Expedition in Ancient Anatolia

Drawing Ancient Anatolia

2012-01-05T22:53:00.000+02:00

Drawing ancient roman figures in Antalya Museum.

Galatia: Celtic Anatolia

2011-12-19T14:10:00.000+02:00

Ancient Galatia was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia in modern Turkey. Galatia was bounded on the north by Bithynia and Paphlagonia, on the east by Pontus, on the south by Lycaonia and Cappadocia, and on the west by the remainder of Phrygia, the eastern part of which the Gauls had invaded. The modern capital of Turkey, Ankara (ancient Ancyra), was also the capital of ancient Galatia.

Celtic Galatia

Galatia was named for the immigrant Gauls from Thrace, who became its ruling caste in the 3rd century BC. It has been called the "Gallia" of the East, Roman writers calling its inhabitants Galli. They were an intermixture of Gauls and Greeks, and hence Francis Bacon and other Renaissance writers called them "Gallo-Graeci," and the country "Gallo-Graecia".

The Galatians were in their origin a part of the great Celtic migration which invaded Macedon, led by the 'second' Brennus, a Gaulish chief. He invaded Greece in 281 BC with a huge warband and was turned back in the nick of time from plundering the temple of Apollo at Delphi. At the same time, another Gaulish group were migrating with their women and children through Thrace. They had split off from Brennus' Gauls in 279 BC, and had migrated into Thrace under their leaders Leonnorius and Lutarius. These Gaulish invaders appeared in Asia Minor in 278–277 BC; others invaded Macedonia, killed the Ptolemaic king Ptolemy Ceraunus but were eventually ousted by Antigonus Gonatas, the grandson of the defeated Diadoch Antigonus the One-Eyed.

As so often happens in cases of invasion, the invaders came at the express invitation of Nicomedes I of Bithynia, who required help in a dynastic struggle against his brother. Three tribes of Gauls crossed over from Thrace to Asia Minor. They numbered about 10,000 fighting men and about the same number of women and children, divided into three tribes, Trocmi, Tolistobogii and Tectosages. They were eventually defeated by the Seleucid king Antiochus I, in a battle where the Seleucid war elephants shocked the Celts. While breaking the momentum of the invasion, the Galatians were by no means exterminated.

Instead, the migration led to the establishment of a long-lived Gaulish territory in central Anatolia, which included the eastern part of ancient Phrygia, a territory that became known as Galatia. There they ultimately settled, and being strengthened by fresh accessions of the same clan from Europe, they overran Bithynia and supported themselves by plundering neighbouring countries.

The constitution of the Galatian state is described by Strabo: conformably to Gaulish custom, each tribe was divided into cantons, each governed by a chief ('tetrarch') of its own with a judge under him, whose powers were unlimited except in cases of murder, which were tried before a council of 300 drawn from the twelve cantons and meeting at a holy place, twenty miles southwest of Ancyra, which was likely to have been a sacred oak grove, for it was called 'Drynemeton' the "fane of the oaks" drys + nemeton "sacred ground". The local population of Cappadocians were left in control of the towns and most of the land, paying tithes to their new overlords, who formed a military aristocracy and kept aloof in fortified farmsteads, surrounded by their bands.

The Gauls were great warriors, respected by Greeks and Romans. They hired themselves out as mercenary soldiers, sometimes fighting on both sides in the great battles of the times. For years the Gaulish chieftains and their warbands ravaged the western half of Asia Minor, as allies of one or other of the warring princes, without any serious check, until they sided with the renegade Seleucid prince Antiochus Hierax, who reigned in Asia Minor. Hierax tried to defeat king Attalus I of Pergamum (241–197 BC), but instead, the hellenised cities united under his banner, and his armies inflicted several severe defeats upon them, about 232 forcing them to settle permanently and to confine themselves to the region to which they had already given their name. The theme of the Dying Gaul (a famous statue displayed in Pergamon) remained a favorite in Hellenistic art for a generation. Their right to the district was formally recognized. The three Gaulish tribes were settled where they afterwards remained, the Tectosages round Ancyra, the Tolistobogii round Pessinus, sacred to Cybele, and the Trocmi round Tavium.

But the power of the Gauls was not yet broken. The Attalid Pergamene king himself soon employed their services in the increasingly devastating wars of Asia Minor; another band deserted from their Egyptian overlord Ptolemy IV after a solar eclipse had broken their spirits.

In the early 2nd century BC they proved terrible allies of Antiochus the Great, the last Seleucid king trying to regain suzerainity over Asia Minor, but after the defeat of the Seleucid king to the Romans, Rome at last proved a worthy protection against them.

In 189 BC an expedition was sent against them under Caius Manlius Vulso, who defeated them. Henceforward their military power declined and they fell at times under Pontic ascendancy, from which they were finally freed by the Mithridatic Wars, in which they heartily supported Rome.

In the settlement of 64 BC Galatia became a client-state of the Roman empire, the old constitution disappeared, and three chiefs (wrongly styled “tetrarchs“) were appointed, one for each tribe. But this arrangement soon gave way before the ambition of one of these tetrarchs, Deiotarus, the contemporary of Cicero and Julius Caesar, who made himself master of the other two tetrarchies and was finally recognized by the Romans as 'king' of Galatia.

Celtic Capital in Anatolia: Ankara

The history of Ankara, can be traced back to the Bronze Age Hatti civilization, which was succeeded in the 2nd millennium BC by the Hittites, in the 10th century BC by the Phrygians, and later by the Lydians, Persians, Macedonians, Galatians, Romans, Byzantines, Seljuks, and Ottomans.

In 278 BC, the city, along with the rest of central Anatolia, was occupied by the Celtic race of Galatians, who were the first to make Ankara one of their main tribal centres, the headquarters of the 'Tectosage' tribe. Other centres were Pessinos, today's Balhisar, for the 'Trocmi' tribe; and Tavium, to the east of Ankara, for the 'Tolstibogii' tribe. The city was then known as Ancyra. The Celtic element was probably relatively small in numbers; a warrior aristocracy which ruled over Phrygian-speaking peasants. However, the Celtic language continued to spoken in Galatia for many centuries. At the end of the 4th century AD, St. Jerome, a native of Galatia, observed that the language spoken around Ankara was very similar to that being spoken in the northwest of the Roman world near Trier. See Tectosages of Volcae

Pessinus

Pessinus was the city in Asia Minor (presently Anatolia, the Asian part of Turkey) on the upper course of the river Sangarios (modern day Sakarya River), 120 km SW of Ankara, from which the mythological King Midas is said to have ruled a greater Phrygian realm. It certainly dated back to 700BC. It was a major, hellenized city in the region of Galatia since the fourth century BC. The Seleucids lost it to Attalid Pergamon, which became part of the Roman Empire where it is was assigned to the provincia Galatia (later part of Pontus diocese).

