Byzantine Ephesus: Life in the city after Empire

The grand architectural monuments of Ephesus attest to its glory days as a sophisticated metropolis of the Roman Empire. But what happened when the Empire ended in the 4th century AD? Following recent excavation, Sabine Ladstätter and Michaela Binder reveal new evidence of life in the city during the turbulent days of Byzantine rule.

The Basilica of St John, on Ayasoluk hill in nearby Selçuk, was built in the 6th century AD, and is said to lie on the burial place of St John.

Visitors flock to Ephesus to see the impressive remains of flamboyant architecture commissioned by self-promoting emperors whose extravagant monuments reflected the glory of their triumphs, and trumpeted the long reach of Imperial power. 

Yet what they see belies the site’s long and colourful history which not only stretched back centuries to its Archaic origins, but continued forward in time, well beyond the disintegration of Imperial Rome. In particular, past study has largely ignored the period following the 4th century AD. Now new research by the Austrian Archaeological Institute in Vienna at the Austrian Academy of Sciences can reveal how the people of Ephesus adapted to the eventful years of Byzantine rule.

In Late Antiquity, Ephesus faced both environmental and political challenges. In the 3rd century AD, a series of earthquakes left deep scars that are visible in the archaeological record, and certainly contributed to the economic decline of the city. Its troubles were compounded by the relentless accumulation of silt in the harbour basin and associated channels, with the maintenance of these waterways becoming a constant battle. 

Meanwhile, Constantine the Great adopted Constantinople as his residence and capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, lavishing money on major building projects to expand and embellish the city. As a result, resources in the form of private and public patronage, under Constantine and subsequent emperors, was now concentrated on the new capital, so Ephesus, the once great Imperial metropolis, had to reinvent itself as a regional centre, and look for alternative means of income. Fortunately, the Ephesians had a valuable asset: their large number of places of worship.

Plan of Ephesus during the Byzantine and Turkish periods.

The Church of St Mary – the venue of the Church Council – along with the Basilica of St John, the Cemetery of the Seven Sleepers, and the so-called Tomb of Luke were developed into major religious centres, attracting flocks of the faithful, and sealing Ephesus’s reputation as a centre of Early Christian pilgrimage. The financial advantages associated with these enterprises were enormous: not only did visitors require accommodation and provisions, but they also made endowments and donations. turkey Furthermore, this new-found pilgrimage industry not only brought economic revival to the region, but it also provided the motivation for increased efforts in creating a functioning network of roads and connections to the sea to guarantee viable visitor traffic.

For any port city, direct access to the sea is a prerequisite for commercial prosperity, and here Ephesus had a problem. The continuous and increased silting up of the harbour basin, compounded by contamination created by the city itself, meant the harbour required constant maintenance and cleaning to ensure unrestricted access for ships. This was a well-known issue since the early Imperial period, and up until the late 2nd century considerable manpower and technical ingenuity were employed to keep the problem at bay: a short channel linking the harbour basin with the sea was built during the early Imperial period, and was continually lengthened as the sea retreated. Archaeological evidence also shows that outer harbours were created where ships with deeper draughts could anchor. From there, people and goods would be transferred onto smaller craft that could safely negotiate the shallows of the channel.

This unique harbour landscape grew over centuries, and encompasses the large hexagonal harbour basin of the Roman Imperial Period, a long channel, signal towers, and at least two outer harbours. Clearly, the people of Ephesus did not shy away from the toil – nor from the considerable costs – required to maintain direct access to the sea, and thus enabled themselves to remain a competitive trading hub for as long as was possible.

An aerial view of the harbour of Ephesus and the channel providing access to the Aegean Sea.

Byzantine Ephesus: Life in the city after Empire

Rock tombs of Turkey's Şanlıurfa to open to tourism

Rock tombs nearly 2,000 years old, which have been unearthed in caves in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, are to be opened to tourists after excavations are completed. 

The historical city of Şanlıurfa, home to myriad civilizations in its millennia-old history, is a leading spot for faith and culture tourism in Turkey. 

Ancient caves were unearthed during restoration and environmental arrangement works in the city’s Kale Eteği and Kızılkoyun districts, where shanty houses had been previously built. Inside the uncovered caves a total of 113 rock tombs were found. 

A number of figures and four floor mosaics were discovered in the rock tomb chambers within the scope of the ongoing works, carried out in collaboration with the provincial culture and tourism directorates, museum directorates and the Şanlıurfa Municipality. 

Mayor Nihat Çiftçi said Şanlıurfa was a city of culture and had been home to many civilizations. Each excavation in the city unearthed artifacts from different overlaid periods, he added. 

“Restoration and environmental works have unearthed 72 caves in the Kale Eteği district and 61 in Kızılkoyun district. The caves have rock tombs inside. These rock tombs date back to the 1st century A.D, from the era of Edessa King Abgar. We have also found mosaics on the ground of the ancient tombs, depicting the figures of this era. Families that lived in this era were buried in tombs in these caves,” Çiftçi said.  

He added that they aimed to turn Şanlıurfa into a kind of “open-air museum.” 

“We will open the Kale Eteği area to tourism in three-four months. We always say that Şanlıurfa is a city of caves. These caves were settlements in the past. Therefore ancient civilizations left their traces in these caves. With their arches, gates, and floor mosaics, the caves show us the lifestyle, philosophy, richness, architecture and faith of this era. Our archaeologists want to continue works nonstop because they work manually. The works in Kızılkoyun have been continuing for six months. They need one more year of work there for more detailed examination,” Çiftçi said. 

