Ancient Kelenderis, Asia Minor

BYZANTINOSLAVICA LXIX 2011, Supplementum 3, Ekphrasis: La représentation des monuments dans les littératures byzantine et byzantino-slaves Réalités et imaginaires, 179-192., 2011

Ce volume bénéficie du soutien financier de l'Académie des sciences de la République Tchèque (numéro du projet M300920901).

Placed inside one of the deep inlets indenting the Carian Coast, Iasos had two ports and based his ancient economy on olive oil and wine production, fishing and the manufacturing of columns made of local marble. Since the 4th century B.C. the city had a defensive wall circuit enclosing the peninsula and part of the mainland; this course was modified in the late antiquity with the inclusion of the north quarters. The ancient city experienced an initial moment of crisis with the agora’s porticoes fall in the 5th century: later, some habitations were built into north stoa, respecting the original alignments and conserving the pavement of the portico. In the 5th century, a new city begins to grow: the Christian polis; his first center seems an extra-mural basilica with necropolis placed near the eastern port. At the time this area seemed very vital: near the basilica the quadriporticus of a mausoleum of the 2nd century A.D. was transformed into a sawmill using the water of nearby aqueduct. Here were found many marble blocks, showing saw traces, abandoned over thick emery layers. The crosses scratched on the blocks attested that the people who worked here were Christians. Since the attestations of Iasian sawn marble began in the 6th century, it seems that tomb’s transformation take place at that time. The water powered stone saw used aqueduct water, so it is possible that both quarries and workshop were fiscal property. Besides, a sledge road between the quarry of Karaoğlan Deresi and the below port was found; in some parts it splits up into two tracks with different levels, in order to facilitate the passages of men, animals and handcarts. Between the end of the 5th century and the Justinian’s era two basilicas were built with reused materials in areas subject to transformation: one on the acropolis, one in the former agora. This last was transformed into a residential and productive area with furnaces; even if the porticoes were fallen, his monumental entrance, the dipylon, was still in use. The area of the temple stoas near the agora was subject to systematic spoliation during Byzantine period; the marble columns were smashed with sledgehammers and wedges to obtain new building material or lime. After the 7th century the coin circulation stopped and resumed in 9-10th centuries. Between 8th-11th centuries the acropolis and agora basilica were rebuilt in smaller shapes;around them two necropolis began to spread. In the 11th century the fortification system was renewed with the construction of the isthmus castle between the two ports; the castle had a ditch toward the former agora, now residential and productive area. After the construction of the castle the outer space was kept unbuilt. It seems that in the same period it was built the tower that closed the east jetty of the west harbor. In the late Byzantine period, near the east harbor was built the so-called “Lascarid church”. The fortification of the city continued in the 14th century with the building of the acropolis castle. The citadel, that included reused materials, had towers with various sections and without access from inside the castle, but only from the upper walkways. Some of the towers were fireplaces. In Iasos the Byzantine times seem to conclude with the excavation of mass graves for the inhumation of many individuals, maybe died in a plague; it cannot be a case that these were found around the Lascarid church, outside the city and near a port, from where usually this kind of diseases came.

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Istanbuler Mitteilungen 72, 2022

The upper Siberis/Kirmir river valley is well-watered and fertile, but also narrow and small. It was thus always farmed and settled, but never on a large scale. This paper reports half a dozen monuments from the valley, including an inscribed statue base for an ancient Galatian ruler from Mahkemeağcin, an Early Byzantine basilica church at Güzelçiftlik, a large Middle Byzantine cave house complex at Mahkemeağcin, a small Middle Byzantine farmstead at Değirmenönü, a Middle Byzantine cave chapel and possible hermitage at Dikmen (İndere), and two fortifications against the Arabs and the Turks, Tabanoğlu Kalesi and Alicin Manastırı/Çeltikçi Kalesi. Overall, the upper Kirmir/Siberis river valley appears to combine a number of unusual features with an otherwise typical Byzantine settlement history. Exceptional is the geographical setting that, whilst allowing for small-scale prosperity, regional strategic importance, and rock-cut architecture, also seems to have implied a diminutive dispersed settlement pattern. Typical are the architectural features of the various monuments and how they reflect a changing society, from relatively egalitarian with large communal churches in the Early Byzantine Period to aristocratic dominance with small private chapels later on.