Photo by Harf Zimmerman

Mysterious and seductive, an ancient beauty peeks out from a second-century A.D. mosaic rescued from the rapidly flooding site of Zeugma, in southeastern Turkey. An important military outpost of the eastern Roman Empire, Zeugma has been known for centuries, but its ruins were excavated for the first time only last spring, when the site was endangered by a nearby dam. In “After the Flood,” associate editor Jessica Meyerson asks what the salvage excavations turned up and why they were conducted so belatedly.