Roman Floor Mosaic found in Bulgaria

**Skjaldemjøden** · 10-02-2016, 12:26 AM

Archaeologist Discovers Floor Mosaic from Ancient Roman City Augusta Traiana in Bulgaria’s Stara Zagora

^{The newly discovered Ancient Roman floor mosaic covers an area of 60 square meters.}

A floor mosaic from the Ancient Roman city of Augusta Traiana has been discovered during rescue archaeological excavations in the southern Bulgarian city of Stara Zagora.
The newly found Ancient Roman mosaic floor dates back to the beginning of the 4th century AD, reports local news site InfoZ.
It has been discovered by archaeologist Assist. Prof. Mariya Kamisheva from the Stara Zagora Regional Museum of History.
The Augusta Traiana – Vereia Archaeological Preserve also made the news as recently as the spring of 2016 with the discovery of two huge family tomb sarcophagi.
The Ancient Roman city of Ulpia Augusta Traiana was probably founded ca. 107 AD by Roman Emperor Trajan (r. 98-117 AD) (after whom it was named) on the site of a previously existing Ancient Thracian settlement called Beroe. (Some recent research indicates it might have been founded by Trajan’s successor, Emperor Hadrian (r. 117-138 AD).) It quickly became the second most important city in the Roman province of Thrace after Philipopolis (Trimontium), today’s Plovdiv.

^{Lead archaeologist Mariya Kamisheva showing the newly discovered mosaic in the Ancient Roman city of Augusta Traiana, Bulgaria’s Stara Zagora.}

The newly found Roman mosaic floor has been discovered during rescue excavations along the Ruski Street in Stara Zagora.
The mosaic, which has a total area of 60 square meters and is made up of colorful tesserae, used to decorate the floor in the main hall of local Roman Era aristocrats’ rich home.
It used to feature a central image of a pagan deity which, however, was scratched out after the adoption of Christianity in the Late Antiquity. For the time being, the originally portrayed deity has not been identified.
Beautiful and relatively well preserved Ancient Roman floor mosaics are no rare finds in the Augusta Traiana – Vereia Archaeological Preserve in Bulgaria’s Stara Zagora.

The newly found mosaic is comparable to the already famous mosaic entitled “Dionysus’s Procession", also known as “Silenus with Bacchantes", depicting Dionysus’s tutor and companion Selenus leading two dancing bacchantes, according to lead archaeologist Kamisheva, the Monitor daily reports.
The “Dionysus’s Procession" mosaic was discovered by Kamisheva and fellow archaeologist Dimitar Yankov back in 2011. Since then, it has been restored with a total of USD 45,588 in funding from the the American Research Center in Sofia and the America for Bulgaria Foundation, Sofia-based NGOs, and exhibited in the Antiquity Hall of the Stara Zagora Regional Museum of History.
The lead archaeologist says that not unlike “Dionysus’s Procession" the newly discovered mosaic was created at about the same time. Both decorated the floors of rich homes inside the fortress walls of the Roman city of Augusta Traiana.
The residential building where the new mosaic floor has been found was located next to one of the main streets of Augusta Traiana.
Large stone slabs have survived from the pavement of the street which had east-west orientation. Next to them, the archaeological team has found Antiquity glass and numerous bronze coins which are yet to be studied. A foundry workshop was also probably located nearby judging by the discovery of traces of molten iron.
For the time, the fate of the newly found Ancient Roman mosaic floor. It will probably be dismantled, and later restored and exhibited whenever sufficient funding is procured.

^{Archaeologist Mariya Kamisheva showing the central image of the mosaic floor, a pagan deity which was scratched out after the adoption of Christianity}

http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com/201...-stara-zagora/