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Millefiori Glass Panels Uncovered in Southern Turkey

ANTALYA, TURKEY—According to a Hürriyet Daily News report, excavations at the site of the ancient port of Andriake uncovered the remains of decorative millefiori panels, a glasswork technique fusing different sizes and colors of glass rods which are then cut into sections and re-fused together to form patterns. Nevzat Çevik of Akdeniz University said that each of the hundreds of small, flat glass fragments measures about one and one-half inches square. They were found in the city’s agora, in a building thought to have been the port’s administrative center in the fifth and sixth centuries A.D., based upon the coins and ceramics found in the same layer as the glass. Researchers are now working to reassemble the fragments. “This is a very luxurious wall covering material,” Çevik said. “These are works that consist of different flowers and patterns, each plate is different. Since they are hand-made, the same ones are not produced again. Therefore, each plate is an original work,” he explained. To read about figurines of Greek deities uncovered at the ancient city of Myra nearby, go to "Artemis, Apollo, and Friends."