Ar-Rastan, Syria —
Syria on Wednesday revealed a remarkably intact 1,600-year-old
Roman-era mosaic including depictions of warriors in the Trojan War, with
authorities hailing it as one of the “rarest” found.
اضافة اعلان
The mosaic is
the latest to be found in Rastan in northern Syria’s Homs district, which the
government seized back from rebels in 2018 after years of bloodshed.
Soldiers
carrying swords and shields are seen with the names of Greek leaders who took
part in the
Trojan War, said Hammam Saad, who heads excavations and
archaeological studies at Syria’s General Directorate of Museums.
“It is not the
oldest of its kind, but it’s the most complete and the rarest,” Saad said. “We
have no similar mosaic.”
Discovered
beneath a building, archaeologists have so far revealed a mosaic stretching
some 20m long and 6m wide, but it is believed that more remains to be found.
Syria was an
archaeologist’s paradise, home to some of the oldest and best-preserved jewels
of ancient civilizations, but over a decade of war damaged beyond repair some
of its fabled past.
Mosaics adorn
many of Syria’s most famous archaeological sites, including Damascus’ Umayyad
Mosque, the Maarat Al-Numan Museum in Idlib, as well as the floors and murals
of the ancient city of Palmyra.
Daesh overran
Palmyra in 2015, turning the ancient city into a stage for public executions
and destroying its famed Arch of Triumph, the shrine of Baal Shamin, and the
Temple of Bel.
All of Syria’s
six
UNESCO world heritage sites sustained some level of damage.
In the Homs
province, the ancient Umm Al-Zinar church was burnt down, the Khalid Ibn
Al-Walid mosque was damaged, while mosaics in Rastan were looted.
The chaos that
engulfed Syria at the peak of the war allowed moveable pieces — such as coins,
statuettes and mosaic fragments — to be scattered worldwide through the
antiquities black market.
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