Temple-like rock tomb

Şanlıurfa Museum archaeologist Bekir Çetin said the region was known as the necropolis (graveyard) of Edessa city, adding that they found rock tombs up to three meters underground. 

“The ones at that depth are better preserved. There is one rock tomb here, the entrance of which has never been opened. It looks like a temple. A similar one can be seen in the southwest Anatolia. The rock tombs here have two or three chambers. Their columns and decorations draw particular attention at the entrance of the rock tombs. In some chambers, one can see Triton, a mythological Greek god. This reveals that those rock tomb caves are important for Şanlıurfa tourism,” Çetin said.

Rock tombs of Turkey's Şanlıurfa to open to tourism

Byzantium

Byzantium (Greek: Βυζάντιον Byzántion) was an ancient Greek colony on the site that later became Constantinople, and later still Istanbul. Byzantium was colonised by the Greeks from Megara in c. 657 BC.

Byzantion name is of ancient greek origins, derived from the legendary king Byzas, the leader of the Megarian colonists and founder of the city.

Coinage with idealized depiction of Byzas, founder of Byzantium. Struck in Byzantium, Thrace, around the time of Marcus Aurelius (161–180 CE).

The form Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name. Much later, the name Byzantium became common in the West to refer to the Eastern Roman Empire, the "Byzantine" Empire, whose capital Constantinople stood on the site of ancient Byzantium. This usage was introduced only in 1555 by the historian Hieronymus Wolf, a century after the empire had ceased to exist. During the time of the empire, the term Byzantium was restricted to just the city, rather than the empire it ruled.

History

The European side (at Seraglio Point) featured only two fishing settlements: Lygos and Semistra. The origins of Byzantium are shrouded in legend. The traditional legend has it that Byzas from Megara (a city-state near Athens) founded Byzantium in 667 BC when he sailed northeast across the Aegean Sea. The tradition tells that Byzas, son of King Nisos (Νίσος), planned to found a colony of the Dorian Greek city of Megara. Byzas consulted the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, which instructed Byzas to settle opposite the "Land of the Blind". Leading a group of Megarian colonists, Byzas found a location where the Golden Horn, a great natural harbour, meets the Bosphorus and flows into the Sea of Marmara, opposite Chalcedon (modern day Kadıköy). He adjudged the Chalcedonians blind not to have recognized the advantages the land on the European side of the Bosphorus had over the Asiatic side. In 667 BC he founded Byzantium at their location, thus fulfilling the oracle's requirement. Cape Moda in Chalcedon was the first location which the Greek settlers from Megara chose to colonize in 685 BC, prior to colonizing Byzantion on the European side of the Bosphorus under the command of King Byzas in 667 BC.

AR tetradrachm struck in Byzantion 150-100 BC in the name of Lysimachos obverse:Head of the deified Alexander the Great right; reverse: Athena Nikephoros seated left ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ / ΛΥΣΙΜΑΧΟΥ monogram (ΠΩΛΥΒ) to left; ΒΥ below throne trident in exergue references: Dewing 1361, Müller 204. weight:16,87g diameter: 35-32mm

It was mainly a trading city due to its location at the Black Sea's only entrance. Byzantium later conquered Chalcedon, across the Bosporus on the Asiatic side.

Byzantium was besieged by Greek forces during the Peloponnesian war. As part of Sparta's strategy for cutting off grain supplies to Athens, Sparta took the city in 411 BC. The Athenian military later took the city in 408 BC.

After siding with Pescennius Niger against the victorious Septimius Severus, the city was besieged by Roman forces and suffered extensive damage in 196 AD. Byzantium was rebuilt by Septimius Severus, now emperor, and quickly regained its previous prosperity. It was bound to Perinthos during the period of Septimius Severus. The location of Byzantium attracted Roman Emperor Constantine I who, in 330 AD, refounded it as an imperial residence inspired by Rome itself. (See Nova Roma.) After his death the city was called Constantinople (Greek Κωνσταντινούπολις, Konstantinoupolis, "city of Constantine").

An amphora containing a treasure of 1,202 6th century Byzantine bronze coins

This combination of imperialism and location would affect Constantinople's role as the nexus between the continents of Europe and Asia. It was a commercial, cultural, and diplomatic centre. With its strategic position, Constantinople controlled the major trade routes between Asia and Europe, as well as the passage from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea. On May 29, 1453, the city fell to the Ottoman Turks, and again became the capital of a powerful state, the Ottoman Empire. The Turks called the city "Istanbul" (although it was not officially renamed until 1930); the name derives from "eis-tin-polin" (Greek: "to-the-city"). To this day it remains the largest and most populous city in Turkey, although Ankara is now the national capital.

Emblem

By the late Hellenistic or early Roman period (1st century BC), the star and crescent motif was associated to some degree with Byzantium; even though it became more widely used as the royal emblem of Mithradates VI Eupator (who for a time incorporated the city into his empire).

Some Byzantine coins of the 1st century BC and later show the head of Artemis with bow and quiver, and feature a crescent with what appears to be an eight-rayed star on the reverse. According to accounts which vary in some of the details, in 340 BC the Byzantines and their allies the Athenians were under siege by the troops of Philip of Macedon. On a particularly dark and wet night Philip attempted a surprise attack but was thwarted by the appearance of a bright light in the sky. This light is occasionally described by subsequent interpreters as a meteor, sometimes as the moon, and some accounts also mention the barking of dogs. However, the original accounts mention only a light in the sky, without specifying the moon. To commemorate the event the Byzantines erected a statue of Hecate lampadephoros (light-bearer or bringer). This story survived in the works of Hesychius of Miletus, who in all probability lived in the time of Justinian I. His works survive only in fragments preserved in Photius and the tenth century lexicographer Suidas. The tale is also related by Stephanus of Byzantium, and Eustathius.

