(Courtesy Matthew Koutsoumannis)
At the beginning of the second
century A.D., the emperor
Trajan founded Plotinopolis
("Plotina's city") in honor of his wife,
Plotina. It soon became an important
Roman city in the eastern area
of Greece, known in antiquity as
Thrace. Like most Roman cities of
its day, Plotinopolis had a public bath
structure. Digging where he believes
the baths were located, archaeologist
Matthew Koutsoumanis has recently
unearthed the large and well-preserved
mosaic that once covered the bath
building's floors. Thus far, 104 square
feet of mosaics have been uncovered,
which Koutsoumanis believes is about
one quarter of the entire floor surface.
He hopes to have the entire mosaic
exposed by spring 2012.
The mosaics, which date to the
second half of the second or the
early-third century A.D., show various
scenes from Greek mythology,
including the stories of Leda and
the swan and the labors of Hercules,
as well as a great variety of intricate
multicolored geometric patterns.
"Finding these mosaics has been
really thrilling," says Koutsoumanis,
who has been digging at Plotinopolis
for more than 15 years. "It feels like
totally new, exciting information is
there for us every day, just waiting
to be discovered."
