Farmer unearths what may be Turkey’s largest Roman mosaic

A Turkish farmer unearthed what may be the country’s largest Roman mosaic.

Mehmet Emin Sualp stumbled across the tiles while planting cherry saplings last year in a village 300 miles east of Ankara, Artnews reported.

After archaeologists removed the top soil, they discovered a nearly 1000-square-foot mosaic depicting a series of hunting scenes: A lion pursues a mountain goat, a stag flees a bear, and a rare Anatolian leopard bites into an ostrich’s neck.

The site was also once home to a bathhouse, a house of worship, and a calcatorium — where grapes are crushed underfoot to produce wine — archeologists said, with one describing the mosaic as “an expression of the eternal cycle of nature.”