A rare bronze cauldron from Late Antiquity has been unearthed in the courtyard of the Roman-era residential complex in Pergamon, modern-day Bergama in western Turkey. The cauldron is intact and in its original condition. It is estimated to date to the 7th century, when the luxury home, a peristyle villa known as Mosaic House after its elaborate mosaic floors, was abandoned after it was burned in an Arab raid.
The bronze cauldron was found inside a stone slab pool in the central courtyard. It appears to have been dropped in the pool right before the villa was abandoned and therefore never recovered, despite the high value of the bronze.
Excavation Director Prof. Dr. Sezgin stated, “Bronze was an important material, especially in structures of this type, in antiquity. The most commonly used materials in daily life were terracotta, or ceramic products. However, bronze is an expensive and valuable material. Therefore, it was used in more specialized areas and for specific purposes. The bronze cauldron found here was found in its original location, in its original condition. In other words, it was used in antiquity, abandoned, and never touched again. We unearthed it. This is very important because it shows us the materials of the structure in their final phase of use, as they were. This provides direct information about the cultural understanding, usage patterns, and daily life of that period.”
Pergamon was settled at least as far back as the 8th century B.C., and over the centuries was alternately under the control of Greek allies and the Persian Empire. Alexander the Great permanently liberated it from Persian control. Only a few artifacts from the Archaic city survive and a small section of wall and foundation from two 4th century temples. It became the capital of the Attalid Kingdom of Pergamon from the 3rd century B.C. The Attalid kings wanted to transform the city into a “second Athens,” so they completely rebuilt it on a monumental scale. It flourished into a major center of Greek culture with a renowned library, a theater and a vast acropolis at the top of the hill. The monumental Pergamon Altar, now in the museum dedicated to it in Berlin, is considered one of the greatest wonders of Hellenistic art and architecture.
The last king bequeathed the city to the Roman Republic in 133 B.C. and it was absorbed into the Roman province of Asia. Under the Roman Empire, Pergamon was expanded and remodeled again, and by the mid-2nd century, it was one of the largest cities in Roman Asia. Its shrine to Asclepius was a center of health and healing famous throughout the empire, and Galen, the pre-eminent 3rd century physician, was born there and received his schooling at the Asclepion.
The city was damaged by earthquakes and Goth raids in the 3rd century, and its economy neared collapse during the Crisis of the Third Century (235–284 A.D.). It recovered somewhat in the 4th century, but it contracted back to the more defendable acropolis under pressure from recurring Arab raids in the 7th century, while the rest of the great Hellenistic and Roman city was left to ruin.
The Mosaic House was built in the city’s heyday between the 2nd and 3rd centuries and later modified repeatedly. The ornate mosaic floors feature floral and geometric patterns in several colors, motifs popular in Greek mosaic work found in the wealthy homes of Anatolia in the 3rd and 4th centuries.
Intriguing elements recycled from other locations have been found in the villa complex, most notably a sealed roof tile from the Hellenistic era stamped “Basilike,” meaning “belonging to the king.” These were used in royal buildings on the acropolis, but the example found in the Mosaic House is the only fully intact sealed one found in Pergamon. Another recycled piece was found in the same courtyard pool where the bronze cauldron was found: it’s a touching tombstone inscribed “The Sweetest Child in the World” commissioned by his mother. It is decorated with a carving of the child and his dog hunting rabbits.
Byzantine-era graves have been found at the site, some of the last Byzantine burials in Pergamon before the Islamic conquest. Several of the graves contained more than one burial, evidence that resources were scarce in Pergamon in the last days of Byzantine rule. The bronze vessel abandoned in the rain pool would have been all the more valuable in this period of contraction and scarcity. Someone had to get out there as quickly as possible, leaving everything behind.
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