Elaborate glass tiles — first of their kind in Turkey — discovered at ancient port
Centuries ago, the ancient city of Andriake sat along the southern coast of Turkey along the Mediterranean Sea.
A bustling port town, it was occupied from the Classical Age to the Romans and Byzantines, Hürriyet Daily News reported.
Now, archaeologists are working to uncover the history buried there and are making discoveries each year.
The digs are part of the Future Heritage Myra and Andriake project, organized and operated by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
On Sept. 8, culture minister Mehmet Ersoy announced on Facebook the discovery of a rare type of glass tile.
“This year, the surprise was the glass plates that we call ‘Millefiori,’ which means ‘thousand flowers.’ We found the flat glass plates, measuring approximately (1.5 square inches), in the area in front of the agora,” Nevzat Çevik, head of the excavation project, told state-run news outlet Anadolu Agency, Hürriyet Daily News reported. Çevik said it took weeks to uncover the potentially thousands of pieces and even longer to put them together like a puzzle, and only 20 to 30 plates are close to completion.
Minister Ersoy said this is the first time this type of artistic tile has been discovered in Turkey, according to the post, and the pieces were likely used as decoration inside important buildings at the time.
To make millefiori, the artist would create glass rods with multi-colored patterns only visible on each end, Heritage Daily reported. When the rod is heated and stretched, the pattern can be cut into cross-sections and used as beads or discs.
The technique was first used in the first century, Çevik said, and by using context clues like coins and ceramics found around the tiles, archaeologists suspect the newly uncovered glass pieces were created during the fifth or sixth century.
The process of making millefiori was lost during the eighth century but revived again in the 19th century, Heritage Daily reported.
“This is a very luxurious wall covering material. These are works that consist of different flowers and patterns, each plate is different,” Çevik told Anadolu Agency, according to Hürriyet Daily News. “Since they are hand-made, the same ones are not produced again. Therefore, each plate is an original work.”
It’s for this reason Ersoy said their discovery should be considered one of the best artifacts found this year in Turkey.
Andriake was located on the southwestern coast of Turkey, about a 530-mile drive south from Istanbul.
Google Translate and Facebook Translate were used to translate the Facebook post from Mehmet Ersoy.
This story was originally published September 10, 2024 at 1:23 PM with the headline "Elaborate glass tiles — first of their kind in Turkey — discovered at ancient port."