Its greatest pride was the greatest temple of the Mother Goddess Cybele, said to be founded by Midas, which gave it prestige and even temporary political autonomy, but in 205BC a Roman Senate delegation got the aniconic statue transferred to Rome, introducing the Magna Mater cult there to help fight Carthage's Hannibal. The statue was first placed in the Temple of Victory on the Palatine Hill, but in 191BC a new sanctuary was built for her on the summit of the hill, one of the most sacred places in Rome.

It is known to be reached by Christianity in the fifth century AD. After the Byzantines lost it to the Seljuk Turks, it became an inconspicuous mountain village at 900m height, gradually getting depopulated since it was fully protected, no modern construction allowed. The last constructions from Antiquity were pulled down in the 19th century, but archeologists from the Ghent University are digging there since 1967.

The Kybele Archaeological Culture Center, located in Ballihisar Village of Eskişehir's Sivrihisar district, has on display artifacts dating to the Phrygian and Roman eras from the ancient city of Pessinus.

Tavium

Tavium, or Tavia, was the chief city of the Galatian tribe of Trocmi, one of the three Celtic tribes which migrated from the Danube Valley to Galatia in the 3rd century BCE. Owing to its position on the high roads of commerce was an important trading post. The site was successively occupied by Hittites, Cimmarians, Persians, Celts, Greeks, Romans, and Ottoman Turks. At the time of the Roman Empire, Tavium was an important crossroads and a stopping place on the caravan routes.

One of the few things we do know about Tavium was that there was metalworking, because coins have been found that were minted there in the early 1st century bearing the likenesses of Marcus Aurelius and Elagabalus. Copper, tin, iron and silver were mined in the nearby mountains. If we can draw parallels with other Celtic sites of the time, the smelting and stamping was done by a small group of artisans working in one or two stone huts.

In the temple at Tavium there was a colossal statue of Jupiter in bronze, greatly venerated by the Galatians. There was some doubt about the exact site of the city, but it is today generally believed to be the ruins situated close to the village of Nefez Keui (Nefes Köy, today known as Büyüknefes), inhabited during the winter by nomadic Turkish tribes, lying in a very fertile plain east of River Halys, in Yozgat Province.

These ruins were partly used in building the neighbouring village of Yuzgat. We find there the remains of a theatre and possibly of a temple of Jupiter; these have a number of inscriptions, mostly Byzantine. In the Notitiæ Episcopatuum this see is mentioned up to the 13th century as the first suffragan of Ancyra.

The names of five bishops of the area are known: Dicasius, present at the Councils of Neocæsarea and Nice; Julian, at the Robber Synod of Ephesus (449), and at the Council of Chalcedon (451), and a signer of the letter from the Galatian bishops to the Emperor Leo (458); Anastasius, present at the Council of Constantinople (553); Gregory at the Council in Trullo (692); Philaretus at Constantinople (869).

Roman and Christian Galatia

On the death of the third king Amyntas in 25 BC, however, Galatia was incorporated by Octavian Augustus in the Roman empire, though near his capital Ancyra (modern Ankara) Pylamenes, the king's heir, rebuilt a temple of the Phrygian goddess Men to venerate Augustus (the Monumentum Ancyranum), as a sign of fidelity. It was on the walls of this temple in Galatia that the major source for the Res Gestae of Augustus were preserved for modernity. Few of the provinces proved more enthusiastically loyal to Rome. The Galatians also practiced a form of Romano-Celtic polytheism, common in Celtic lands.

During his second missionary journey Paul, accompanied by Silas and Timothy (Acts 16:6), visited the "region of Galatia," where he was detained by sickness (Epistle to Galatians 4:13), and had thus the longer opportunity of preaching to them the gospel. On his third journey he went over "all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order" (Acts 18:23). During the journeys of Paul he was received with enthusiasm in Galatia. In Acts 14:8-23, at Lystra the multitude could scarcely be restrained from sacrificing to Paul, assuming that he and Barnabas were gods (calling them Hermes and Zeus) after Paul healed a man who "was crippled from birth and had never walked" (Acts 14:8). It is reported that even "the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds" (14:13). Paul emphatically urged them not to do so; he was later stoned by a crowd of Galatians (Acts 18:19-20) and left for dead. Despite this, a portion of the Galatians seem to have retained belief in the gospel Paul preached to them (Gal.1:2b, where the plural phrase "churches of Galatia" is used). Crescens was sent thither by Paul toward the close of his life (2 Timothy 4:10).

Josephus related the biblical figure Gomer to Galatia. "For Gomer founded those whom the Greeks now call Galatians, [Galls,] but were then called Gomerites." Antiquities of the Jews, I:6. Although others have related Gomer to Cimmerians.

The Galatians were still speaking the Celtic Galatian language in the time of St. Jerome (347–420 CE), who wrote that the Galatians of Ancyra and the Treveri of Trier (in what is now the German Rhineland) spoke the same language.

In an administrative reorganisation about 386-95 two new provinces succeeded it, Galatia Prima and Galatia Secunda or - Salutaris, which included part of Phrygia.

The fate of the Galatian people is a subject of some uncertainty, but they seem ultimately to have been absorbed into the Greek- and/or Turkish-speaking populations of west-central Anatolia. Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Celtic Tomb Near Gordium of King Midas

Deeds of Alexander the Great

2011-12-10T19:38:00.000+02:00

Hunting Scene

Detail of Alexander Sarcophagus at Istanbul showing Alexander and the Macedonians on horses hunting lions together with Abdalonymus and the Persians.

The Alexander Sarcophagus is a late 4th century BC stone sarcophagus adorned with bas-relief carvings of Alexander the Great. The sarcophagus is constructed of Pentelic marble retaining traces of its polychromy, in the form of a Greek temple. The work is remarkably well preserved and has been celebrated for its high aesthetic achievement. It is considered the outstanding holding of the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. It is one of four massive carved sarcophagi, that were discovered during the excavations conducted by Osman Hamdi Bey, founder of Istanbul Archaeology Museum and of Istanbul Academy of Fine Arts, at the necropolis near Sidon, Lebanon in 1887.

Portrait at Ancient Aphrodisias

2011-11-30T04:28:00.000+02:00

Portrait relief at ancient city Aphrodisias, Sebasteion School of Sculpture. More...

Exploring lost civilizations of 5000 years

2011-11-20T09:58:00.000+02:00

We are on a mound, in the ruins of a Bronze Age palace, watching the magnificent Mt. Hasandag at sunset thru the ruined windows of the palace, burned down to earth, mud bricks fired to ceramic, walls molten down by a violent fire. We are in a time and place lost and forgotten through ages, covered with dust and earth, at the edge of Cappadocia, on the Konya Plain. We are in a place at the beginning of the period of Assyrian Trade Colonies as well as the Middle Bronze Age and the beginning of written history in Anatolia.

