27. araştırma sonuçları toplantısı 3. cilt - Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı

with dolphins. The dolphins instead may have inhabited the mosaic field. The
size of the borders seems to indicate that they originally belonged to a rather
large mosaic floor. The other mosaic-pavement in the Castle is preserved in
situ in its original ancient location (Fig. 5). It is not preserved for its entire
length to the north, and to the south and east its edges are covered by later
walls. It is decorated with a geometric design surrounded by a white margin
with spaced black crosslets. The pattern consists of eight-pointed stars of two
intersecting squares tangent at two angles, forming octagons and lozenges.
The stars are irregular, and they contain squares inscribed with interlaced
motifs that alternate in type from one vertical row to another. 3 Close parallels
for this fine mosaic floor can be found on Kos. Both Bodrum mosaics can be
dated to the mid-5th century A.D.
During excavations and restoration of the Myndos Gate at Halikarnassos
in 1998-2000, an extensive ancient necropolis with at least 18 monumental
tombs and a large edifice built in large ashlar blocks were revealed. At about
that time, the Hotel L’Ambiance was erected, and the tombs now occur near
the hotel’s large swimming pool and an adjacent modern building apparently
occupied by hotel employees. 4 The monumental tombs are arranged to face
onto two almost parallel east-west-oriented necropolis streets, intersected on
the north by a north-south street coming from the south. Although the size of
the tombs varies, these structures are more or less of the same type, including
an anteroom, sometimes ornamented with a mosaic floor and placed in front
of two parallel oblong rooms, each with a barrel vault. Often a rather small,
square door gives access to each of the rooms, some of which may have
contained more than one burial. Above the two burial chambers, several of
the tombs seem to have had an additional room also spanned by a barrel
vault. Three tombs are furnished with mosaic floors in their antechambers.
Tomb 13 has a small figural mosaic panel depicting a hunting scene that shows
a hound chasing a stag (Fig. 6). The large anteroom of Tomb 16 contains a
3 Cf. Décor I, var. of pl. 178b.
4 B. Poulsen first had the opportunity of studying this necropolis briefly during the summer of
2005. The necropolis is briefly described by Carstens 1999, 100-101, figs. 137-139.
251