Archaeologists discovered a 2,400-year-old skeleton mosaic in Turkey, and it has timeless life advice

In 2012, Turkish archaeologists discovered a 2,400-year-old skeleton mosaic, lying next to a bottle of wine and a loaf of bread in Antakya. But what's so special about the ancient montage? Well, just above the skeleton, the mosaic had the most wholesome life lesson inscribed on it—"Be cheerful, enjoy your life," Anadolu agency claimed. Notably, the Turkish media said that the skeleton mosaic, discovered during the construction of a cable car, belongs to the third century B.C. Shortly after the mosaic was found, experts launched excavation work to investigate further. 

Dema Kara, an archeologist, believes that the skeleton mosaic dates back to the ancient Greek-Roman city of Antioch. Now, Daily Sabah, a news outlet, says Antioch was established by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals. The ancient city is regarded as the first place where disciples of Jesus were referred to as Christians. "Antiocheia was a very important, rich city. There were mosaic schools and mints in the city. The ancient city of Zeugma in [the southeastern province of] Gaziantep might have been established by people who were trained here. Antiocheia mosaics are world famous," Kara shared. Moreover, Kara said that professors concluded that the skeleton mosaic was placed somewhere in the dining room of an upper-class family back in those days. The archeologist at the Hatay Archeology Museum went on to talk about a similar mosaic in Italy, which was more comprehensive than that.

"There are three scenes on glass mosaics made of black tiles. Two things are very important among the elite class in the Roman period in terms of social activities: The first is the bath, and the second is dinner. In the first scene, a Black person throws fire. That symbolizes the bath. In the middle scene, there is a sundial and a young man running towards it with a bare-headed butler behind. The sundial is between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. 9 p.m. is the bath time in the Roman period. He has to arrive at supper at 10 p.m. Unless he can, it is not well received. There is writing on the scene that reads he is late for supper and writing about time on the other. In the last scene, there is a reckless skeleton with a drinking pot in his hand along with bread and a wine pot. The writing on it reads, 'Be cheerful and live your life,'" she explained.

Meanwhile, when an individual (u/itsjoey28 on Reddit) shared the astonishing picture of the ancient skeleton mosaic, the response was just unreal. For instance, an anonymous person, u/shapes_in_clouds, commented, "It's always crazy to me to imagine how people thousands of years ago were essentially physiologically and cognitively identical to us, yet existed in societies and cultures that would be totally foreign to us. What it must have been like to live in the ancient world."

Another user, u/reality-umbilical on the platform, joked, "It's easy for Mr. Skeleton to say that with his amphora of wine and his massive figs and his luxurious woollen hide." Someone else, u/bocote, shared, "This feels like an advertisement, and it would be one hell of a return on investment if we're still looking at this 2400 years later." u/chatgpt4 commented, "Wow, people were pretty smart back in the day. Everyone will die, but not everyone will get to live.