On the way to Nigde famous with delicious apples, to the south east of Ankara, we found ourselves in a small village Acemhöyük settled by immigrants from Iran called Acem in old Turkish following the road signs. Höyük is the Turkish word for mound. Then we found ourselves in the ruins of a magnificent Bronze Age Anatolian Palace.

Old Assyrian Empire of Northern Mesopotamia had established a well developed trading system with Anatolia in 1960 BC. During this period, Anatolia was dominated by feudal kingdoms largely formed by the late Hattian city-states. Since the times of Akkad the Mesopotamians who knows the wealth of Anatolia had developed a wide and systematic business relationship with their northern neighbors under the leadership of Assyria. They brought the tradition of cylinder seals and cuneiform writings, along with their foreign languages. Thus, Anatolia entered ages of written history since 1950 BC. Traders used donkey caravans as a means of transportation on the way to Anatolia, via Diyarbakir, Malatya, Urfa, Marash, Adana, and Taurus mountains passes.

The merchandise was Assyrian tin, goat hair, woven goods, clothing fabric, decorative items, some odors, in exchange for Anatolian gold and silver ware. Merchants had no political or military goals. They earned the right for protection of Anatolian Lords for their businesses, property and transportation in exchange for their rent and taxes.

Traders settled in markets outside the towns of Anatolia. They had twenty markets, called karum. The central market was Kültepe Karum Kanesh at the lower city.

The Assyrian merchants of Anatolia had lived with indigenous people in Karum. The cuneiform tablets uncovered in the excavations in houses of merchants in exhibit at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara. Most of the clay tablets are in rectangular format, written in the Old Assyrian language, in cuneiform script, by means of a blunt reed for a stylus. Most of the documents concerning the management of the shopping and commercial center, and some personal letters of merchants.

Potter's wheel became widespread in the Age of the colony, the written history began, and the Hittites came on the stage.

In general, Old Hittite art was born in a form of the Old Bronze Age art style, with the effects of Mesopotamia and Hattian art styles in Hittite point of view. This feature is visible in Kültepe, Acemhöyük, Alişar and Colonial Era Bogazköy seals.

Is Acemhöyük the lost ancient city-state Purushanda in central Anatolia? Coming more about this soon...

"When I ... went into battle, the Man of Purushanda brought gifts to me; he brought to me a throne of iron and a sceptre of iron as a gift. But when I returned to Nesa [Kanesh] I took the Man of Purushanda with me. As soon as he enters the chamber, that man will sit before me on the right". - Anitta, son of Pithana, king of Kussara, a city that has yet to be identified. He is the earliest known ruler to compose a text in the Hittite language.

Hattians - First Civilizations in Anatolia

Göbeklitepe, the Origins of Civilization

2011-11-02T19:46:00.000+02:00

"We used to think agriculture gave rise to cities and later to writing, art, and religion. Now the world’s oldest temple suggests the urge to worship sparked civilization".

National Geographic, June 2011

13000 Years Ago!

Göbekli Tepe is the oldest human-made place of worship yet discovered. Until excavations began, a complex on this scale was not thought possible for a community so ancient. The massive sequence of stratification layers suggests several millennia of activity, perhaps reaching back to the Mesolithic. The oldest occupation layer (stratum III) contains monolithic pillars linked by coarsely built walls to form circular or oval structures. So far, four such buildings, with diameters between 10–30 metres (33–98 ft) have been uncovered. Geophysical surveys indicate the existence of 16 additional structures.

Stratum II, dated to Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) (7500–6000 BC), has revealed several adjacent rectangular rooms with floors of polished lime, reminiscent of Roman terrazzo floors. The most recent layer consists of sediment deposited as the result of agricultural activity.

The monoliths are decorated with carved reliefs of animals and of abstract pictograms. The pictograms may represent commonly understood sacred symbols, as known from Neolithic cave paintings elsewhere. The carefully carved figurative reliefs depict lions, bulls, boars, foxes, gazelles, asses, snakes and other reptiles, insects, arachnids, and birds, particularly vultures and water fowl. At the time the shrine was constructed the surrounding country was much lusher and capable of sustaining this variety of wildlife, before millennia of settlement and cultivation resulted in the near–Dust Bowl conditions prevailing today.

Vultures also feature in the iconography of the Neolithic sites of Çatalhöyük and Jericho; it is believed that in the early Neolithic culture of Anatolia and the Near East the deceased were deliberately exposed in order to be excarnated by vultures and other birds of prey. (The head of the deceased was sometimes removed and preserved—possibly a sign of ancestor worship.) This, then, would represent an early form of sky burial, as practiced today by Tibetan Buddhists and Zoroastrians in India.

Few humanoid forms have surfaced at Göbekli Tepe, but include a relief of a naked woman, posed frontally in a crouched position, that Schmidt likens to the Venus accueillante figures found in Neolithic north Africa; and of at least one decapitated corpse surrounded by vultures. Some of the pillars, namely the T-shaped ones, have carved arms, which may indicate that they represent stylized humans (or anthropomorphic gods). Another example is decorated with human hands in what could be interpreted as a prayer gesture, with a simple stole or surplice engraved above; this may be intended to represent a temple priest.

Architecture

The houses or temples are round megalithic buildings. The walls are made of unworked dry stone and include numerous T-shaped monolithic pillars of limestone that are up to 3 metres (9.8 ft) high. Another, bigger pair of pillars is placed in the centre of the structures. There is evidence that the structures were roofed; the central pair of pillars may have supported the roof. The floors are made of terrazzo (burnt lime), and there is a low bench running along the whole of the exterior wall.

Economy

While the site formally belongs to the earliest Neolithic (PPN A), up to now no traces of domesticated plants or animals have been found. The inhabitants were hunters and gatherers who nevertheless lived in villages for at least part of the year. Schmidt speculates that the site played a key function in the transition to agriculture; he assumes that the necessary social organization needed for the creation of these structures went hand-in-hand with the organized exploitation of wild crops. For sustenance, wild cereals may have been used more intensively than before; perhaps they were even deliberately cultivated. Recent DNA analysis of modern domesticated wheat compared with wild wheat has shown that its DNA is closest in structure to wild wheat found on Mount Karaca Dağ 20 miles (32 km) away from the site, leading one to believe that this is where modern wheat was first domesticated.

