Sinop Balatlar Excavation Pebble Mosaic Pavement

Year 2024, Issue: 17, 201 - 217, 04.11.2024

Derya Şahin , Gülgün Köroğlu Mustafa Şahin

https://doi.org/10.26658/jmr.1564712

Abstract

During the 2022 Sinop Balatlar Excavation, a pebble stone mosaic floor was unearthed. The design of the mosaic, which adorns the andron room of a private residence, is U-shaped and the east-west kline sections are planned without decoration. The pebble floor placed horizontally and vertically on a pink nucleus is called the “hedgehog” model. Surrounded by ranke, wave and palmette motifs, a small part of the mosaic, which we think shows a flying Eros and his wingtips on it, has been preserved in the southwestern corner of the main panel. It is very important with the placement technique of the stones on it and the pattern repertoire created with white pebbles on a black ground. Compared to contemporary examples, the pebble mosaic dated to the end of the 5th century BC includes the Gordion and Olynthos mosaics, where the mosaic tradition in Asia Minor dates back, it occupies an important place in the ancient mosaic chronology as it indicates its existence in the 5th century BC.

Keywords

Sinop, Balatlar Excavation, pebble mosaic, andron, Eros

References

• Akurgal - Budde 1956 E. Akurgal - L. Budde, Vorläufiger Bericht über die Ausgrabungen in Sinope, Ankara.
• Bienkowski - Millard 2000 P. Bienkowski - A. Millard, Dictionary of the Ancient Near East, London.
• Bingöl 1997 O. Bingöl, Malerei und Mosaik der Antike in der Türkei, Mainz a.R.
• Bingöl 2023 O. Bingöl, Arkeolojik Mimaride Resim 2, MÖ 500 - MS 400, Ankara.
• Blaylock 2009 S. Blaylock, Tille Höyük 3, The Iron Age, Introduction, Stratification and Architecture, Oxford.
• Böselager 1983 D. von Böselager, Antike Mosaiken in Sizilien, Rome.
• Campbell 1979 S. D. Campbell, “Roman Mosaic Workshops in Turkey”, AJA 83, 3, 287-292.
• D‘Agostino 2019 A. D‘Agostino, “A Mosaic Floor from the Late Bronze Age Building II of Uşaklı Höyük, Central Turkey”, Antiquity 93, 1-8.
• Donalson 1964 M. K. Donaldson, “A Pebble Mosaic in Peiraeus”, Hesperia 3, 2, 77-88.
• Ducrey - Metzger 1979 P. Ducrey - I. R. Metzger, “The House of the Mosaics at Eretria”, Archaeology 32, 6, 34-42.
• Dunbabin 1979 K. M. D. Dunbabin, “Technique and Materials of Hellenistic Mosaics”, AJA 83, 3, 265-277.
• Dunbabin 1999 K. M. D. Dunbabin, Mosaics of the Greek and Roman World, Cambridge.
• Franks 2014 H. Franks, “Travelling, in Theory: Movement as Metaphor in the Ancient Greek Andron”, ArtB 96, 2, 156-169.
• Hoepfner - Schwandner 1994 W. Hoepfner - E. L. Schwandner, Haus und Stadt im klassischen Griechenland, München.
• Knigge - Kovacsovics 1983 U. Knigge - W. Kovacsovics, “Keramaikos. Tätigkeitsbericht 1981”, AA 2, 209-224.
• Kaba - Vural 2018 H. Kaba - H.Vural, “Seventy Years of Archaeology: Sinope archaeology in the Light of Excavations”, Ö. Kıran (ed.), Sinope Through the Eyes of Social Scientists, Ankara, 439-464.
• Kaba - Aksoy 2022 H. Kaba - E. Aksoy, “The Display of Wealth, Status and Power: Two Recently Discovered Mid-fourth century BC Pebble-Mosaic Floors from Sinope”, AnSt 72, 117-139.
• Marchetti 2016a N. Marchetti, “Anadolu, Suriye ve Mezopotamya’nın Kapısı Karkamış”, Aktüel Arkeoloji 50, 44-55.
• Marchetti 2016b N. Marchetti, “The 2014 Joint Turco-Italian Excavations at Karkemish”, 37. KST 3, 363-380.
• Matney et al. 2017 T. Matney - J. MacGinnis - D. Wicke - K. Köroğlu, Ziyaret Tepe, Assur İmparatorluğu’nun Anadolu Sınırlarını Keşfederken, İstanbul.
• Özgüç 1966 T. T. Özgüç, Altıntepe Mimarlık Anıtları ve Duvar Resimleri, Ankara.
• Phillips 1960 K. M. Phillips, “Subject and Technique in Hellenistic Mosaics: A Ganymedee Mosaic from Sicily”, ArtB 42, 4, 243-262.
• Podzuweit - Salzmann 1977 C. Podzuweit - D. Salzmann, “Ein mykenischer Kieselmosaik-Fussboden aus Tiryns”, AA 92, 123-137.
• Preusser 1954 C. Preusser, Die Wohnhäuser in Assur, WVDOG 64, Berlin.
• Robertson 1965 M. Robertson, “Greek Mosaics”, JHS 85, 72-89.
• Robinson 1932 D. M. Robinson, “Mosaics from Olynthos”, AJA 36, 1, 16-24.
• Robinson 1952 D. M. Robinson, “Olynthus: The Greek Pompeii”, Archaeology 5, 4, 228-235.
• Rumscheid 1998 F. Rumscheid, Priene, Führer Durch das “Pompeji Kleinasiens”, İstanbul.
• Salzmann 1982 D. Salzmann, Untersuchungen zu den antiken Kieselmosaiken, AF 10, Berlin.
• Shear 1929 T. L. Shear, “Excavations in the Theater District and Tombs of Corinth in 1929”, AJA 33, 515-546.
• Thureau-Dangin - Dunand 1936 F. Thureau-Dangin - M. Dunand, Til-Barsip, Paris.
• Thureau-Dangin et al. 1931 F. Thureau-Dangin - A. Barrois - G. Dossin - M. Dunand, Arslan-Tash, Paris.
• Westgate 1997-98 R. Westgate, “Greek Mosaics in their Architectural and Social Context”, BICS 42, 93-115.
• Young 1965 S. R. Young, “Early Mosaics at Gordion”, Expedition Magazine 7.3, 4-13.