Guide
The Haleplibahçe Mosaic Museum in Şanlıurfa holds the mosaics uncovered during the archaeological excavations carried out in the city between 2006 and 2008, found in the floor of a Roman villa.
The mosaic of the Hunting Amazons is dated to the fifth or sixth century AD. It shows the Amazons hunting lions, leopards and wolves, and at its centre is a wounded lion with blood running from its neck up over its head. In the foreground Melanippe and Penthesilea are shown mounted, while behind them Hippolyte and Thermodosa are on foot.
The border framing the panel is worked with acanthus leaves, with a woman's face standing for abundance at each of its four corners, and the successive bands show the hunt of Eros. This is the only panel anywhere in which four different Amazon women appear in the same scene, and the animals and plants are rendered with unusual liveliness.
In another room of the same villa the mosaic of the Life of Achilles was found, showing scenes from the life of the half-divine figure of Greek mythology. The story begins with Achilles as a baby in the arms of his nurse and goes on through his mother Thetis dipping him in the Styx, the young Achilles taking leave of her, the fates spinning the thread of his life, his education by the wise Cheiron, and finally his going to the Trojan war.
The border of that panel holds a farmhouse, angel figures playing reed pipes, horses, sheep and bulls. Celal Uludağ, director of the Şanlıurfa Archaeology and Mosaic Museum, has said that in telling the whole life of Achilles on a single panel this work is the only one of its kind in the world.