Schmidt considers Göbekli Tepe a central location for a cult of the dead. He suggests that the carved animals are there to protect the dead. Though no tombs or graves have been found so far, Schmidt believes they remain to be discovered beneath the sacred circles' floors. Schmidt also interprets it in connection with the initial stages of an incipient Neolithic. It is one of several neolithic sites in the vicinity of Mount Karaca Dağ, an area where geneticists suspect the origins of at least some of our cultivated grains (see Einkorn). Such scholars suggest that the Neolithic revolution, i.e., the beginnings of grain cultivation, took place here. Schmidt and others believe that mobile groups in the area were forced to cooperate with each other to protect early concentrations of wild cereals from wild animals (herds of gazelles and wild donkeys). This would have led to an early social organization of various groups in the area of Göbekli Tepe. Thus, according to Schmidt, the Neolithic did not begin on a small scale in the form of individual instances of garden cultivation, but started immediately as a large-scale social organisation ("a full-scale revolution").

Chronological context

All statements about the site must be considered preliminary, as only about 5% of the site's total area has been excavated as yet; floor levels have been reached in only the second complex (complex B), which also contained a terrazzo-like floor. Schmidt believes that the dig could well continue for another fifty years, "and barely scratch the surface." So far excavations have revealed very little evidence for residential use. Through the radiocarbon method, the end of stratum III can be fixed at c. 9000 BC (see above); its beginnings are estimated to 11,000 BC or earlier. Stratum II dates to about 8000 BC.

Thus, the structures not only predate pottery, metallurgy, and the invention of writing or the wheel; they were built before the so-called Neolithic Revolution, i.e., the beginning of agriculture and animal husbandry around 9000 BC. But the construction of Göbekli Tepe implies organisation of an order of complexity not hitherto associated with pre-Neolithic societies. The archaeologists estimate that up to 500 persons were required to extract the 10–20-metric-ton (9.8–20 LT; 11–22 ST) pillars (in fact, some weigh up to 50 metric tons (49 LT; 55 ST)) from local quarries and move them 100–500 metres (330–1,600 ft) to the site. It is generally believed that an elite class of religious leaders supervised the work and later controlled whatever ceremonies took place here. If so, this would be the oldest known evidence for a priestly caste—much earlier than such social distinctions developed elsewhere in the Near East.

Around the beginning of the 8th millennium BC "Potbelly Hill" lost its importance. The advent of agriculture and animal husbandry brought new realities to human life in the area, and the "stone-age zoo" (as Schmidt calls it) depicted on the pillars apparently lost whatever significance it had had for the region's older, foraging, communities. But the complex was not simply abandoned and forgotten, to be gradually destroyed by the elements. Instead, it was deliberately buried under 300 to 500 cubic metres (390 to 650 cu yd) of soil. Why this was done is unknown, but it preserved the monuments for posterity.

Interpretation and Importance

Göbekli Tepe is regarded as an archaeological discovery of the greatest importance since it profoundly changes our understanding of a crucial stage in the development of human societies. It seems that the erection of monumental complexes was within the capacities of hunter-gatherers and not only of sedentary farming communities as had been previously assumed. In other words, as excavator Klaus Schmidt puts it: "First came the temple, then the city." This revolutionary hypothesis will have to be supported or modified by future research.

Not only its large dimensions, but the side-by-side existence of multiple pillar shrines makes the location unique. There are no comparable monumental complexes from its time. Nevalı Çori, a well-known Neolithic settlement also excavated by the German Archaeological Institute, and submerged by the Atatürk Dam since 1992, is 500 years later, its T-shaped pillars are considerably smaller, and its shrine was located inside a village; the roughly contemporary architecture at Jericho is devoid of artistic merit or large-scale sculpture; and Çatalhöyük, perhaps the most famous of all Anatolian Neolithic villages, is 2,000 years younger.

Schmidt has engaged in some speculation regarding the belief systems of the groups that created Göbekli Tepe, based on comparisons with other shrines and settlements. He assumes shamanic practices and suggests that the T-shaped pillars may represent mythical creatures, perhaps ancestors, whereas he sees a fully articulated belief in gods only developing later in Mesopotamia, associated with extensive temples and palaces. This corresponds well with an ancient Sumerian belief that agriculture, animal husbandry and weaving had been brought to mankind from the sacred mountain Du-Ku, which was inhabited by Annuna—deities, very ancient gods without individual names. Klaus Schmidt identifies this story as an oriental primeval myth that preserves a partial memory of the Neolithic. It is also apparent that the animal and other images give no indication of organized violence, i.e., there are no depictions of hunting raids or wounded animals, and the pillar carvings ignore game on which the society mainly subsisted, like deer, in favor of formidable creatures such as lions, snakes, spiders and scorpions.

Questions & Answers

At present, Göbekli Tepe raises more questions for archaeology and prehistory than it answers. We do not know how a force large enough to construct, augment, and maintain such a substantial complex was mobilized and paid or fed in the conditions of pre-Neolithic society. We cannot "read" the pictograms, and do not know for certain what meaning the animal reliefs had for visitors to the site; the variety of fauna depicted, from lions and boars to birds and insects, makes any single explanation problematic. As there seems to be little or no evidence of habitation, and the animals depicted on the stones are mainly predators, the stones may have been intended to stave off evils through some form of magic representation; it is also possible that they served as totems. It is not known why more and more walls were added to the interiors while the sanctuary was in use, with the result that some of the engraved pillars were obscured from view. Burial may or may not have occurred at the site. The reason the complex was eventually buried remains unexplained. Until more evidence is gathered, it is difficult to deduce anything certain about the originating culture.

More on National Geographic Magazine, June 2011:
Göbekli Tepe, The Birth of Religion, Charles C. Mann, Vincent J. Musi
Building Göbekli Tepe, Illustration by Fernando Baptista
Text source: Wikipedia
Photographs: ancient-anatolia.blogspot.com

Bible in the language spoken by Jesus

2011-07-28T23:42:00.001+03:00

Reading of Bible, John, in Aramaic Language, (Syriac), language spoken by Jesus, after short introduction in Turkish in Mor Gabriel Monastery in Midyat, Mardin, Turkey.

Founded in 397, The Monastery of St. Gabriel , (Dayro d-Mor Gabriel, Deyrulumur) is the oldest surviving Syriac Orthodox monastery in the world. It is located on the Tur Abdin plateau near Midyat in the Mardin Province in Southeastern Turkey, the motherland of the Syriac people.

Aramaic is a Semitic language belonging to the Afroasiatic language family. The name of the language is based on the name of Aram, an ancient region in central Syria. Within this family, Aramaic belongs to the Semitic subfamily, and more specifically, is a part of the Northwest Semitic group of languages, which also includes Canaanite languages such as Hebrew and Phoenician. Aramaic script was widely adopted for other languages and is ancestral to both the Arabic and modern Hebrew alphabets.

