Origin
Social media posts that circulated online in mid-May 2021 claimed to show 2,000-year-old Roman mosaics partially submerged in the Euphrates River near Zeugma, Turkey, prompting social media users to speculate whether the vibrantly hued ancient tiles were authentic.
A reverse-image search of photographs of the mosaics showed that the while the pictures had gone viral on Reddit in May 2021, with nearly 100,000 upvotes as of this writing, posts had been shared to Tumblr as early as July 2020.
The ancient Greek city of Zeugma dates back to the third century and is located in the southeastern region of Turkey. Its name translates literally to “bridge” or “crossing” in ancient Greek, a name that was given to describe the city’s location at a major ancient crossing point on the Euphrates River, according to the World Heritage Convention (WHC). As of this writing, the city is on the tentative list of world heritage sites due to its rich archaeological history and historical significance — and its unique mosaics.