Devotion to Hecate was especially favored by the Byzantines for her aid in having protected them from the incursions of Philip of Macedon. Her symbols were the crescent and star, and the walls of her city were her provenance.

Ancient design of the star and crescent symbol as used in Byzantium in the 1st century BC

The star and crescent develops in the iconography of the Hellenistic period in Pontus, the Bosporan Kingdom, and notably Byzantium by the 2nd century BC. It is the conjoined representation of the crescent and a star, both of which constituent elements have a long prior history in the iconography of the Ancient Near East as representing either Sun and Moon, or Moon and Evening Star (or their divine personifications). Coins with crescent and star symbols represented separately have a longer history, with possible ties to older Mesopotamian iconography.

Depiction of the emblems of Ishtar (Venus), Sin (Moon), and Shamash (Sun) on a boundary stone of Meli-Shipak II (12th century BC)

The star or Sun is often shown within the arc of the crescent (also called star in crescent or star within crescent for disambiguation of depictions of a star and a crescent side by side); In numismatics in particular, the term crescent and pellet is used in cases where the star is simplified to a single dot.

Byzantine coin (1st century) with a bust of Artemis on the obverse and an eight-rayed star within a crescent on the reverse side.

In Byzantium, the symbol became associated its patron goddess Artemis-Hecate, and it is used as a representation of Moon goddesses (Selene-Luna or Artemis-Diana) in the Roman era. Ancient depictions of the symbol always show the crescent with horns pointing upward, and with the star (often with eight rays) placed inside the crescent. This arrangement is also found on Sassanid coins beginning in the 5th or 6th century.
Crescents appearing together with a star or stars are a common feature of Sumerian iconography, the crescent usually being associated with the moon god Sin (Nanna) and the star with Ishtar (Inanna, i.e. Venus), often placed alongside the sun disk of Shamash. In Late Bronze Age Canaan, star and crescent moon motifs are also found on Moabite name seals.
The Egyptian hieroglyphs representing "moon" () and "star" () appear in ligature, forming a star-and-crescent shape , as a determiner for the word for "month", ꜣbd.

A star and crescent symbol with the star shown in a sixteen-rayed "sunburst" design (3rd century BC)

The depiction of the crescent-and-star or "star inside crescent" as it would later develop in Bosporan Kingdom is difficult to trace to Mesopotamian art. Exceptionally, a combination of the crescent of Sin with the five-pointed star of Ishtar, with the star placed inside the crescent as in the later Hellenistic-era symbol, placed among numerous other symbols, is found in a boundary stone of Nebuchadnezzar I (12th century BC; found in Nippur by John Henry Haynes in 1896). An example of such an arrangement is also found in the (highly speculative) reconstruction of a fragmentary stele of Ur-Nammu (Third Dynasty of Ur) discovered in the 1920s.

Mithradates VI Eupator of Pontus (r. 120–63 BC) used an eight rayed star with a crescent moon as his emblem. McGing (1986) notes the association of the star and crescent with Mithradates VI, discussing its appearance on his coins, and its survival in the coins of the Bosporan Kingdom where "[t]he star and crescent appear on Pontic royal coins from the time of Mithradates III and seem to have had oriental significance as a dynastic badge of the Mithridatic family, or the arms of the country of Pontus." Several possible interpretations of the emblem have been proposed. In most of these, the "star" is taken to represent the Sun. The combination of the two symbols has been taken as representing Sun and Moon (and by extension Day and Night), the Zoroastrian Mah and Mithra,or deities arising from Greek-Anatolian-Iranian syncretism, the crescent representing Mēn Pharnakou (Μήν Φαρνακου, the local moon god) and the "star" (Sun) representing Ahuramazda (in interpretatio graeca called Zeus Stratios)

It is unclear precisely how the symbol Hecate/Artemis, one of many goddesses would have been transferred to the city itself, but it seems likely to have been an effect of being credited with the intervention against Philip and the subsequent honors. This was a common process in ancient Greece, as in Athens where the city was named after Athena in honor of such an intervention in time of war.

Later, under the Romans, cities in the empire often continued to issue their own coinage. "Of the many themes that were used on local coinage, celestial and astral symbols often appeared, mostly stars or crescent moons." The wide variety of these issues, and the varying explanations for the significance of the star and crescent on Roman coinage precludes their discussion here. It is, however, apparent that by the time of the Romans, coins featuring a star or crescent in some combination were not at all rare.

