Lion mosaic latest find in Konuralp ancient city

DÜZCE

Following the recent Alexander the Great statue that was found in September in the ancient city of Prusias ad Hypium in the Konuralp district of Düzce, where excavations have been ongoing for four years, a lion mosaic was unearthed in a room discovered during the excavations.

The head of a statue, found at the top of the theater and determined to belong to Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia, has been delivered to Konuralp Museum.

A statue of Medusa and a statue of Apollo were also found in the ancient city of Konuralp during previous works.
Within the scope of the recent work carried out by the teams, led by the Konuralp Museum Directorate, the lion mosaic was unearthed in the room located at the top of the ancient city’s theater.

The mosaic structure was unearthed in the middle of the theater axis, according to a statement made by the museum. “It was determined that the interior walls of this room structure were covered with marble plates on a thick layer of mortar and that the room had a rectangular plan in the north-south direction. A platform foundation is observed towards the north of the room, towards the interior. It was observed that the entire room was covered with a mosaic floor consisting of white, blue, yellow, green and brown tesserae made with fine workmanship. The edges of the mosaic, decorated with geometric patterns, are made in the form of a frame consisting of larger and colorful tesserae. Artifacts show us that this place was the Dionysus Cult Place,” the statement said.

Düzce Mayor Faruk Özlü stated that they encountered a new artifact every day during the excavations in Konuralp, adding, “We discovered a unique mosaic in Türkiye. This mosaic is an important element of the Ancient Theater here that has not come to light. We had previously found a statue of Medusa, a statue of Apollo and a statue of Alexander the Great here. This is the fourth important artifact we found, a work called the Lion Mosaic. Archaeologists state that it is a unique artifact.”

Previous excavations in the ancient city, known as the “Ephesus of the Western Black Sea,” also revealed an ancient stonemasonry theater, which dates back to the third century B.C., but there is more underground to unearth, including the rest of the theater, aqueducts and a Roman bridge.

Declared an Urban Archaeological Site by the Kocaeli Cultural Heritage Preservation Board, Konuralp’s Prusias ad Hypium is expected to become a frequented destination for people after the excavations are over.

Artifacts unearthed in Prusias and Hypium are exhibited in the archeology hall of the Konuralp Museum, opened in 2003. While artifacts from the Bronze Ages, Hellenistic Ages, and Roman periods are exhibited, most of the artifacts are from the Roman Period, when the city lived its heyday.