BMA Presents Antioch: The Lost Ancient City

Ancient mosaics reunited for the first time since their discovery 70 years ago

BALTIMORE, MD (September 10, 2001) – Antioch: The Lost Ancient City, on display at The Baltimore Museum of Art from September 16 through December 30, 2001, reawakens one of the great cities of the Roman Empire with 160 treasures created nearly 2,000 years ago and reunited for the first time since their excavation in the 1930s. This traveling exhibition includes magnificent mosaics that cast light on the evolution of ancient art, as well as antiquities from the early years of Christianity, glittering coins that span nine centuries, and fine Roman sculpture displayed in galleries arranged to evoke a sense of place and lifestyle in 2nd- to 6th-century A.D. Antioch. An activity center completes the experience with a hands-on mini-excavation site where visitors can sift through sand to discover their own artifacts or try their hand at replicating intricate mosaic patterns.

“The Baltimore Museum of Art helped lead the adventure of unearthing these treasures 70 years ago,” said BMA Director Doreen Bolger. “Now these extraordinary objects are being reunited here in Baltimore, joining the Museum’s own breathtaking permanent collection of Antioch mosaics. Visitors will have the opportunity to compare modern city life with life in an ancient cosmopolitan center and make their own discoveries.”

Now located in modern Turkey near the Syrian border, the ancient metropolis of Antioch ranked as one of the great cities of the Roman Empire and early Christian world. Decimated centuries ago by earthquakes, plague, and military invasion, the city was lost until an American-led team of archaeologists excavated the site in the 1930s. The participating institutions—The Baltimore Museum of Art, Princeton University, Musées Nationaux de France (Louvre), and the Worcester Art Museum—discovered Antioch’s port, the famed spa and suburb of Daphne, as well as parts of large private houses, two churches, and several public baths that had been buried beneath fields and olive groves for more than 1,000 years. The excavation yielded the largest collection of high-quality Roman domestic floor mosaics from 120-520 A.D. found in the Mediterranean region. The Baltimore Museum of Art today has one of the finest collections of Antioch mosaics in the nation in its permanent collection, 28 of which are continually on display in the Museum’s sunlit courtyard.

The exhibition opens with a shimmering quartet of 4th-century silver gilt statuettes of tyches, fortune goddesses meant to represent and guard the four great cities of the Roman Empire—Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch.

The galleries are organized by the following themes:

 City and People:  As a crossroads between the East and the West, Antioch’s influences are evident in exquisite gold jewelry, such as a delicate necklace of representations of double grains of wheat and a Sasanian silver horn vessel shaped like the head of an antelope.

 Entertainment:  Bronze and silver helmets worn by gladiators in combat and parades, game tokens made of bone, inscribed curse tablets, and a mosaic of Greek poet and playwright Menander seated with the personification of Comedy reveal the breadth of ancient entertainment.

Water: Antioch was built on the Orontes River and fed by the springs of Daphne, and water featured prominently in the lives of its people, as seen in a model of a labyrinthine public bath house, the BMA’s Mosaic of Tethys (a protective marine deity emerging from the waves), and the Mosaic Bust of the Pyramos River from the mid to late 2nd century

The House:  A mosaic of the Drinking Contest of Herakles and Dionysos greets visitors to a reconstructed dining room floor from Antioch. The floor features the BMA’s mosaics Dancing Maenad, whirling on her toes and playing cymbals, and Dancing Satyr, pan flute in hand. View fine examples of marble sculpture, ancient silver, colored glassware, and a Mosaic of an Outdoor Banquet from the 4th century.

Religion: The diverse population of Antioch worshiped a vast array of gods, and the city played a key role in the formation of Christianity. View a five-foot high wooden cross inlaid with silver inscriptions, the largest to survive from the early Byzantine period, and a mosaic of a peacock, an early symbol of Christianity. Study a wall painting fragment of Roman cult god Mithras and Sol, a model of a Roman synagogue, a mosaic of Greek god of wine Dionysos, and an African red slip bowl picturing Saint Thecla facing the lions in the arena.

Antioch: The Lost Ancient City was organized by Dr. Christine Kondoleon as Curator of Greek and Roman Art at the Worcester Art Museum. A leading authority on Roman mosaics, she is currently the George D. and Margo Behrakis Curator of Greek and Roman Arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. This exhibition is curated at the BMA by Sona Johnston, Senior Curator of Painting & Sculpture.

Organized by the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts, this exhibition was funded in part by the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. It contains loans from numerous institutions, including The Baltimore Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Princeton University Art Museum, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Worcester Art Museum, and Yale University.

This exhibition is generously sponsored in Baltimore by Bloomberg, the Dorothy Wagner Wallis Charitable Trust, and Tony and Lynn Deering.

Antioch: The City

Antioch Mosaics

Catalogue & Symposium

About the Baltimore Museum of Art

Founded in 1914, the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) inspires people of all ages and backgrounds through exhibitions, programs, and collections that tell an expansive story of art—challenging long-held narratives and embracing new voices. Our outstanding collection of more than 97,000 objects spans many eras and cultures and includes the world’s largest public holding of works by Henri Matisse; one of the nation’s finest collections of prints, drawings, and photographs; and a rapidly growing number of works by contemporary artists of diverse backgrounds. The museum is also distinguished by a neoclassical building designed by American architect John Russell Pope and two beautifully landscaped gardens featuring an array of modern and contemporary sculpture. The BMA is located three miles north of the Inner Harbor, adjacent to the main campus of Johns Hopkins University, and has a community branch at Lexington Market. General admission is free so that everyone can enjoy the power of art.