During its 3,000-year written history, Aramaic has served variously as a language of administration of empires and as a language of divine worship. It was the day-to-day language of Israel in the Second Temple period (539 BCE – 70 CE), was the original language of large sections of the biblical books of Daniel and Ezra, was the language spoken by Jesus, and is the main language of the Talmud.

Aphrodite of Mount Ida

2011-07-27T14:08:00.002+03:00

Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, and sexuality. Her Roman equivalent is the goddess Venus. Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte (Ishtar) in Phoenicia.

This Aphrodite figurine of 3rd century B.C., a burial gift found in the necropolis of Dardania on Mount Ida. It has the symbol of Asklepios, the god of medicine and healing in ancient Greek religion, snakes entwined around her left arm and left leg, symbolizing life and death.

In Greek mythology, the "Mountain of the Goddess" was Mount Ida in the ancient Troad region of western Anatolia (in modern-day Turkey) which was also known as the Phrygian Ida in classical antiquity and is the mountain that's mentioned in the Iliad of Homer and the Aeneid of Virgil. Both are associated with the mother goddess in the deepest layers of pre-Greek myth, in that Mount Ida in Anatolia was sacred to Cybele, who is sometimes called Mater Idaea ("Idaean Mother").

Hittite Guitar of 3300 Years Ago

2011-07-20T14:20:00.000+03:00

Hittite relief showing a figure holding an animal follows another figure that a bard plays a guitar-like instrument with a tassle. The left part is unfinished.

This is the earliest relief of guitar, andesit orthostat of imperial Hittite period, ca. 1430–1180 BC, found at Alaca, Çorum. Exhibited in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations at Ankara. Alacahöyük was inhabited since the Chalcolithic Age. Excavations show there were four layers of cultures of Chalcolithic, Old Bronze, Hittite and Phrygian ages. More on Hittites...

More on ancient music and cithara.

Ancient Musicians of Troy

2011-07-13T14:18:00.012+03:00

Figurines of ancient musicians, Assos of Troas, 4th century B.C. Behramkale, Turkey. These figurines were burial gifts found in the sarcophagi excavated in Assos cemetery dating to the Classical Period. They can be related to the cult of Dionysus. Several of these figurines are depicted as playing musical instruments such as flute, lyre, kithara and drum, while some are depicted as singing and dancing. Canakkale Museum of Archaeology, Turkey.

The modern orchestra has its historical roots in Ancient Egypt. The first orchestras were made up of small groups of musicians that gathered for festivals, holidays or funerals. The term orchestra derives from the Greek name for the area in front of the stage reserved for the chorus, a group of performers in the plays of classical Greece, who comment with a collective voice on the dramatic action.

Samples of Ancient Music:
Cithara (kithára), wooden type of the Greek lyre: Anonymes, De Bellermann, exercices instrumentaux pour cithare solo (IIIe ap. J.-C), transmis par divers manuscrits du XIIIe au XVIe siècle.
Chorus: Oreste, Euripide, (408 av. J.-C), strophe et antistrophe, pour voix, aulos traversier, cithare et kroupeza, papyrus inv. n° G2315 de l’Österreichische Nationalbibliothek de Vienne (fin du IIIe s. av. J.-C).
Music of Ancient Greece - Epitaph of Sikelos - by Halaris
Ancient Roman Music - Synaulia I, Track "Synphoniaci" from Synaulia, Vol. 2 - Wind album.
Ancient Greece: Song of Seikilos

Ancient Roman Faces of Troy

2011-07-06T14:06:00.000+03:00

Faces of head sculptures on a marble Roman tomb of ancient Dardanelles at Canakkale Museum of Archaeology, Turkey.

Yesemek Quarry & Sculpture Workshop of Hittites

2011-06-16T14:04:00.002+03:00

The Yesemek quarry and sculpture workshop of Hittites lies on the eastern slopes of Yesemek village 27 km south-east of Islahiye town in Gaziantep, Turkey.

The quarry was first discovered in 1890 by Felix von Luschan, director of the Zincirli, ancient Sam'al excavations. It was systematically surveyed and excavated between 1958 and 1961 by Prof. Bahadır Alkim. During this period hundreds of roughed-out statues were found. Technical studies, a typological classification and scale drawings were published.

The importance of site lies not only in its rich quarry but also in that it is the largest known open-air sculpture workshop in the ancient Near East.

The significance of the sculpture workshop for the study of hittite and Neo-Hittite are and sculpture can be summarized as follows:

* It shows methods of quarrying and shaping basalt blocks.
* It provides examples of every stage in the production of rough-outs of sphinxes, lions, reliefs, statues in the round, etc.
* It provides stone rough-outs of motifs, including lions, the sphinx, mountain gods and man-bear, from the sculptural repertoire of the Hittite Imperial Period (c. 1460-1180 B.C.). This shows the cross cultural exchange of symbols that are present in sculptural art.
* It shows the development from the 15th century B.C. down to the 8th century B.C., apart from an interruption during the invasions of the Sea Peoples into the region.

It seems that the craftsmen were of Hurrian origin during the period of the Hittite Empire (15th-12th centuries B.C.), whereas they were probably of Aramean origin in the Neo-Hittite period (10th-8th centuries B.C.) when the region lay within the Kingdom of Sam'al.

None of the tools used in the roughing-out the sculptures have been found. Investigations made on samples from various stages to the roughed-out sculptures reveal that tools included stone hammers and chisels, polishing stones and levers.

Evidence for the use of the saw and drill has not been recovered in Yesemek. The fine porosity and regular cleavage of the stone might have made saws unnecessary. Nevertheless, basalt orthostats with drilled holes at Tilmen Höyük, to the 10 km. north of the workshop, in levels dated to the 18th and 17th centuries B.C. suggest that the drill was known to the stone masons at Yesemek. Architectural sculptures commissioned from Yesemek were dispached to their final destination unfinished, and thus did not have holes drilled into them.

Trial excavations at Yesemek Mound, one kilometer west of the sculpture workshop uncovered occupation of the 2nd and early 1st millenia B.C. Part of a settlement with many ceramics and structural remains, probably belonging to the Yesemek workmen, their overseers and others, was revealed.

The Yesemek quarry sculpture workshop was finally abandoned in the last quarter of the 8th century B.C.

Gate Lions

Most of the roughed-out statues at the Yesemek workshop are lions to flank monumental gateways. Surveys, trial trenches and excavations have so far revealed rough-outs of 95 of them.

Sphinxes

The thirty roughed-out protomes of sphinxes found in Yesemek sculpture workshop on narrow blocks. Sphinxes stood in building entrances or gate ways and had a protective function. The sphinx originated in Egypt, where it was generally a masculine creature with a lion's body and a human head. Hittite sphinxes of the second millenium B.C. however, were usually feminine, with theit hair falling over the breast curling outward at the ends. Sphinxes with curling hair are of the "Hathor" type, deriving probably from Palestine or Syria. The Yesemek sculpture workshop must have played an important role in the transmission of the sphinx to the Hittites.

