To read about a remarkably intact mosaic floor uncovered in eastern Turkey, go to "A Day at the Hunt."