Underneath layers of built-up dirt, Mantha Zarmakoupi and colleagues began to uncover the tiled edge of at least two mosaics, spread across separate rooms dating back to the 3rd century BCE. One that stood out depicted two fighting cupids (top), figures of Eros, the Greek god of love, whose imagery is related to Dionysos, the Greek god of wine and the patron deity of Teos, with a major temple in the city. (Image: Courtesy Teos Archaeological Project)
February 19, 2025
Unearthing the Secrets of an Ancient Greek City: Classical archaeologist and architectural historian Mantha Zarmakoupi has spent the past four summers excavating the ruins of a city council building at the center of Teos in western Türkiye, in collaboration with the Teos Archaeological Project of Ankara University
by Marilyn Perkins | FEBRUARY 18, 2025 | OMNIA Magazine
The ancient city of Teos sits on the western coast of Türkiye, directly across the Aegean Sea from Athens. Today, it is rubble and ruins, but 2,000 years ago, it was a thriving center of Hellenistic and Roman art, culture, and trade. Few people have inhabited the area since the third century CE, and nothing was built atop the site, giving archaeologists like Mantha Zarmakoupi, Morris Russell and Josephine Chidsey Williams Assistant Professor in Roman Architecture, a unique opportunity for discovery.
Specifically, Zarmakoupi has focused on excavating an ancient city council building called the bouleuterion. “This is the best-preserved building in the city of Teos, and it seems to preserve for us the early history of Teos underneath it,” she says.
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