Recently, two unidentified men, conducting an illegal excavation, stumbled upon an invaluable piece of history in western Turkey. The robbers had inadvertently unearthed a rare mosaic that was once part of a Roman monastery, built nearly 1,500 years ago during the Byzantine era of the Roman Empire. As reported by the Anadolu Agency , a Turkish news service, the two suspects were arrested in Izmir province, Anatolia, as they were trying to remove the Roman monastery remains, by officers of the Turkish Ministry of Interior acting on a tip-off.
A closeup of the fine floor mosaic work from the Roman monastery discovered in Izmir Province, Turkey, after security forces were alerted to the theft in progress. ( Anadolu Agency )
The Remarkable Roman Monastery Discovery at Izmir
The world might have missed out on another glorious Byzantine relic , had the two robbers been subtle enough. Fortunately, they were caught in the act in the Aliaga District of Izmir Province , in a mountainous area with no vehicular access.
Historians and archaeologists from the Izmir Archaeology Museum visited the site and have subsequently taken over. They plan to run a series of studies and then take some artifacts back to the museum for further study.
