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Anazarbos (türkçe) |
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Anazarbos Research into a Hellenistic/Roman/Medieval/Byzantine/Arabic/Armenian city in eastern Cilicia Location
Anazarbos, Anavarza, or Dilekkaya (Cliff of Wishes) as it is known today, lies at the foot of a massive rock prominence some 60 km north of the Province capital of Adana. The rocky spur, a ridge descending from the Taurus range, stretches ca 4.5 km into the Cilician Plain, towering 220 m above it. It was this rocky prominence, originally known as Anazarbos, from which the ancient city on its west flank took its name. Most unusually, in addition to a circus and a theater, Anabarzos boasted an amphitheater as well. From Roman imperial times there are two bath complexes, a monumental arch, a gateway, an aqueduct, and widespread cemeteries, not to mention a processional staircase and two monumental colonnaded streets crossing at right angles. Late antiquity is represented by several church buildings, an arch, yet another aqueduct, and large residences. The high city wall rising today harks from the period of Arab control, most probably tracing the lines of an earlier Byzantine layout. Above, the cliffs enthrone the Armenian city crowned with its Coronation Chapel as well as the sprawling remains of a Byzantine fortress. Depictions of the city on coinage confirm that it had been securely fortified during the Roman Empire as well. |
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History
Inscriptions minted on various coins demonstrate that the site with a non-Greek name was settled at least as early as the first century BC; surface finds confirm still earlier habitation. We know in any case that in 67 BC Pompeius handed the entirety of the surrounding territory over to the former pirate Tarkondimotos. In 19 BC Augustus founded the city anew, and soon afterwards, following the decease of King Tarkondimotos II, the area came under direct Roman rule. During the second century AD the significance of the city increased due to its strategic location, in consequence of which it remained strongly fortified as winter quarters for the army. Enemy raids in the third and fourth centuries proved unable to halt development, as demonstrated by the number of great churches and a sequential floruit in the fifth and sixth centuries. In the eighth century, however, with a populace ravaged by earthquakes and epidemics, the Metropolis of the Province Cilicia Secunda was overrun by the Arabs; in the following centuries it passed back and forth from Byzantine to Arab hands, and finally in 1111 into Armenian control. Settlement came to an end with the conquest of the Armenian kingdom by the Mamelukes in 1375. |
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ObjectivesThe most important objective of the survey project begun in 2004 is to follow and interpret the sequence of an occupation that we now realize continued at the site for more than seventeen centuries. Architectural structures from various epochs stand preserved, one next to another, and have not been built over in modern times. In Cilicia, moreover, it is not only the rise and development of urban structure that remains in the dark; we also know very little of the relationship with the remarkable natural environment and little of the political development here (in a borderland beset by relentless strife). The impressive cliffs visible from afar constitute a landmark not to be missed from the plain, and attracted settlement even before the historical period. |
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History of Research
The first European visit to this city of ruins was that of C. Texier in 1836; countless others would follow, among them V. Langlois and-most importantly-G. Bell, who prepared numerous photographic documents. It was not until the twentieth century, in the decade of the 50s, that M. Gough spent several weeks doing surface survey and drew up the first, if sketchy, scheme of the topographical orientation. While sharp insight is owed to detailed investigations of individual buildings or finds such as those of P. Verzone and R. Özgan, the first chronologically inclusive presentation summarizing of the remains on the site was the accomplishment of F. Hild and H.-G. Hellenkemper. Work in specific disciplines that provide information to build upon is provided by the numismatic research of R. Ziegler and-above all-the epigraphic studies of M. Sayar. |
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Previous ActivitiesTo address the questions formulated above, an exact representation of the architectural remains visible above the surface of the earth was first necessary, one including a chronological evaluation that would provide a first impression of the urban planning and various schematic layouts. An appropriate aerial view and photographs from the past were systematically evaluated. This first step was followed by the creation of topographic models and contour plans with significant help from large-scale geophysical prospecting, which widened the earlier scope of the findings to include features not visible upon the surface. This was accompanied by surface survey over the more than 100-hectare area of the city; the latter traced the reuse and scattering of finds as well as providing diagnostic material for documentation and a better understanding of individual neighborhoods and buildings. Detailed plans or reconstructions of façades of selected complexes or structures round out the diagnostic fieldwork accomplished to date. |
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Current Work
One important focus of the present work at Anazarbos is an intensive investigation of the three large necropoleis with graves of various types and countless in situ inscriptions that promise much information on the development of the city. Meanwhile, the geophysical survey has revealed more of the street grids and is being used to pinpoint obviously earlier structures lying beneath those visible in the city center. In 2006 a complementary surface survey of the entire area was also begun in order to learn more from the surface finds. The pottery thus retrieved has brought astonishingly definitive results. We now know that there was Bronze Age settlement in the plain below as well. The next ceramic evidence then indicates inhabitancy in the third century BC-which is still a good 200 years earlier than expected. Further evidence from the ceramic picture corroborates the literary sources: in the second century AD the city enjoyed substantial growth due to its strategic geographical position. Still later, beginning in the sixth century, the concentration of surface finds indicates that the population-interestingly enough-relinquished formerly inhabited areas and withdrew into the former nucleus of the settlement. In addition, work on the virtual reconstruction including building complexes already documented continued apace; fortunately, for only thus does the remarkably dynamic process of urban development here become somewhat clear. A good number of studies devoted to individual decorative architectural elements characteristic of the various epochs then rounded out the agenda of the 2006 campaign. |
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Methods
A closely cooperating team of 15-20 participants, including architects, geodesists and geophysicists as well as archaeologists, was employed to carry out the above-mentioned work at Anazarbos. Well experienced after two or three seasons' participation, the team is now familiar with the challenging terrain and the wide spectrum of finds, a factor of great importance for the archaeologists evaluating the surface finds, considering that the latter are academically challenged by finds not only covering a long time span but also reflecting the considerable local peculiarities of this urban settlement in the Cilician Plain. Following an intensive test-phase in 2005, the geophysicists restricted themselves to geomagnetic prospecting-with the assistance of a small tractor-and measurements with geo-radar, the methods that have proved most effective. The architects bore the great responsibility of drawing up outlines and plans as well as details, most particularly for those structures and neighborhoods selected for the computer-generated images of the ever-changing cityscape. Working from two or three total stations, the geodesists were kept busy with the ongoing task of enlarging the topographic plan and measuring newly discovered structures. |
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ResultsThe new discovery or identification of many structures both from ancient times (two sanctuaries, a monumental mausoleum, a propylon on the rocky massif) and from late antiquity (two churches and a gateway) are first in significance here, although certainly the reconstruction of the imperial city that now appears possible is worthy of mention. The topographic and geophysical surveys have brought us a long way toward portraying the city of Anazarbos at various intervals in history even though there still remain large areas where investigation will doubtless yield further information. Efforts should be concentrated, first of all, on (earlier?) traces beneath the city center to reveal urban organization in the centuries before the birth of Christ. Thus study and interpretation of the surface finds must be intensified, for therein lies-following the documentation of the architectural studies already completed-the greatest potential for understanding the development of the city Anazarbos. |
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CooperationProf. Dr. Mustafa H. Sayar (Wien/Istanbul, epigraphic-historical survey) |
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ContactDr. Richard Posamentir
Klassische Archäologie
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Bibliography
M. Gough, Anazarbus, Anatolian Studies 2, 1952, 85-150;
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