Source/Photography/Bibliography

Jeffreys, Elizabeth (1986). "Book 13 The time of the Emperor Constantine,". The Chronicle of John Malalas. Australian Association for Byzantine Studies.
Ακύλα Μήλλα, Πέρα, Το Σταυροδρόμι της Ρωμιοσύνης, εκδόσεις Μίλητος, Αθήνα 2006,
Harris, Jonathan, Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium (Hambledon/Continuum, London, 2007). ISBN 978-1-84725-179-4
Κ. Γ. Αθανασόπουλος, Ancillae Theologiae: Το φιλοσοφείν και Θεολογείν κατά το Μεσαίωνα και το Βυζάντιο, εκδ. Παρουσία, Αθήνα, 2004, σελ.350 (με πίνακες και λεπτομερή βιβλιογραφία στην Ελληνική, Λατινική, Αγγλική, Γαλλική και Γερμανική) (ISBN: 960-7956-94-X)
https://el.wikipedia.org
Κ. Γ. Αθανασόπουλος, Φιλοσοφία στην Ευρώπη, τόμος Α: Η Φιλοσοφία στην Ευρώπη από τον 6ο ως τον 16ο αι., Ελληνικό Ανοικτό Πανεπιστήμιο, Πάτρα 2001, σελ.203 (ISBN: 960-538-286-5)
Κ. Γ. Αθανασόπουλος, Βυζαντινός και Δυτικός κόσμος, τόμος Α: Βυζαντινός και Δυτικός κόσμος: Συγκλίσεις και αποκλίσεις, Ελληνικό Ανοικτό Πανεπιστήμιο, Πάτρα 2001, σελ.168 (με πίνακες και βιβλιογραφία στην Ελληνική, την Αγγλική, Γαλλική και Γερμανική) (ISBN: 960-538-277-6)
Jeffreys, Elizabeth and Michael, and Moffatt, Ann, Byzantine Papers: Proceedings of the First Australian Byzantine Studies Conference, Canberra, 17–19 May 1978 (Australian National University, Canberra, 1979).
Istanbul Historical Information - Istanbul Informative Guide To The City. Retrieved January 6, 2005.
The Useful Information about Istanbul. Retrieved January 6, 2005.
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (Oxford University Press, 1991) ISBN 0-19-504652-8
Yeats, William Butler, "Sailing to Byzantium"

Byzantium

Physkos, (Marmaris) Turkey

Marmaris is a town in Turkey, along the Mediterranean coast in the province of Muğla. It has around 28 000 inhabitants, however the population can be up to 250,000 during the height of the tourist-season.

Although it is not certain when Marmaris was founded, in the 6th century BC the site was known as Physkos (Ancient Greek: Φύσκος) and considered part of Caria.

According to the historian Herodotus, there had been a castle on the site since 3000 BC. In the 6th century BC in place of the modern city was the ancient Greek city Physkos. The city belonged to Caria and was the seaport of Mylasa.

In 334 BC, Caria was invaded by Alexander the Great and the castle of Physkos was besieged. The 600 inhabitants of the town realised that they had no chance against the invading army and burned their valuables in the castle before escaping to the hills with their women and children. The invaders, well aware of the strategic value of the castle, repaired the destroyed sections to house a few hundred soldiers before the main army returned home.

Marmaris Castle

The town became known as Marmaris during the period of the Beylik of Menteşe; the name derives from the Turkish word mermer, Greek màrmaron (marble) in reference to the rich deposits of marble in the region, and the prominent role of the town's port in the marble trade.

The Carian civilization after 300 B.C., coming under the rule of the Egyptians, Asstrians and Greeks. The Greeks turned the Carian province into 9 colony cities, also including Halicarnassos and Knidos, which became an active trading centre for Anatolia and led to an increase in handicrafts and maritime trade. 

In 138 B.C. Attalos the 3rd, King of Bergama, whose predecessors had ruled Caria for 90 years, ceded Physkos to Rome and the city was ruled from Rhodes by Roman generals.

In the mid-fifteenth century, Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror conquered and united the various tribes and kingdoms of Anatolia and the Balkans, and acquired Constantinople. The Knights of St. John, based in Rhodes had fought the Ottoman Turks for many years; they also withstood the onslaughts of Mehmed II. When sultan Suleiman the Magnificent set out for the conquest of Rhodes, Marmaris served as a base for the Ottoman Navy and Marmaris Castle was rebuilt from scratch in 1522.

Lord Nelson and his entire fleet sheltered in the harbour of Marmaris in 1798, en route to Egypt to defeat Napoleon's armada during the Mediterranean campaign.

In 1958, Marmaris was almost completely destroyed by an earthquake. Only the Marmaris Castle, and the historic buildings surrounding the fortress were left undamaged.

Since 1979, renovation work has been continuing at the castle. Under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture, the castle was converted into a museum. There are seven galleries. The largest is used as an exhibition hall, the courtyard is decorated with seasonal flowers. Built at the same time as the castle in the bazaar, there is also a small Ottoman caravanserai built by Suleiman's mother Ayşe Hafsa Sultan.

Interior of Nimara Cave on Heaven Island

Physkos, (Marmaris) Turkey

Aigai (Aeolis), Turkey

The ancient site of Aigai, one of the twelve cities of Aeolis, is located some twenty miles north-west of Manisa. The ruins are impressive, but the journey is a tough one. 

It is accessible by Jeep from the coast road near Aliağa. 

The area is called Nemrut Kale in Turkish and is no longer inhabited.

Aigai, also Aigaiai (Ancient Greek: Αἰγαί or Αἰγαῖαι; Latin: Aegae or Aegaeae; Turkish: Nemrutkale or Nemrut Kalesi) was an ancient Greek, later Roman (Ægæ, Aegae), city and bishopric in Aeolis. Aegae is mentioned by both Herodotus and Strabo as being a member of the Aeolian dodecapolis. It was also an important sanctuary of Apollo. Aigai had its brightest period under the Attalid dynasty, which ruled from nearby Pergamon in the 3rd and 2nd century BC.

