AMERICANALMANAC (Alan Benson) - Archaeologists uncover 2,000-year-old Roman mosaic in Turkey honoring a family's pet cat and dog by name
A Roman-era mosaic unearthed on Turkey's Aegean coast features 15 hand-laid scenes, and two named household pets, Emerald the cat and Ocean the dog, immortalized in stone by a family that clearly loved them. The discovery came during excavations at Adramytteion, an ancient harbor city, where a research team from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University […] The post Archaeologists uncover 2,000-year-old Roman mosaic in Turkey honoring a family's pet cat and dog by name appeared first on American Almanac .
A Roman-era mosaic unearthed on Turkey's Aegean coast features 15 hand-laid scenes, and two named household pets, Emerald the cat and Ocean the dog, immortalized in stone by a family that clearly loved them. The discovery came during excavations at Adramytteion, an ancient harbor city, where a research team from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University has been working since 2012. Led by archaeologist Hüseyin Özgen, the team only recently broke through to the Roman villa itself, excavating the structure across 2025 and early 2026. Inside, they found the mosaic, roughly 16.4 by 11.8 feet, spread across the floor of what had once been a private home. Özgen published his findings in the Journal of Mosaic Research. The mosaic contains 15…Open