Antakya Mosaic Staring at Reyhanli Kilim 

Anatolia is often referred to as a mosaic; the term points to a multicultural composition and to the memories of countless peoples that have existed on this land. Antakya constitutes one of the most beautiful parts of this mosaic. This city had been dominated by the Akkads, Hittites, Assyrians, Persians, Arabs, Seljukians, Memluks, Ottomans, and then it was taken over by the French during the World War I. In 1948, the city put this immense mosaic of cultures into display with a mosaic museum. The first scientific excavations in Antakya had been started by the French in 1932. The museum is located at the side of the Asi river, in the centrum of Antakya which was referred to as “Su sehri (=City of water)” in many old records. In these mosaics it is possible to find all secrets of daily life in the past of this city which is the pearl of the fertile plain of Amik. Amazingly beautiful and well-preserved, and left over especially from the Roman era, the mosaics tell us how game were hunted, how ships sailed, what the tales and the seasons and the heroes of the era were like. From these mosaics we can figure out the clothing style of those times, or even see what types of birds existed back then. You can find each and every one of these traces in every single piece of work created by the hands of those who lived on this land, from its monuments to its ruins, from needleworks to carvings, from carpets to kilims. Not only mosaics, but also artifacts made of stone, gold, and other materials from the Hittitian and Assyrian times are exhibited in the museum.

Antakya is a city of tales. Selevcos, one of the generals of Alexander the Great, gained victory at the combats fought for

land after Alexander’s death and established the city of Seleucia in today’s Kapisuyu region of the Samanda€ county. The city prospered in time with trade and became a significant harbour. Nevertheless, its location rendered it susceptible against attacks, so a more advantageous location was sought, and the city of Antioch was founded in 300 BC where Antakya stands today. Rumor has it that a young virgin girl was sacrificed to summon the blessings of the gods when the city was first founded. It is these gods and epic heroes of the Roman culture that stares at us in the eye upon the walls of this museum. Narcissus sits on a rock in one of the mosaics while Paris stands before a tree in another. Asstrtos the sibling of Medeia is trying to hide behind the skirts of a maid while Dionysos parades along in victory with a cart pulled by two lions.. Ganymedes has an eagle drinking water from a dish in his hand, and Heracles is busy strangling snakes. The god and goddess of the sea are depicted together with various sea creatures in yet another mosaic, and at its corners Eros is riding a dolphin.

Bordered by the mountains of Amanos, or the mountains of Nur as they are called today, Hatay hosts the cultural accumulations from the past while the Mediterranean sea braces its shores, splashing its deep blue over the mosaics drop by drop, and penetrating the kilim backgrounds knot by knot. In Reyhanli kilims you see the harmonious union of blue and green, just the way the green of Amik plain blends serenely into the blue of the Mediterranean. Stark white foam of surf can be seen in a mixture of wool and cotton on the kilims’ borders. Hexagons of honeycombs are formed in the background. As the most prominent characteristic of Reyhanli kilims, these honeycombs stand like reflections of the mosaics.

There are missing pieces in some of the mosaics, but they do not diminish the value of the mosaics or change the fact that the museum is one among the few mosaic museums in the world. Many events have been described in the mosaics. King Agamemnon’s taking his daughter Iphigenia out of her home in order to sacrifice her during the Trojan battles, Narcissus’ falling in love with his own reflection on the water surface –while the fairy Echo stands on a rock, leaning on the lance in his left hand and looking at Narcissus-, and the abduction of Ganymedes by Zeus emerge out of the depths of history to be brought before our eyes.

From the route of migration to the kilims...

In one of the mosaics that provide samples of daily life there is a black man who goes fishing, carrying on his shoulder a net attached to both ends of a stick. In a mosaic from the second century AD a hunting scene is depicted, portraying an Amazon hunting on the back of a pink horse. With the lance in her right hand she stabs a lion on the ground. There are dancing people in another mosaic, and wrestlers in a match in yet another mosaic. The plain of Amik is on the route of migrating birds, but those who wish to stay in the city either hide into a few stones of the mosaics, or cling onto a corner of a kilim. Sometimes an ivy surrounds the bird motifs woven into the borders of a classic Reyhanli kilim. Sometimes the birds refuse to be contained just along the borders and spread themselves over the whole background of the kilim. Dark colors are prominent in the kilims of Reyhanli. On the background there are little cores made of rhomboids arranged in a row. The folk of Anatolia calls these as trunks, and they decorate their interiors with motifs of ram’s horn and scorpion. They add motifs of arms akimbo in between so that the kilim will bring fertility to the house where it is spread. There is no way to tell if the angels that bring fertility to the house and protect it from evil are the same as the angels in the mosaic of Seasons displayed in the Museum of Antakya, but it is impossible for the weavers to stay unaffected by tiles upon tiles of mosaics.

The mosaic of Seasons is one of the priceless pieces in the museum. The seasons in this huge mosaic made in the IInd century AD are symbolized by the angels visible upon the large pieces. Depictions of gods and goddesses can also be seen among the mosaics symbolizing the seasons.

Most of the mosaics were found in Dafne (known as Harbiye today), Antakya, and Tarsus. Some of them were extracted out of bathrooms. A mosaic out of Harbiye tells the tale of the bay tree that symbolizes the city itself: Daphne the nude fairy is on the run and Apollon is just about to catch her. Apollon has a halo of light around his head. Daphne will soon turn into a bay tree so that she will not be caught!

Locations whispering the history...

The museum is of course not the sole attraction in Antakya! The St. Pierre which is the first church of the Christians, the antique city of Issos, the falls of Harbiye where water was carried into the city by canals, the fortress of Koz, Güzelyayla and So€ukoluk, Arsuz the Mediterranean flower of sand, the tunnel of Titus, the fortress of Antakya, the caravanserai of Payas, the Yenisehir lake and environs, the fortress of Bakraz, and the rock tombs from the Roman era in the cavern of Besikli are all pieces of the colorful mosaic of Antakya. Becoming the capital of the Suriye province when it was dominated by the Romans in 64 BC, Antakya was the 3rd great city of the empire with its historical and cultural richness. Monuments, temples, public baths, a theater, a hippodrome, and the agora contributed to this wealth. The city was so ostentatious that the floors of the rich houses around Harbiye were covered with mosaics. A part of what was extracted from here are displayed in the museum of Antakya, but a large quantity of them were spirited away from this land.

We look sadly upon every piece of mosaic abducted and taken abroad, but we are equally proud of every knot of the Reyhanli kilims bought by people from other countries, and we know for sure that our mosaics and our kilims will definitely come together somewhere out there.