The remains of the city are located near the modern village of Yuntdağı Köseler in Manisa Province, Turkey. The archaeological site is situated at a rather high altitude almost on top of Mount Gün (Dağı), part of the mountain chain of Yunt (Dağları).

History

The area of Aeolia was that stretching along the coast of Western Anatolia and was founded, according to legend, by the descendants af Agamemnon. Aigai was an Aeolian colony from Its origins, and according to Herodotus, wos the oldest city in Aeolia. it was here that Themistocles, being in exile, made his way secretly In a lady’s litter to the Persian court at Susa. The town can never have been a political power, owing to its    unfavorable    position in a remote spot in steep mountainous country. It lay on the  outskirts of the other Aeolian towns.

Path to Aigai

Initially the city was a possession of the Lydian Empire and later the Achaemenid Empire when it conquered the former. In the early third century BC it became part of the Kingdom of Pergamon.

It changed hands from Pergamon to the Seleucid Empire, but was recaptured by Attalus I of Pergamon in 218 BC.

Plan of Aigai drawn by Richard Bohn in 1889

In the war between Bithynia and Pergamon, it was destroyed by Prusias II of Bithynia in 156 BC. After a peace was brokered by the Romans, the city was compensated with hundred talents. Under the rule of Pergamon a market building and a temple to Apollo were constructed.

In 129 BC the Kingdom of Pergamon became part of the Roman Empire. The architecture of the reconstruction was tit at of the style of Pergamum. In this period the town had more importance ond expanded. It was badly damaged by the great earthquake of 17 A.D. which shook the whole region, but it recovered and enjoyed prosper it’s agoin for another period.

Ægæ was important enough in the Roman province of Asia Prima to become one of the many suffragans of its capital Ephesus's Metropolitan Archbishopric; but it as to fade.

The first western visitors of Aigai were William Mitchell Ramsay and Salomon Reinach in 1880. They reported about their visit in the Journal of Hellenic Studies and the Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique. They were followed by Richard Bohn and Carl Schuchhardt, who examined the site as a part of the excavations in Pergamon.

Since 2004 the site is being excavated by Ersin Doğer of Ege University in Izmir. By 2010 the access road, the bouleuterion, the odeon, shops, numerous water pipes and large parts of the market hall were uncovered. For the coming years it is planned to re-erect the market hall's facade with the original stones.

Monuments

The site of Aigai is similar to that of Pergamum in that it is a long rocky acropolis, stretching in four successive tiers to a point in the northeast.

Stoa

Agora

The extension towards the south of the original enclosure is built In fine regular courses, very much like the Wall of Eumenes  ot Pergamum. 

Macellum

Macellum

They both   have the same  style of decoration and seem to have been designed by the same architect. This southern section af thé walls forms an excellent defence.

The stadium stood on the lower terrace and the theoter was higher up. Its cavea was carved out of the rock and the stage was on a long platform. A small portlcoed temple occupies the upper terrace on the west, but the best-preserved building is the covered market which is also located on the upper terrace. The market building is rectangular and originally consisted of three levels.

Bouleuterion in Aigai

Temple of Apollo

Temple of Apollo photo 1880

Temple of Athena

Gymnasion

Nekropolis

Nekropolis

Byzantine Basilica

The city is situated on a plateau at the summit of the steep Gün Dağı mountain, which can be climbed from the north. The plateau is surrounded by a wall with a length of 1.5 kilometers. On the eastern side are the remains of the three-story indoor market with a height of 11 meters and a length of 82 meters. The upper floor of the Hellenistic building was renovated in Roman times.The partially overgrown remains of many other buildings are scattered over the site. These include the acropolis which is laid out in terraces, a Macellum, a gymnasium, a bouleuterion and the foundations of three temples.

About five kilometers to the east the foundations of a sanctuary of Apollo are found on the banks of the river which flows around the ruins. It was an Ionic order peripteros temple from the first century BC. A cella which is six meters high and three monoliths still remain

Source
www.ancienthellas.ga

Aigai (Aeolis), Turkey

Ancient Edessa floor mosaic unearthed

Archaeological excavations around the historic Balıklı Lake in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa have unearthed floor mosaics dating back to the Kingdom of Osroene, known by the name of its capital city, Edessa (today’s Şanlıurfa). 

Works have been continuing in an area of 4.5 hectares for six years. Nearly 80 rock graves from the Roman era have been restored so far and five more floor mosaics were recently discovered in the same area. After the restoration works, the mosaics will be displayed at the museum.

Officials said the floor mosaics featured Syriac inscriptions and fine engravings. 

Şanlıurfa Mayor Nihat Çiftçi said it was a city of civilizations and that traces of the ancient could be found everywhere. 

Speaking of the importance of the finds that were unearthed during the excavations, Çiftçi said: “The Roman-era graves have been cleaned within the scope of the excavations. During these works, we found very important mosaics; the mosaics from the Osroene period were engraved at the bottom of rock tombs. This shows the richness of Şanlıurfa. Also, especially at the entrance gates of the graveyards, there are finds featuring the culture of ancient civilizations. Archaeologists are carefully working in the area. All of the artifacts found here will be displayed at the rock tombs. In this way, tourists and locals will be able to see them. We know that Şanlıurfa has a rich cultural history, so we find artifacts from almost every period. We will reveal this richness and believe that it will make a great contribution to tourism. We will restore these venues and open them to tourism.”

Osroene Kingdom

The Kingdom of Osroene, known by the name of its capital city, Edessa, was located in Upper Mesopotamia.

