Antioch's reputation as the "Athens of the Near East" inspired an American-led team of archaeologists to excavate the site from 1932-39. The institutions leading the excavation - Princeton University, Baltimore Museum of Art, Musées Nationaux de France (Louvre), and the Worcester Art Museum - discovered ancient treasures that lay buried beneath fields and olive groves for more than a millennium. The excavations yielded the largest collection of Roman domestic mosaics of the highest quality found anywhere in the Mediterranean dated from 120 - 520 AD.

Antioch Mosaic, circa 300 C.E.,
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA, 11/29/19