Syrian archaeologists will present the Rastan mosaic, a fourth-century floor mosaic showing Trojan War heroes fighting Amazons, at the Collège de France on Friday 6 November.
Houmam Saad, an archaeologist with Syria’s antiquities directorate, will give the talk with art historian Komait Abdallah, according to the Collège de France program. Professor Jean-Luc Fournet invited the pair. The lecture is open to the public.
The talk centres on the Greek labels above each figure in the Rastan mosaic. According to the program, they name rarely shown heroes such as Idomeneus and Thoas, as well as Amazons not recorded in any ancient text or artwork.
Those Amazon names include Piroina, Sdko, Zobira, Aria and Anthea, the abstract said. In addition, several sea nymphs in a separate panel carry names previously unknown in ancient art.
Rastan mosaic panels
The floor holds three picture panels set in a geometric design. One shows the sea god Poseidon with Amymone, while another shows a battle of the Amazons.
In that battle scene, Achilles and Heracles defeat the Amazon queens Penthesilea and Hippolyta. Around them, ten Trojan War heroes face ten Amazons. The third panel shows the Centaurs fighting the Lapiths and wild animals.
Looters first found the Rastan mosaic during illegal digging in 2017, the abstract said. Syrian archaeologists then rescued and excavated it in 2022 and 2023. They dug a tunnel under a modern road to uncover it in its entirety.
From discovery to Paris
Syrian officials unveiled the Rastan mosaic in October 2022 and called it the most important find since the war began in 2011, the Associated Press reported. It covers about 120 square metres.
Greek City Times reported the discovery of the mosaic in Syria at the time. Later, in June 2023, Syrian authorities announced the third panel with the Centaurs.
Rastan, near Homs, stands on the site of ancient Arethusa. Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great’s successors, founded the city in the third century BC, according to the Roman historian Appian.
Saad and Abdallah describe the inscriptions as evidence of wealthy patrons’ deep knowledge of myth in Roman Syria.
Source: Collège de France
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