The excavations are continuing in the ancient city’s bath-gymnasium complex, a multi-purpose education and social center.
A mosaic-floored hall believed to date back nearly 2,000 years to the Roman Empire period has been uncovered during excavations at the ancient city of Tralleis in Aydın.
Excavations at the ancient city in Efeler district are being carried out under the direction of Professor Murat Çekilmez, a faculty member at Adnan Menderes University’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Located 2 kilometers from the city center, the excavations are continuing in the ancient city’s bath-gymnasium complex, a multi-purpose education and social center.
Çekilmez told state-run Anadolu Agency that the works are being carried out as part of the “Heritage for the Future” project launched by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and that archaeologists recently uncovered what is believed to have been one of the period’s “Olympic” swimming pools.
The excavation team has also uncovered finds related to daily life in the bath-gymnasium complex, as well as artifacts from the Byzantine period.
Çekilmez said the complex served as an important education center in antiquity.
“Children received education here from an early age. At the same time, we believe this was also a center of science because there are spaces within the structure related to schooling,” he said.
“Physical education was also given great importance here. The gymnasium we see here trained many scientists. We know that among them were people from different professions, including doctors and engineers. Tralleis was an area that produced writers and scientists in antiquity, and we are currently bringing this area to light through excavations.”
Çekilmez said excavation works this year focused on the northern section of the bath-gymnasium complex.
“During the excavations here, we found a hall with mosaics. Inside the hall, we encountered a mosaic depicting Poseidon and his sacred animal, the hippocampus. This shows us that the hall was actively used during the Roman Empire period,” he said.
A very well-preserved mosaic
Çekilmez said the discovery was an exciting development, noting that the area was initially thought to have been a workshop from the Byzantine period.
“When we first excavated the mosaic area, we found that there had been a workshop built on top of it during the Byzantine period. We considered it a workshop, but later excavations revealed that there was a mosaic on the floor of the structure,” he said.
“This excited us greatly. A very well-preserved mosaic inside the bath-gymnasium complex of Tralleis is extremely important both scientifically and because it tells us about the daily life and mythology of that period.”
Çekilmez added that parts of the nearly 2,000-year-old mosaics have survived intact and that they aim to open the area to visitors in the near future.
