In the 1st and 2nd centuries AD Roman art reached its zenith, and Zeugma, one of the four principal cities of the kingdom of Commagene, came under Roman rule in 72 AD, entering a period of prosperity and peace. Artists who came here from the four corners of the empire produced exuberant works of art to adorn this lovely city. Pebbles of every colour and shade were gathered from the bed of the Euphrates and used to make mosaics in which every tone of the six principal colours convey light and shade with such subtlety that the figures seem vibrant with life. From these pebbles, worn smooth by the cool waters of Euphrates, were created pictures of gods, goddesses and mythological scenes. A mosaic pavement found in one of the hillside villas in Zeugma depicts Oceanus, god of the great stream thought to encircle the world and father of all rivers, and his wife Tethys, who symbolised the abundance of the sea. One of their sons was Euphrates, who created the Tigris and the land of Mesopotamia between these two rivers.

Along the banks of the Euphrates, gardens and orchard flourished even in the blazing heat of summer, and fish species unique to the river inhabited its waters. The Euphrates, which rises on the high plateaus to the north of Zeugma, has given birth to a succession of civilisations, nourished them with its flora and fauna, and brought them prosperity since prehistoric times. The Euphrates flows to the east of the Turkish city of Gaziantep, which lies at the centre of the area of Upper Mesopotamia known as the Fertile Crescent. In the Middle Paleolithic Age, when Neanderthal man was spreading around the world, the conducive conditions here made Gaziantep an important centre of human settlement. In the area stretching westwards from the banks of the Euphrates to Islahiye Plain are the traces of many civilisations, including the renowned archaeological sites of Kargamis, Zincirli, Tilmen Höyük and Sakçagözü.

The quarry here was the largest in the Near East from the last quarter of the second millennium until the 8th century BC. The Assyrians carried the sculptors back to Assyria, putting an end to work in the sculpture workshop, and time has stood still here since the moment it was abandoned. It is as if the sculptors left their winged lions, mountain gods and sphinxes to guard over their homeland in their absence.

* EMEL ÇELEBI