south of Belkis Hill Gaziantep Museum Directorate The first excavations were started by. The chamber tomb carved into the bedrock and many statues left over from smugglers were found during the excavation in front of it. Gaziantep MuseumIt was moved to . These limestone sculptures belonging to the grave owners are exhibited in the Belkıs Hall of the Gaziantep Museum.
The excavation to save the floor mosaic with the wedding scene of Dionysus and Ariadne was carried out by the Gaziantep Museum. This mosaic was also first accessed by smugglers many years ago, and later, due to a dispute between the seller and the buyer, the incident broke out and excavations began.
With the Birecik dam coming to the agenda in these years, Gaziantep Museum accelerated the excavations without waiting for new news of illegal excavations. Apart from the expansion of the existing Roman villa, action was taken to save the remains of the large-scale illegal excavations that have been carried out in Belkıs/Zeugma since 1955. In the early years, there were tomb stelae with eagle and wool basket reliefs lined up on the terrace in front of the rock tomb opened in previous years in Şelte Creek, a decapitated limestone statue in front of a vaulted tomb in Çimlitepe Location, and a floor with an image of the goddess of seasons in the north-west of Ayvaz Hill. He removed the mosaic and took it to the Gaziantep Museum.
With the participation of the Archeology team from the University of Western Australia in the rescue excavations carried out by the Gaziantep Museum, the work reached an international level for the first time. But it turned out that the floor mosaic floor of the first Roman Villa reached on the hill east of the Kelekağzı location was also removed by smugglers. It has been revealed that the mosaic paintings removed from the letters left behind by the smugglers belong to two immortal lovers, Metiox and Partenope, and that they are in the museum of Huston, USA.
Rescue excavations were carried out under the direction of Dr. Catherine Abadi REYNAL from Nantes University, France, and the Gaziantep Museum. With this participatory excavation, the city of Belkis was discussed in its entirety. Settlement floors and sewers were unearthed in Kelekağzı locality, Byzantine and Roman houses and sewers built with block cut stones were unearthed in Halme stream, and an olive oil workshop was unearthed in Bahçedere. Electro-Geophysical studies were carried out to identify the graves in the necropolis and to the extent the land allowed. Additionally, a floor mosaic floor depicting the Minoan Bull was unearthed on the floor of the dining room of a Roman Villa in the Mezarlıküstü area. Daidalos and his son Eykaros, known as the first people to grow wings and fly, are also depicted in this mosaic. The excavation carried out in 1998-99 in the Kelek Mouth area highlighted the magnitude of the illegal excavations carried out in Belkıs. Here, it was determined that the illustrated floor mosaic floor of a hall of approximately 20×15 dimensions in a monumental building had been dismantled piece by piece in previous years. The elders of Belkıs, whose information was consulted during the excavations, stated that this and many similar mosaic floors were dismantled in the 1960s and 70s and taken to Syria on camels. Apart from the floor mosaic with the Akratos Goddess of Seasons and satyrs, there was another mosaic that was taken to the Gaziantep museum. This rare artifact, called Gypsy, is the head of a woman who narrowly escaped the wrath of smugglers. The mosaic artist placed its pupil in such a way that its eyes look at you no matter where you are in the 360-degree angle around it. The eyes of this female head on display are now watching the visitors of the Gaziantep museum from a 360-degree angle. Upon hearing that another mosaic was located in the Kelekağzıüstü area, the mosaic that was dismantled in the first room was unearthed in the excavation here, the mosaic of Dionysus in one of the other rooms, and the mosaic of Okeanos, the chief god of the rivers, and Tethis were unearthed in the other. Apart from these mosaics, the Roman archive found by the Gaziantep Museum as a result of the original rescue excavations carried out on the top of the pier proves how important and vibrant a city Belkıs/Zeugma was. A total of 65 thousand seal impressions were discovered in this archive room. This number is more than the seal impressions found and published in all other ancient cities. Seal impressions with pictures on them were used to seal documents such as papyrus, parchment, bags containing valuable items, food and drink containers and customs bales. As a result of stamping the clay paste attached to these types of items, the seals or pictures on the ring stone appeared on the clay paste. These seals were preserved in the archive room as proof that mail items were received or opened.
Gaziantep Museum Directorate has intensified the rescue excavations in the area above the Belkıs/Zeugma cemetery, which will remain under the Birecik Dam lake, with the contributions of Gaziantep Governor Mr. Muammer Güler and the Birecik Dam Consortium and Birecik Dam Inc. During the work, which is still continuing at full speed, most of the two Roman villas were unearthed within three months. These are the dining rooms, the recreation room, the pool and the implivium, the garden and its surrounding columned pool (atrium), the living room, the cellar and the Latrine. Mosaic floors depicting various subjects were found on the floors of five of these rooms. Four of them were removed and moved to the Gaziantep museum.
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From Works
LIVING ZEUGMA ILLUSTRATION
Zeugma, which had its most glorious days in the 2nd century AD, was one of the 4 largest cities of the Roman Empire. Zeugma was truly a magnificent city, where high-ranking officers resided, as it was the headquarters of the 4th Legion, and rich merchants lived, due to its strategic advantages.
EROS MOSAIC WITH DOLPHIN
In this mosaic, unearthed during rescue excavations sponsored by Packard Humanities Institutes, figures of Eros, the god of Cup, are depicted on dolphins.