A rough tile floor with geometric designs, unearthed at a preclassic Hittite site in central Turkey, is the oldest known mosaic in the world, according to a study published by Anacleto D'Agostino of the University of Pisa.
In addition, he adds, the place where the mosaic was found, the mound of Usakli Hoyuk, could be the lost Hittite city of Zippalanda, something that has been considered for a few years, as we pointed out in a previous article.
The multicolored surface is in the courtyard of the public building that archaeologists interpret as a temple to the Storm God. The Late Bronze Age floor, made of stones of different sizes and shapes, is thus the earliest known interpretation of geometric patterns in rock. The later mosaics that most people are most familiar with are the so-called pebble mosaics made of small round unworked stones, or mosaics made of small flattened cubic or rectangular tiles.
In contrast, the Usakli mosaic consists of 3,147 irregularly shaped stone pieces, plus the occasional pebble. The part exposed so far measures around 3 by 7 meters in area.
All the stones were laid flat, not touching each other, and formed geometric patterns in contrasting dark and light colors. The mosaic consists of three rectangular frames, each of which contains three rows of triangles of different colors, mainly white, light red and blue-black. Two stones are orange-yellow. It was framed with stones placed perpendicularly in white, black-blue and white again.
The mosaic and the eastern wall of the building interpreted as a temple of the Storm God do not touch each other but have the same orientation. The mosaic frame runs exactly parallel to the wall. These two Bronze Age buildings are clearly contemporary, according to D'Agostino. In addition, the building and the mosaic are characterized by a high status architecture , while later remains in the city (late Bronze and Iron Age) are not, giving rise to the theory that this city was Zippalanda, and thus the temple would have been for the Storm God.
The Hittites used to pave their streets and the courtyards of public buildings, although some interior rooms were also paved , Add. The ground today may seem hard to walk on, but that is because it was disturbed and modified by events after the paving.
Usakli Hoyuk was just two days' walk from the Hittite capital of Hattusa, and contains the ruins of a building whose architectural plan and stonework are typical of Hittite public buildings, explains D'Agostino. This building was probably the temple of the Storm God, a common deity from the third millennium BC. He was one of the most important gods in the Near Eastern pantheon, worshiped under different names throughout Anatolia, the Levant, Syria, Mesopotamia, also in Cyprus for example, and in other regions around the Mediterranean Sea . There is even a theory that a storm god is behind the first conceptualization of the Jewish god YHWH.
Most hititologists agree with this proposed identification of the mountain, D'Agostino told the Haaretz daily. He even posits that the mosaic triangles may be a reference to the image of the mountain. Stone paving has been associated with a number of Hittite temples in Anatolia:D'Agostino lists several, including the Temple of Greta at Sarissa - but they were basically rough, non-decorative pebble floors. Usakli flooring is unique in that it is made up of smaller stones carefully chosen for their shape and color to allow the creation of geometric designs in specific colors he explains.
During the Iron Age, multicolored pebble mosaics emerged widely in Anatolia itself, and in Syria and Mesopotamia. The first known of this later group is found in the so-called burnt building from the citadel of Gordio, the city of King Midas, in central Turkey. The Usakli mosaic is older. As the earliest polychrome and geometric stone floor mosaic, the Usakli Hoyuk pavement could represent a precursor to late Bronze Age polychrome mosaics in Anatolia , concludes D'Agostino.
