Another battle over Zeugma’s heritage

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Once a Roman frontier garrison town, Zeugma has acclaimed as having the best surviving examples of ancient mosaic work in the world. Once trodden on by Roman warriors, now the peerless mosaics are at the centre of a legal battle between authorities and those who seek to preserve what is left of the city’s heritage. A court case was has been opened against the Italian restoration expert Roberto Nardi and his team; Hamza Güllüce, the manager of the Gaziantep Museum where the artefacts were displayed; and the Gaziantep local tourism authority. The reason of the court case is the plan by the Turkish Tourism Ministry to put what have been rated as some of world’s best ancient mosaics on display in Istanbul during the visit of the heads of NATO member states scheduled for June. Ninety NGOs and some individuals have applied to the court to block the Ministry’s plans, claiming there is a possible risk of damage to the pieces salvaged from the site of the ancient Roman city, which has now been flooded by the waters of a new dam. According to an expert report, even packing the mosaics for transport posed a significant risk of damage to the priceless artefacts, with the threat even greater during shipping. The report, submitted to court, said that cracks had appeared in the mosaics during the packaging and underlined the fact that no moving companies could guarantee safe transfer of the pieces. Zeugma, in the Nizip township of the south eastern province of Gaziantep, was the focus of widespread international interest as archaeological teams worked round the clock to unearth and preserve as many of its treasures as possible before the waters of the Birecik Dam covered the site.
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