The mosaics of edessa and samosata in the light of middle Euphrates mosaics

The Middle Euphrates covers up the region the provinces of modern Adıyaman, Gaziantep and Şanlıurfa. The region was a suitable place for the mosaic art provided by the reveneus of Euphrates river and its tribularies. Numerous villas with mosaic floors have been unearted at Zeugma in the recent years during intensive salvage excavations. At Samosata on the contrary, which shares the same destiny as Zeugma, only a small group of mosaic have been brought to light, at palace building. Both ancient cities lay now under water of Atatürk?s Dam. Edessa (Şanlıurfa) is the city where many mosaic groups have been discovered mostly by chance. At Edessa almost all mosaics were found in the rock cut tombs peculiar to the city and they display local features. Only a small portion of the discovered mosaics could have been properly recorded and brought to the museums at Istanbul and at Şanliurfa. Further there are photographs left from mosaics which were lost or demaged. Some of the mosaics were illegally brought abroad and kept now in museums or in private collections. All these findings show clearly that the region was quite productive for the mosaic art. In addition it should be stressed that there are quite many mosaics at Edessa which awaits to be discovered, when it is considered that they are covered up with the modern houses built over them at Şanliurfa. The Samosata mosaics were discovered in the rooms at the royal palace of Commagene decorating the floor which belong to the Late Hellenistic period. They reflect the general features of the Late Hellenistic art. One single mosaic is a late specimen found among the ruins of a Byzantine building. It is hard to talk about a local mosaic style at Samosata. Some how it may be concluded that there was a Roman workshop here. A mosaic floor at Zeugma mentions the name of artist from Samosata. It is necessary though to discover first Roman mosaics at Samosata to support this suggestion. Therefore the matter will be always speculative since the city of Samosata buried under the waters of an artificial dam. Key Words: Mosaic, Tessera, Edessa, Samosata, Euphrates