FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2000
Treasures saved from rising waters in Turkey
by Molly Moore
The Washington Post
November 14, 2000
ZEUGMA, Turkey - Inch by inch,
the rising waters of the newly
dammed Euphrates River have
been swallowing this ancient city
of the Roman Empire: the 2,000-
year-old public piazzas, the lav
ish villas with their exquisite mo
saic tile floors, the still-undiscov
ered buildings with unknown trea
sures.
For four months, nearly 200 ar
chaeologists worked frenetically
to record and save artifacts from
one of the best-preserved Roman
cities ever uncovered. Last month,
the race ended, with the waters of
an artificial lake lapping at the last
visible remnants of ancient stone
work.
The archaeologists rescued 10
complete mosaics depicting
scenes from mythology and litera
ture, the largest collection of Ro
man government seals - more than
50,000 - ever found at a single
site, bronze statues of Venus and
nearly 2,000 other antiquities.
“The degree of preservation and
quality of the artifacts we're un
covering could be compared to
Pompeii,” said Robert Early, se-
nior project manager for the Brit
ish-based Oxford Archaeological
Unit, which specializes in salvag
ing endangered ancient sites.
Now the water has submerged
a third of Zeugma, including
buildings and artifacts archaeolo
gists simply ran out of time to ex
plore and others that they pre
served in mortar and sand to be
rediscovered if ever the dam is
Lott challenged
to unite a divided
Senate
by Helen Dewar
The Washington Post
November 14, 2000
WASHINGTON - With his margin of
control sharply reduced by last week's
elections, Senate Majority Leader
Trent Lott, R-Miss., is coming under
pressure from both parties to aban
don confrontational tactics that con
tributed to the chamber's paralyzing
partisanship over the past few years.
Hard as it was to run the Senate this
year with a 54-46 GOP majority, law
makers say, it will be even more dif
ficult for Lott to move legislation now
that voters have given him the clos
est Senate margin in nearly a half
century: no more than a vote or two
to spare.
“We simply cannot continue the
status quo,” said Sen. Olympia J.
Snowe of Maine, a leading Republi
can moderate, referring to the
gridlock that occurred during the
106th Congress when Democrats
pushed for votes on their initiatives,
Lott blocked them and they retaliated
with stalling tactics.
Although he does not face a chal
lenge to his reelection as majority
leader, at least not so far, Lott is in a
vise. He has to deal with Democrats
to get anything done and satisfy GOP
moderates, but if he tilts too far to the
left, he could face an uprising on his
right flank that could jeopardize his
job.
In comments since the election,
Lott has sent mixed signals about his
intentions.
Lott took a couple of jabs at Sen.-
elect Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-
N.Y., prompting some angst in both
parties. But by the weekend he was
indicating - at least in general terms -
that he is ready to work with Demo
crats.
“There are some things we can do
together, and we'll have to,” Lott said
on Fox News Sunday. Senators re
ported that, within days of Tuesday's
elections, Lott was soliciting views
of colleagues by phone.
As a result of the balloting, Demo-
taken out of service
The race to explore and preserve
Zeugma - once a wealthy trading
city and military post on the Silk
Road, ancient Rome's route to
China - is part of a broader
struggle between Turkey's drive to
modernize its economy and schol
ars' efforts to save rare treasures
from 10,000 years of history here
in the ancient region of
Mesopotamia.
To provide electricity to its en
ergy-starved cities and irrigate a
broad swath of the arid, impover
ished southeast, the Turkish gov
ernment is building a network of
22 dams and 19 hydroelectric
plants and canals, at a cost of about
$34 billion, across the Euphrates
and Tigris river valleys.
But the dams of the Southeast
Anatolia Project will inundate
hundreds of ancient archaeologi
cal sites, only a few dozen of
which researchers say they have
any hope of salvaging from the
reservoir waters. In the areas that
will be submerged by just the next
two dams built, archaeologists say
they have identified 250 significant
sites, only 30 of which are sched
uled to be surveyed or partially ex
cavated.
As a result of modernization, ar-
chaeological evidence is being de
stroyed in an irreversible way,”
said Numan Tuna, a Turkish pro
fessor involved in surveying the
newly threatened sites. “Culture
needs to be protected. For many of
our sites, it is already too late."
