Sardis

Gamze Sart

2014

Sardis has been the name of the settlement here for more than 3,000 years. The oldest occupation levels excavated at Sardis date back to the late Bronze Age, around 1400 B.C. But much older artifacts, going way back to the Early Bronze Age and Neolithic Period of the 3rd-7th millennia B.C., have also been recovered at the site. At later times, Sardis was the capital of the Kingdom of Lydia that spanned over half of Anatolia (modern Asian part of Turkey). Due to its successful trade and commerce, Sardis remained the center of fame and wealth for many centuries. It featured a grand Roman bath and a gymnasium complex and a Jewish synagogue (third largest in the world). Later, some artifacts of the Temple of Artemis (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) were also brought to the city. As the early Lydian kingdom developed industrial arts and manufacture, skillful craftsmen of Sardis discovered the secret of producing silver and gold of an unknown purity to the date. This discovery made Sardis famous for being the very place where modern currency was invented. Sardis was a major urban settlement of the Persian Empire, and the seat of the Roman Empire’s Proconsul. One of the Seven Churches of Asia mentioned by St. John in the Bible was there, as it was an important center of Early Christianity. Eventually, Sardis was neglected and fell under the Ghazi’s control, handed over to them by treaty in 1306. The decline went on until the are was taken by Mongols in 1402. By the 19th century, Sardis was in ruins. The first excavation campaign of 1910 was halted by World War I until it was resumed by Cornell University in 1958. From 1976 until 2007, new excavations were directed by archaeologists of the University of California, Berkeley. Nowadays, although some artifacts can be found in to the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Turkey ensures that all artifacts of value remain in the country.