Reliefs of the Mountain Gods

There roughed-out reliefs are sculpted in a style resembling that of the Hittite Imperial Period, second half of of the secend millenium B.C., and thus appear to have been made at about the same time. The posture and clothing of the gods is much the same on all the reliefs. The figures are depicted in the frontal position with arms crossed over the chest. They have no feet, and their skirts appear to spring directly from the earth in the form of a mountain. They have bearded faces and wear cylindrical hats. In some of the reliefs, the solar disc motif can be seen.

The bear-man, composite creature

The coposite creature with a bear's head and a man's body appears to be a figural type unique to the Yesemek sculpture workshop, not found else where in the sculpture of the ancient Near East. This creature, or possibly a priest with a bear mask, may have played a role in local cult practice. Hartagga, a bear-man figure known from the Hittite cuneiform tablets of the XIV-XIII centuries B.C., has been identified as a temple official. The roughed-out bear-man creature from Yesemek can be dated back to the second half of the second millenium B.C.

Relief of a battle chariot

This relief was made of three blocks, only two of which have been found. The relief can be dated back to the eighth or ninth century B.C.

Statues in the round

Only one rouhed-out staue in the round has been found in the Yesemek sculpture workshop. Similar statues in the round have been found at Zincirli, Gercin and Karatepe, dating back to the 8th and 9th centuries B.C.

Architectureal fragments

Two architectural fragments have been found in Yesemek: a plain and sculpted column base. On the sculpted column base are depicted two antithetic animals or composite creatures flanking a sacred tree.

Ancient Cities: The Archaeology of Urban Life in the Ancient Near East - Book Review

2011-06-15T14:10:00.024+03:00

Ancient Cities surveys the cities of the Ancient Near East, Egypt, and the Greek and Roman worlds from the perspectives of archaeology and architectural history, bringing to life the physical world of ancient city dwellers by concentrating on evidence recovered from archaeological excavations.

Urban form is the focus: the physical appearance and overall plans of the cities, their architecture and natural topography, and the cultural and historical contexts in which they flourished. Attention is also paid to non-urban features such as religious sanctuaries and burial grounds, places and institutions that were a familiar part of the city dweller's experience. Objects or artifacts that represented the essential furnishings of everyday life are discussed, such as pottery, sculpture, wall paintings, mosaics and coins.

Ancient Cities is unusual in presenting this wide range of Old World cultures in such comprehensive detail, giving equal weight to the Preclassical and Classical periods, and in showing the links between these ancient cultures.

User-friendly features include:

use of clear and accessible language, assuming no previous background knowledge
lavishly illustrated with over 300 line drawings, maps, and photos
historical summaries, further reading arranged by topic, plus a consolidated bibliography and comprehensive index new to the second edition:

a companion website with an interactive timeline, chapter summaries, study questions, and illustrations; a timeline allowing easy comparison of urban habitation; and a glossary of archaeological and historical terms.

In this second edition, Charles Gates has comprehensively revised and updated his original text, and Neslihan Yılmaz has reworked her acclaimed illustrations. Readers and lecturers will be delighted to see a new chapter on Phoenician cities in the first millennium BC, and new sections on Göbekli Tepe, the sensational Neolithic sanctuary; Sinope, a Greek city on the Black Sea coast; and cities of the western Roman Empire. With its comprehensive presentation of ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern cities, its rich collection of illustrations, and its new companion website, Ancient Cities will remain an essential textbook for university and high school students across a wide range of archaeology, ancient history, and ancient Near Eastern, Biblical, and classical studies courses.

Buy the book: Ancient Cities: The Archaeology of Urban Life in the Ancient Near East » Barnes & Noble.com

Mosaics of Zeugma

2011-06-14T14:27:00.003+03:00

Gaziantep Museum of Archaeology is best known for its collection of mosaics, most of which were excavated from the ancient Roman city site of Zeugma of Commagene. The museum was substantially enlarged in 2005 to house the newly-discovered mosaics of Zeugma, considered among the four most important ancient settlement areas under the reign of the kingdom of Commagene, partly submerged in the Birecik Dam Lake today.

Bronze statue of Mars of Zeugma of Commagene

2011-06-09T14:39:00.005+03:00

Mars, the god of war, found amongst storage jars in the larder of one of the Zeugma villas, stands with his furious glance, a spear in his hand and flowers in the other hand, Gaziantep Museum of Archaeology. Zeugma was an ancient city of Commagene; currently located in the Gaziantep Province of Turkey. It was a historical settlement which is considered among the four most important settlement areas under the reign of the kingdom of Commagene, which is partly submerged in the Birecik Dam Lake today.

Mars was the Roman god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He was second in importance only to Jupiter, and he was the most prominent of the military gods worshipped by the Roman legions. His festivals were held in March, the month named for him (Latin Martius), and in October, which began and ended the season for military campaigning and farming.

The counterpart of Ares among the Roman gods is Mars, who as a father of the Roman people held a more important and dignified place in ancient Roman religion for his agricultural and tutelary functions. During the Hellenization of Latin literature, the myths of Ares were reinterpreted by Roman writers under the name of Mars. Greek writers under Roman rule also recorded cult practices and beliefs pertaining to Mars under the name of Ares. Thus in the classical tradition of later Western art and literature, the mythology of the two figures becomes virtually indistinguishable.

Mosaics of Antioch

2011-06-08T14:11:00.000+03:00

The Antioch mosaics are a grouping of over 300 mosaic floors created around the 3rd century AD, and discovered during archaeological excavations of Antioch between 1932 and 1939 by a consortium of five museums and institutions. About half of the mosaics are housed at the Antakya Archaeological Museum, with others currently residing at the Worcester Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Baltimore Museum of Art, Harvard University and Princeton University Art Museum among others. The mosaics range in design from realistic imagery and scenes, to purely geometric patterns.

Antioch was a ancient city located just outside the modern day city of Antakya, Turkey. During the reign of Hadrian, during the 2nd century, through to the reign of Justinian in the 6th century, mosaic floors were the fashion in the city and its surrounding suburbs. The city thrived until it was destroyed by earthquakes in 526 and 528.

Beginning in 1932, under French invasion of Antioch, a consortium of museums and institutions sponsored expeditions to the archaeological sites where the city of Antioch once stood. These museums, the Worcester Art Museum, Princeton University, the musée du Louvre, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and Harvard University's affiliate Dumbarton Oaks, were attempting to uncover great monuments, palaces, and treasures, but were disappointed when most of what was unearthed, under tons of silt, was just the remains of houses, most without any remaining walls. The only surviving part of the majority of the houses was the floors.