Of all the threatened historical
sites, none has attracted more in
ternational attention than Zeugma,
a city that disappeared 800 years
erats are emboldened. Republicans
are demoralized anil restive, and mod
erates of both parties - despite few
successes in recent years - are poised
to push both parties toward compro
mises that neither would choose if left
to its own devices.
Minority Leader Thomas A.
Daschle, D-S.D., whose clout was
significantly enhanced by Tuesday's
vote, has called for “power-sharing,"
including equal or near-equal repre
sentation on committees, a voice for
Democrats in scheduling Senate
votes and an end to the GOP practice
of blocking votes on Democratic
amendments. Daschle's staff is al
ready deep into research on how other
legislative bodies divide power when
the parties are closely balanced.
Unless Lott gives Democrats the
power their numbers warrant, “We
will have total legislative chaos,”
Daschle said in a post-election inter
view.
Perhaps more significant, some Re
publicans, including conservative
mavericks as well as moderates, are
urging a vastly more cooperative ap
proach by Lott and other GOP lead
ers.
“There's got to be more coopera
tion ... more consultation,” said Sen.
John McCain, R-Ariz., who intends
to pursue the reform agenda from his
presidential campaign when the new
Senate convenes in January. “The
entire leadership has to change the
way it does business,” including giv
ing Democrats more committee seats
and allowing allowing votes on their
amendments, he said. GOP leaders
must schedule action on major issues,
some of which they tried to thwart
this year, such as strong HMO regu
lations, a prescription drug benefit for
seniors, tighter budget controls and
“a reasonable approach to gun con
trol,” McCain added.
When a Republican leadership that
pushed for a filibuster-proof, 60-vote
majority only a few years ago is now
straining to keep 51 votes, “You've
got to know something's wrong,” said
McCain.
WORLD & NATION
Archaeologists say the
For four months, nearly 200 archaeologists worked frenetically to record
and save artifacts from one of the best-preserved Roman cities ever
uncovered; last month, the race ended, with the waters of an artificial
lake lapping at the last visible remnants of ancient stonework. Work
ers pictured here clean a rare stone tablet showing the Ist century
king Antiochus I clasping hands with Apollo, the sun god.
mosaics found here, which Poseidon perched in a golden
adorned the floors ol reception chariot drawn by a pair of silver
rooms and hallways in the city's horses,
most opulent villas, are some of the Although archaeologists
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best f inds of their kind from Roman
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thieves - slowly chipped away at
Zeugma's mysteries for nearly four
decades, it was not until June that
scientists began racing the rise of
a 17-square-mile lake behind the
Birccik dam, a half-mile away.
With only four months remaining
before the lake would claim
Zeugma, the California-based
Packard Humanities Institute of
fered $5 million to finance an
emergency rescue effort.
“Normally excavations are
planned years in advance and take
years to complete," said David W.
Packard, president of the institute.
“This was compressed into a very
brief period, with an extremely in
tense rush of activity.”
Archaeologists estimate they ac
complished in four months here
what usually would take about 10
years. Even so, they excavated only
the one-third of Zeugma to be sub
merged. No funds are available to
explore the rest of the city.
Archaeologists were amazed by
what they discovered beneath 15
feet of khaki-colored soil and or
chards of leathery-leaved pistachio
trees. Zeugma contained more ex
traordinary relics and was far bet
ter preserved than had been be
lieved.
[til
"This site is special because of the
level of preservation" and the scale
of the find, said Harlx. "This was
about an entire city, not rooms in a
house. We have a representative
sample of the city of Zeugma from
evolution to decline."
Whether it was destroyed In
earthquake or invasion - archaeolo
gists and historians cannot yet >av
Zeugma remained relatively un
touched by later civilizations. The
htst of its estimated 50,000 inhabit
ants disappeared so quicklx that ar
chaeologists have discovered ex
pertly crafted figurines of copper al
loys, coin-filled leather purses and
a gold ring for sealing official docu
ments - all items that normally
would have been pilfered from such
a site centuries aeo.
Thbse artifacts will give histori
ans extraordinarily detailed insights
into the way the early Romans lived,
worked and played. Already, ar
chaeologists have examined the re
mains of what they ate olive pits,
lentils and wheat grains and
glimpsed the lifestyles of the
wealthy traders and militaiy com
manders who resiiled in the citv's
poshest suburbs.
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