Osroene was one of several kingdoms arising from the dissolution of the Seleucid Empire. The kingdom occupied an area in what is now the border region between Syria and Turkey.

The independence of the state ended in 244 A.D. when it was incorporated into the Roman Empire.

Ancient Edessa floor mosaic unearthed

Edessa (the city of Şanlıurfa)

Ἔδεσσα, Edessa, (now Şanlıurfa), often simply known as Urfa or Al-Ruha (Kurdish: Riha, Arabic: الرها ar-Ruhā, Syriac: ܐܘܪܗ Urhoy), in ancient times Edessa (Έδεσσα in Greek), is a city with 561,465 inhabitants in south-eastern Turkey, and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. It is a city with a primarily Arabic and Kurdish population. Urfa is situated on a plain about eighty kilometres east of the Euphrates River. Urfa's climate features extremely hot, dry summers and cool, moist winters.

Archaeological excavations around the historic Balıklı Lake in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa have unearthed floor mosaics dating back to the Kingdom of Osroene, known by the name of its capital city, Edessa (today’s Şanlıurfa). 

Works have been continuing in an area of 4.5 hectares for six years. Nearly 80 rock graves from the Roman era have been restored so far and five more floor mosaics were recently discovered in the same area. After the restoration works, the mosaics will be displayed at the museum.

Officials said the floor mosaics featured Syriac inscriptions and fine engravings. 

Şanlıurfa Mayor Nihat Çiftçi said it was a city of civilizations and that traces of the ancient could be found everywhere. 

Speaking of the importance of the finds that were unearthed during the excavations, Çiftçi said: “The Roman-era graves have been cleaned within the scope of the excavations. During these works, we found very important mosaics; the mosaics from the Osroene period were engraved at the bottom of rock tombs. This shows the richness of Şanlıurfa. Also, especially at the entrance gates of the graveyards, there are finds featuring the culture of ancient civilizations. Archaeologists are carefully working in the area. All of the artifacts found here will be displayed at the rock tombs. In this way, tourists and locals will be able to see them. We know that Şanlıurfa has a rich cultural history, so we find artifacts from almost every period. We will reveal this richness and believe that it will make a great contribution to tourism. We will restore these venues and open them to tourism.”

Osroene Kingdom

The Kingdom of Osroene, known by the name of its capital city, Edessa, was located in Upper Mesopotamia.

Osroene was one of several kingdoms arising from the dissolution of the Seleucid Empire. The kingdom occupied an area in what is now the border region between Syria and Turkey.

The independence of the state ended in 244 A.D. when it was incorporated into the Roman Empire.

The city has been known by many names in history: Ուռհա Uṙha in Armenian, ܐܘܪܗܝ Urhai in Syriac, ره, الرها, Ar-Ruhā in Arabic and Ορρα, Orrha in Greek (also Ορροα, Orrhoa).[citation needed] For a while during the rule of Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175 - 164 BCE) it was named Callirrhoe or Antiochia on the Callirhoe (Ancient Greek: Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Καλλιρρόης). During Byzantine rule it was named Justinopolis. Prior to Turkish rule, it was often best known by the name given it by the Seleucids, Ἔδεσσα, Edessa.

The history of Edessa is recorded from the 4th century BC, but may date back at least to 9000 BC, when there is ample evidence for the surrounding sites at Duru, Harran and Nevali Cori. Within the further area of the city are three neolithic sites known: Göbekli Tepe, Gürcütepe and the city itself, where the life-sized limestone "Urfa statue" was found during an excavation in Balıklıgöl. The city was one of several in the upper Euphrates-Tigris basin, the fertile crescent where agriculture began.

For the Armenians, Urfa is considered a holy place since it is believed that the Armenian alphabet was invented there.

Urfa was conquered repeatedly throughout history, and has been dominated by many civilizations, including the Ebla, Akkadians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Hittites, Armenians, Hurri-Mitannis (Armeno-Aryans), Assyrians, Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, Ancient Greeks (under Alexander the Great), Seleucids, Arameans, Osrhoenes, Romans, Sassanids, Byzantines, and Crusaders.

City of Edessa

Edessa (Greek Ἔδεσσα) was a city in Upper Mesopotamia, founded on an earlier site by Seleucus I Nicator ca. 302 BC. It was also known as Antiochia on the Callirhoe from the 2nd century BC. It was the capital of the semi-independent kingdom of Osroene from c. 132 BC and fell under direct Roman rule in ca. 242. It became an important early centre of Syriac Christianity. It fell to the Muslim conquest in 639, was briefly re-taken by Byzantium in 1031, and became the center of the Crusader state of the County of Edessa during 1098–1144. It fell to the Turkic Zengid dynasty in 1144 and was eventually absorbed by the Ottoman Empire in 1517.

The modern name of the city is Şanlıurfa (Syriac: ܐܘܪܗܝ‎ Urhāy, Armenian: Եդեսիա Yedesia or Armenian: Ուռհա Uṙha), in Turkey's Southeast Anatolia Region.

Although the site of Urfa has been inhabited since prehistoric times, the modern city was founded in 304 B.C by Seleucus I Nicator and named after the ancient capital of Macedonia. In the late 2nd century, as the Seleucid dynasty disintegrated, it became the capital of the Nabataean Abgar dynasty, which was successively a Parthian, Armenian, and Roman client state and eventually a Roman province. Its location on the eastern frontier of the Empire meant it was frequently conquered during periods when the Byzantine central government was weak, and for centuries, it was alternately conquered by Arab, Byzantine, Armenian, Turkish rulers. In 1098, the Crusader Baldwin of Boulogne induced the final Armenian ruler to adopt him and then seized power, establishing the first Crusader State known as the County of Edessa and imposing Latin Christianity on the Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic majority of the population.