The floors the archeologists discovered were covered in intricate mosaics. More than 300 mosaics were found.

In 1939 the expedition ended and the archeologists packed up to leave. They left about half of the unearthed mosaics to the city if Antakya, the modern day city located at Antioch, which subsequently built a museum, the Antakya Archaeological Museum, to house them. The rest of the mosaics were split up amongst the institutions that took part in the dig, and were sent all over the world. To be transported, large amounts of concrete was poured behind the mosaics to create a stable backing. When dividing up the floors, the archeologists, often took apart rooms and sent different parts of the floor to different museums. For an exhibit at the Worcester Art Museum in 2000, mosaics were compiled from Paris, Baltimore, Princeton and Wellesley, to reassemble a single room's floor. After the expedition left, the pits were filled back in and olive groves were planted over them.

The Antioch mosaics were created at a time and place between distinct artistic styles. They show how the link between artistic styles of ancient Greece and Rome, and the art of early Christianity. The mosaics are incredibly large, with "The Worcester Hunt," the largest Antioch mosaic in the United States, measuring 20.5 feet (6.26 m) x 23.3 feet (7.11 m). The mosaics range in design from realistic imagery and scenes, to purely geometric patterns. It is believed that the mosaics were created by mosaic specialists.

The Tessera for the mosaics is both white and colored marble as well as white and colored limestone.

Ancient Einkorn Wheat of Safranbolu

2011-06-07T14:38:00.004+03:00

Einkorn wheat was one of the earliest cultivated forms of wheat. Einkorn can refer either to the wild species of wheat, Triticum boeoticum, or to the domesticated form, Triticum monococcum. The cultivated form is similar to the wild, except that the ear stays intact when ripe and the seeds are larger.

Grains of wild einkorn have been found in Epi-Paleolithic sites of the Fertile Crescent. It was first domesticated approximately 7500 BCE, in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) or B (PPNB) periods. Evidence from DNA finger-printing suggests einkorn was domesticated near Karaca Dağ in southeast Turkey, an area in which a number of PPNB farming villages have been found. Its cultivation decreased in the Bronze Age, and today it is a relict crop that is rarely planted. It remains as a local crop, often for bulgur (cracked wheat) or as animal feed, in mountainous areas of France, Morocco, the former Yugoslavia, Turkey and other countries. It often survives on poor soils where other species of wheat fail.

Bulgur is a cereal food made from several different wheat species. Its use is most common in Middle Eastern cuisine, Turkey, Greece, Armenia and Bulgaria. Bulgur for human consumption is usually sold parboiled and dried, with the bran partially removed.

See: Blessing, story of wheat and human civilization.

Sarcophagus of Antakya

2011-05-16T09:49:00.000+03:00

Lion hunting scene, sculpture on the Sarcophagus of Antakya, sidemara tomb in Archaeological Museum of Antakya, ancient Antioch, Turkey.

Titus Tunnel of Antioch

2011-05-11T13:14:00.002+03:00

Titus Vespasianus Tunnel of Seleuceia ad Pierea, at Antioch’s ancient port near Samandag, to the southwest of Antakya, is a man-made canyon and canal built digging the rock during the 1st century A.D. to divert the river and prevent silting the harbor.

Titus Flavius Caesar Vespasianus Augustus was Roman Emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death.

The Goddess and the Bull - Book Review

2011-05-03T15:29:00.002+03:00

Catalhoyuk: An Archaeological Journey to the Dawn of Civilization:

Thousands of years before the pyramids were built in Egypt and the Trojan War was fought, a great civilization arose on the Anatolian plains. The Goddess and the Bull details the dramatic quest by archaeologists to unearth the buried secrets of human cultural evolution at this huge, spectacularly well-preserved 9500-year-old village in Turkey.

Here lie the origins of modern society -- the dawn of art, architecture, religion, family -- even the first tangible evidence of human self-awareness, the world's oldest mirrors.

Some archaeologists have claimed that the Mother Goddess was first worshipped at Çatalhöyük, which is now a site of pilgrimage for Goddess worshippers from all over the world. The excavations here have yielded the seeds of the Neolithic Revolution, when prehistoric humans first abandoned the hunter-gatherer life they had known for millions of years, invented farming, and began living in houses and communities.

Michael Balter, the excavation's official biographer, brings readers behind the scenes, providing the first inside look at the remarkable site and its history of scandal and thrilling scientific discovery. He tells the very human story of two colorful men: British archaeologist James Mellaart, who discovered Çatalhöyük in 1958 only to be banned from working at the site forever after a fabulous ancient treasure disappeared without a trace; and Ian Hodder, a pathbreaking archaeological rebel who reinvented the way archaeology is practiced and reopened the excavation after it had lain dormant for three decades.

Today Hodder leads an international team of more than one hundred archaeologists who continue to probe thesite's secrets. Balter reveals the true story behind modern archaeology -- the thrill of history-making scientific discovery as well as the crushing disappointments, the community and friendship, the love affairs, and the often bitter rivalries between warring camps of archaeologists. Along the way, Balter describes the cutting-edge advances in archaeological science that have allowed the team at Çatalhöyük to illuminate the central questions of human existence.

Read the Book: The Goddess and the Bull: Catalhoyuk: An Archaeological Journey to the Dawn of Civilization » Barnes & Noble.com

More: Religion in the Emergence of Civilization: Catalhoyuk as a Case Study, Ian Hodder (Editor),Paperback, English-language edition,Pub by Cambridge University PressIan Hodder (Editor),Paperback, English-language edition,Pub by Cambridge University Press.

Amazons: Ancient Myth or Reality?

2011-05-01T22:55:00.003+03:00

Relief at Sebasteion: Ancient Aphrodisias School of Sculpture...

Achilles supporting the slumping figure of the Amazon queen Penthesilea whom he has mortally wounded. Her double headed axe slips from her hand. The queen had come to fight in the Trojan War against the invading Greeks. Between her being wounded and dying in his arms, the time presented here, Achilles fell in love with her. - Museum of Aphrodisias.

Amazons: Ancient Myth or Reality?

The Amazons are a nation of all-female warriors in Classical antiquity and Greek mythology. Were they just a romantic ancient myth or reality?

Notable queens of the Amazons are Penthesilea, who participated in the Trojan War, and her sister Hippolyte, whose magical girdle, given to her by her father Ares, was the object of one of the labours of Hercules. Amazonian raiders were often depicted in battle with Greek warriors in amazonomachies in classical art.

The Amazons have become associated with various historical peoples throughout the Roman Empire period and Late Antiquity. In Roman historiography, there are various accounts of Amazon raids in Asia Minor. From the Early Modern period, their name has become a term for woman warriors in general.

