From Antioch to Oklahoma : The Cilicia mosaic rediscovered

The Cilicia mosaic from the House of Cilicia, Antioch, excavated in 1938, is described in relation to its setting. The personification of Cilicia which gives it its name was combined with another figure, which holds a cornucopia; this has normally been identified as Mesopotamia, but could equally represent a place in Anatolia, perhaps close to Antioch. Of the busts of rivers at the corners of the pavement, the two that survive depict the Tigris and Pyramos, and one of the missing pair has been assumed to be the Euphrates; but the Tigris rises in Cilicia and the missing rivers may also have had a local reference: one could be the Orontes itself. The vicissitudes suffered by the mosaic after it was transported to the USA are described. The Cilicia panel and one of the adjacent geometric panels have recently been reunited, restored and put on display in the Sam Noble Museum, University of Oklahoma.