Early history

In the second half of the 2nd century BC, as the Seleucid monarchy disintegrated in the wars with Parthia (145–129), Edessa became the capital of the Abgar dynasty, who founded the Kingdom of Osroene (also known in history as Kingdom of Edessa). This kingdom was established by Nabataean or Arab tribes from North Arabia, and lasted nearly four centuries (c. 132 BC to 214), under twenty-eight rulers, who sometimes called themselves "king" on their coinage. Edessa was at first more or less under the protectorate of the Parthians, then of Tigranes of Armenia, Edessa was Armenian Mesopotamia's capital city, then from the time of Pompey under the Romans. Following its capture and sack by Trajan, the Romans even occupied Edessa from 116 to 118, although its sympathies towards the Parthians led to Lucius Verus pillaging the city later in the 2nd century. From 212 to 214 the kingdom was a Roman province.

The emperor Caracalla was assassinated on the road from Edessa to Carrhae by one of his guards in 217. Edessa became one of the frontier cities of the province of Osroene and lay close to the border of Sassanid Persia. The Battle of Edessa took place between the armies of the Roman Empire under the command of Emperor Valerianus and Sassanid forces under Shahanshah Shapur I in 260. The Roman army was defeated and captured in its entirety by the Persian forces, including Valerian himself, an event which had never previously happened.

The literary language of the tribes that had founded this kingdom was Aramaic, from which Syriac developed. Traces of Hellenistic culture were soon overwhelmed in Edessa, which employed Syriac legends on coinage, with the exception of the Syriac client king Abgar IX (179–214), and there is a corresponding lack of Greek public inscriptions.

Early Christian centre

The precise date of the introduction of Christianity into Edessa is not known. However, there is no doubt that even before AD 190 Christianity had spread vigorously within Edessa and its surroundings and that shortly after the royal house joined the church. According to a legend first reported by Eusebius in the 4th century, Syriac King Abgar V Ukāmā was converted by Addai, who was one of the seventy-two disciples, sent to him by "Judas, who is also called Thomas". Yet various sources confirm that the Abgar who embraced the Christian faith was Abgar IX. Under him Christianity became the official religion of the kingdom. As for Addai, he was neither one of the seventy-two disciples as the legend asserts, nor was sent by Apostle Thomas, as Eusebius says.[He was succeeded by Aggai, then by Palout (Palut) who was ordained about 200 by Serapion of Antioch. Thence came to us in the 2nd century the famous Peshitta, or Syriac translation of the Old Testament; also Tatian's Diatessaron, which was compiled about 172 and in common use until St. Rabbula, Bishop of Edessa (412–435), forbade its use. Among the illustrious disciples of the School of Edessa Bardesanes (154–222), a schoolfellow of Abgar IX, deserves special mention for his role in creating Christian religious poetry, and whose teaching was continued by his son Harmonius and his disciples.

King Abgar holding the Image of Edessa.

A Christian council was held at Edessa as early as 197. In 201 the city was devastated by a great flood, and the Christian church was destroyed. In 232 the relics of the apostle Thomas were brought from Mylapore, India, on which occasion his Syriac Acts were written. Under Roman domination many martyrs suffered at Edessa: Sts. Scharbîl and Barsamya, under Decius; Sts. Gûrja, Schâmôna, Habib, and others under Diocletian. In the meanwhile Christian priests from Edessa had evangelized Eastern Mesopotamia and Persia, and established the first Churches in the kingdom of the Sassanids. Atillâtiâ, Bishop of Edessa, assisted at the First Council of Nicaea (325). The Peregrinatio Silviae (or Etheriae) gives an account of the many sanctuaries at Edessa about 388.

Age of Islam

Islam had first arrived in Urfa around 638 AD, when the region surrendered to the Rashidun army without resisting, and had become a significant presence under the Ayyubids (see: Saladin Ayubbi), Seljuks. In 1144, the Crusader state fell to the Turkish Abassid general Zengui, who had most of the Christian inhabitants slaughtered together with the Latin archbishop (see Siege of Edessa) and the subsequent Second Crusade failed to recapture the city. Subsequently, Urfa was ruled by Zengids, Ayyubids, Sultanate of Rum, Ilkhanids, Memluks, Akkoyunlu and Safavids before Ottoman conquest in 1516.

Under the Ottomans Urfa was part (Sanjak) of the Aleppo Vilayet. The area became a centre of trade in cotton, leather, and jewellery. There was a small but ancient Jewish community in Urfa, with a population of about 1,000 by the 19th century. Most of the Jews emigrated in 1896, fleeing the Hamidian massacres, and settling mainly in Aleppo, Tiberias and Jerusalem. There were three Christian communities: Syriac, Armenian, and Latin. According to Lord Kinross, 8,000 Armenians were massacred in Urfa in 1895. The last Neo-Aramaic Christians left in 1924 and went to Aleppo (where they settled in a place that was later called Hay al-Suryan "The Syriac Quarter").

First World War and after

In 1914 Urfa was estimated to have 75,000 inhabitants: 45,000 Muslims, 25,000 Armenians and 5,000 Syriac/Assyrian Christians. There was also a Jewish presence in the town.[citation needed] During the First World War, Urfa was a site of the Armenian and Assyrian Genocides, beginning in August 1915. By the end of the war, the entire Christian population had been killed, had fled, or was in hiding.