Amazons were said to have lived in Pontus, which is part of modern day Turkey near the shore of the Black Sea. There they formed an independent kingdom under the government of a queen named Hippolyta or Hippolyte. The Amazons were supposed to have founded many towns, amongst them Smyrna (modern Izmir, Turkey), Ephesus, Sinope (Sinop, Turkey), and Paphos (in Cyprus). According to the dramatist Aeschylus, in the distant past they had lived in Scythia (modern Crimea), at the Palus Maeotis ("Lake Maeotis", the Sea of Azov), but later moved to Themiscyra on the River Thermodon (the Terme river in northern Turkey).

In the Iliad, the Amazons were referred to as Antianeirai, those who fight like men.

In works of art, battles between Amazons and Greeks are placed on the same level as and often associated with battles of Greeks and centaurs.

Herodotus reported that the Sarmatians were descendants of Amazons and Scythians, and that their females observed their ancient maternal customs, "frequently hunting on horseback with their husbands; in war taking the field; and wearing the very same dress as the men". Moreover, said Herodotus, "No girl shall wed till she has killed a man in battle".

Amazonmachy, Amazon battle, marble sarcophagus, Kütahya Museum of Archaeology, Turkey, a portrayal of legendary battle between Greeks and Amazons. The mythic all-female warrior society was believed to have been defeated by the likes of Heracles and Theseus. The Amazonmachy symbolised the triumph of Greek civilization over the barbarian.

Royal Wedding Ceremony of Hittites

2011-04-29T13:47:00.000+03:00

Ancient Hittite artwork sculpture on pottery in Anatolian Civilizations Museum of Ankara, Inandik vase from Inandiktepe mound at Cankiri, Turkey, showing the stages of sacred wedding ceremony in Hittite social life.

Ancient Gates of Eternity

2011-04-28T14:29:00.001+03:00

Ancient Roman doors to afterlife at Kütahya Museum of Archaeology, Turkey.

A false door is a common architectural element in the tombs of Ancient Egypt too. The ancient Egyptians believed that the false door was a threshold between the world of the living and the dead, and through which a deity or the spirit of the deceased could enter and exit. The false door was usually the focus of a tomb's offering chapel, where family members could place offerings for the deceased on a special offering slab placed in front of the door. A false door usually is carved from a single block of stone or plank of wood, and it was not meant to function as a normal door. Located in the center of the door is a flat panel, or niche, around which several pairs of door jambs are arranged, some convey the illusion of depth and a series of frames, a foyer, or a passageway.

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Tyana

2011-04-26T14:51:00.000+03:00

Tyana was an ancient city of Anatolia, in modern south-central Turkey. It was the capital of a Luwian speaking Neo-Hittite kingdom in the 1st millennium BC.

Tyana is the city referred to in Hittite archives as Tuwanuwa. During the Hittite Empire period in mid 2nd millennium, Tuwanuwa was among the principal settlements of the region along with Hupisna, Landa, Sahasara, Huwassana and Kuniyawannni. This south-central Anatolian region was referred to as the Lower Land in Hittite sources and its population was mainly Luwian speakers. Following the collapse of the Hittite Empire, Tuwanuwa/Tuwana was a major city of the independent Neo-Hittite kingdoms. It is not certain whether or not it was initially subject to the Tabal kingdom to its north, but certainly by the late 8th century BC it was an independent kingdom under a ruler named Warpalawa (in Assyrian sources Urballa). He figures in several hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions found in the region, including a monumental rock carving in Ivriz. Warpalawa is also mentioned in Assyrian texts, under the name Urballa, first in a list of tributees of Assyrian king Tiglath Pileser III and later in a letter of Sargon II.

The states that are called Neo-Hittite, or Syro-Hittite, were Luwian, Aramaic and Phoenician-speaking political entities of the Iron Age northern Syria and southern Anatolia that arose following the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1180 BC and lasted until roughly 700 BC.

In Greek legend, the city was first called Thoana because Thoas, a Thracian king, was its founder (Arrian, Periplus Ponti Euxini, vi); it was in Cappadocia, at the foot of Taurus Mountains and near the Cilician Gates (Strabo, XII, 537; XIII, 587).

Xenophon mentions it in his book Anabasis, under the name of Dana, as a large and prosperous city. The surrounding plain was known after it as Tyanitis.

It was in a strategic position on the road to Syria via the Cilician Gates. It is the reputed birthplace of the celebrated philosopher (and reputed saint, god, or magician) Apollonius of Tyana in the first century AD. Ovid (Metamorphoses VIII) places the tale of Baucis and Philemon in the vicinity.

Under Roman Emperor Caracalla, the city became Antoniana colonia Tyana. After having sided with Queen Zenobia of Palmyra, it was captured by Aurelian in 272, who would not allow his soldiers to sack it, allegedly because Apollonius appeared to him, pleading for its safety.

In 371, Emperor Valens created a second province of Cappadocia, "Cappadocia Secunda", of which Tyana became the metropolis.

The city was sacked by the Umayyads in 708, and remained deserted for some time before being rebuilt. During his campaign in 806 against the Byzantine Empire, Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid captured Tyana, made it his headquarters, and constructed a mosque in token of his sovereignty over the city.

The ruins of Tyana are at modern Kemerhisar, three miles south of Niğde; there are remains of a Roman aqueduct and of cave cemeteries and sepulchral grottoes.

Phrygian Votive Stelae

2011-04-19T18:18:00.000+03:00

Phrygian votive Stelae at Kütahya Museum of Archaeology, from the village of Kurudere, near Afyon, Emirdag; and village of Pinarcik (Abia) in Kütahya, Altintas.

Since very early times man has made offerings to the gods either as act of thanks or of entreaty. In Phrygia during the Roman period (2nd-3rd centuries A.D.) votive deposits are made setting up stelae.

Set up by villagers the stelae record the names of local gods, assimilated to the cult of Zeus; for example, Zeus Alsenos, Zeus Patarenos, Zeus Ampelikos, Zeus Ampeleitos, Zeus Thallos. The epithets indicate the specific function of those local deities; Zeus Thallos, for example, protected young saplings, while Zeus Ampaleitos and Zeus Ampelikos safeguarded vineyards, and Zeus Alsenos looked after sacred groves. Other epithets derive from place names, as in the case of Zeus Patarenos.

The deities however also served a more general role, dealing with the villagers' various problems, especially ones concerning their health. This is shown by the presence on many of the stelae of the body (eyes, arms, legs, hands, breasts, etc.), carved in relief. Other reliefs depict objects relating to agriculture, which is also often referred to on those bearing only an inscription. Shepherds are sometimes depicted on the stelae, dressed in the typical peaked cloak made of felt. Pairs of oxen are also commonly depicted. Village woman and even slaves were portrayed on some of the stelae.