Zeugma: A Remarkable Time Capsule of Ancient Roman Art – By Dr Harold Gunatillake
Website: www.Doctorharold.com
Turkey is home to remarkable pieces of humanity’s heritage. Due to its strategic location and natural resources, it has hosted numerous civilisations.
A key site is the ancient city of Zeugma, founded by Seleucus Nicator, one of Alexander the Great’s generals along the Euphrates River in 300 BC. It serves as a time capsule of diverse human history.
Hello viewers, today I’m stepping away from health topics to embark on an inspiring journey into the world of archaeology.
I want to present the archaeological site of Zeugma, located in Turkey.
This ancient city was historically significant as a central crossing point on the Euphrates River.
Zeugma, derived from the ancient Greek term “bridge” or “crossing,” is a remarkable historic site nestled in the picturesque landscape of southeastern Turkey. This ancient city earned its name for its pivotal location at a key crossing over the Euphrates.
River, making it a vital hub where essential east-west and north-south trade routes converged.
Its strategic positioning facilitated commerce and fostered cultural exchanges, contributing to the rich tapestry of history that defines the region today.
The remnants of Zeugma offer a glimpse into a time when it thrived as a bustling centre of trade and interaction among diverse civilisations.
Zeugma was an ancient Hellenistic Greek and Roman city in Commagene. As mentioned, it was named after the bridge of boats, or zeugma, that crossed the Euphrates at that location.
“Zeugma” refers explicitly to the twin cities established on opposite riverbanks.
These Hellenistic settlements were founded by the
commander Seleucus Nicator around 300 BC. On the west bank, the town was named Seleucia in his honour, while the settlement
The east bank was known as Apamea, named after his Persian wife, Apama. This rich history highlights the cultural and commercial significance of Zeugma in the ancient world.
Seleucia became the major eastern frontier City of the Roman Empire. In the first century AD, two Roman legions—Legion X Fretensis and Legion IV Scythica—were stationed in Zeugma, significantly increasing the city’s strategic importance and cosmopolitan nature.
Due to its geopolitically significant location, Seleucia has become an important research site for scholars studying the hybridised local cultures that developed from an influx of Greco-Macedonian and Roman migrants to the region.
In addition to a Semitic population, the city’s inhabitants included Greco- Macedonian migrants brought there by Seleucus, merchants from various areas, high-ranking Roman soldiers whose numbers increased when the town was annexed into the Roman empire, and Roman citizens, legionaries, and civil servants.
Consequently, Zeugma is home to archaeological remains that reflect the complicated, sometimes ambiguous, yet highly varied characters of the ethnicities that mingled within the city and formed new syntheses.
The Zeugma Archaeological Project was a long-term project directed in 2005 at Ankara University.
Although several teams had worked on the site, it was in 2000 because a newly constructed dam would flood part of the site with the waters of the Euphrates River. Extensive salvage excavations were initiated. With the dam’s construction, the whole of Apamea and about 30% of Seleucia were to be flooded. Several Roman residential complexes and a part of the Hellenistic agora were excavated then, and the finds were relocated to the Gaziantep Museum.
The site has yielded many artefacts, including large glass mosaics, colossal cult statues, and 140,000 clay seals.
The Zeugma Mosaic Museum in Gaziantep houses many of the site’s most spectacular artefacts, including mosaics that reflect the daily lives of the Romans.
So, now let’s explore some archaeological artefacts in the museum.
I hope this video on artefacts excavated in Zeugma opens your eyes to the heritage of the Roman Empire and has inspired you. Goodbye until we meet again.