The British occupation of the city of Urfa started de facto on 7 March 1919 and officially de jure as of 24 March 1919, and lasted until 30 October 1919. French forces took over the next day and lasted until 11 April 1920, when they were defeated by local resistance forces before the formal declaration of the Republic of Turkey on 23 April 1920).

The French retreat from the city of Urfa was conducted under an agreement reached between the occupying forces and the representatives of the local forces, commanded by Captain Ali Saip Bey assigned from Ankara. The withdrawal was meant to take place peacefully, but was disrupted by an ambush on the French units by irregular Turkish and Kurdish Muslim forces at the Şebeke Pass on the way to Syria, leading to 296 casualties among the French, and even more among the ambushers.

Byzantine period

Under Byzantine rule, as metropolis of Osroene, Edessa had eleven suffragan sees. Lequien mentions thirty-five Bishops of Edessa; yet his list is incomplete. The Eastern Orthodox episcopate seems to have disappeared after the 11th century. Of its Jacobite bishops twenty-nine are mentioned by Lequien (II, 1429 sqq.), many others in the Revue de l'Orient chrétien (VI, 195), some in Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft (1899), 261 sqq. Moreover, Nestorian bishops are said to have resided at Edessa as early as the 6th century.

When Nisibis was ceded to the Persians in 363, Ephrem the Syrian left his native town for Edessa, where he founded the celebrated School of the Persians. This school, largely attended by the Christian youth of Persia, and closely watched by Rabbula, the friend of Cyril of Alexandria, on account of its Nestorian tendencies, reached its highest development under Bishop Ibas, famous through the controversy of the Three Chapters, was temporarily closed in 457, and finally in 489, by command of Emperor Zeno and Bishop Cyrus, when the teachers and students of the School of Edessa repaired to Nisibis and became the founders and chief writers of the Nestorian Church in Persia. Miaphysitism prospered at Edessa, even after the Arab conquest.

Edessa was rebuilt by Emperor Justin (r. 518–527), and called after him Justinopolis. The city was taken in 609 by Sassanid Persia, and soon retaken by Heraclius, but lost to the Muslim army under the Rashidun Caliphate during the Islamic conquest of Levant in 638.

Arab rule

The Armenian chronicler Sebeos, Bishop of the Bagratunis (writing in the 660s), gives the earliest narrative accounts of Islam in any language today.[citation needed] Sebeos writes of a Jewish delegation going to an Arab city (possibly Medina) after the Byzantines conquered Eddesa:

Twelve peoples [representing] all the tribes of the Jews assembled at the city of Edessa. When they saw that the Iranian troops had departed ... Thus Heraclius, emperor of the Byzantines, gave the order to besiege it. ... So they departed, taking the road through the desert to Tachkastan to the sons of Ishmael. [The Jews] called [the Arabs] to their aid and familiarized them with the relationship they had through the books of the [Old] Testament. Although [the Arabs] were convinced of their close relationship, they were unable to get a consensus from their multitude, for they were divided from each other by religion. In that period a certain one of them, a man of the sons of Ishmael named Mahmet, a merchant, became prominent. A sermon about the Way of Truth, supposedly at God's command, was revealed to them... he ordered them all to assemble together and to unite in faith... He said: "God promised that country to Abraham and to his son after him, for eternity. And what had been promised was fulfilled during that time when [God] loved Israel. Now, however, you are the sons of Abraham, and God shall fulfill the promise made to Abraham and his son on you. Only love the God of Abraham, and go and take the country which God gave to your father, Abraham. No one can successfully resist you in war, since God is with you."

Islamic tradition tells of a similar account, known as the Second pledge at al-Aqabah. Sebeos' account suggests that Muhammad was actually leading a joint venture toward Palestine, instead of a Jewish-Arab alliance against the Meccan pagans toward the south.

The Byzantines often tried to retake Edessa, especially under Romanus Lacapenus, who obtained from the inhabitants the "Holy Mandylion", an ancient portrait of Christ, and solemnly transferred it to Constantinople, August 16, 944. This was the final great achievement of Romanus's reign. This venerable and famous image, which was certainly at Edessa in 544, and of which there is an ancient copy in the Vatican Library, was brought to the West by the Venetians in 1207 following the Fourth Crusade. The city was ruled shortly thereafter by Marwanids.

Later medieval history

In 1031 Edessa was given up to the Byzantines under George Maniakes by its Arab governor. It was retaken by the Arabs, and then successively held by the Greeks, the Armenians, the Seljuk Turks (1087), the Crusaders (1099), who established there the County of Edessa and kept the city until 1144, when it was again captured by the Turk Zengi, and most of its inhabitants were allegedly slaughtered together with the Latin archbishop (see Siege of Edessa). These events are known to us chiefly through the Armenian historian Matthew, who had been born at Edessa. In 1144 the city had an Armenian population of 47,000.

Since the 12th century, the city has successively been ruled by the Sultans of Aleppo (Ayyubids), Sultanate of Rum, the Mongols, the Mameluks, the Akkoyunlu, the Safavids, and from 1517 to 1918 by the Ottoman Empire.

In 1890, the population of Edessa consisted of 55,000, of which the Muslim population made up 40,835.

Source/Photography/Bibliography


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This entry uses text from the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1909.

Edessa (the city of Şanlıurfa)