Daskyleion

Surprisingly, the interaction between Milesian and Megarian colonisation in the 7th/6th centuries BCE has rarely been addressed. Krister Hanell, in his comparative study on Megara and her colonies, published in 1934, already came to the conclusion that Megara and Miletos had built up a “Kolonisationsbündnis”, a “colonisation alliance” (HANELL, Studien, p. 135). During the 1999 conference on “Early Ionia”, the late Yuri Vinogradov delivered a paper entitled: “Milet und Megara erschließen den Pontos Euxeinos”. There he re-interpreted an important, but seldom addressed Milesian inscription (I.Milet 732), an epigram referring to a war of Archaic times in which both Miletos and Megara were involved. He revived Hanell’s observation and assumed that there were coordinated ventures by both metropoleis which he detected in the mixed Ionian-Dorian onomastics in Chersonasos and her mother city Herakleia Pontika, herself a colony of Megara. Both scholars’ hypothesis was met mostly with skepticism, but there have since been some voices in favour of their opinion.
This paper aims at comparing crucial elements of Megarian and Milesian colonisation of the Propontis and Black Sea to show that in the seventh/sixth century BCE these two cities indeed acted in accordance with each other, to control access to a region that was rich in resources. This close relationship between a ‘Dorian’ and an ‘Ionian’ city is surprising. But it can be shown that both poleis shared important elements of their religious and political structures, making cooperation possible. First of all, both acted under the leadership and sanction of an Apollo oracle: Megara cooperated with that of Delphi, while Miletos had her own, that of Apollo Didymeus Milesios in Didyma. Furthermore, there are striking parallels in their political organisation; for instance the basileus, ‘king’, a remnant of the basileis ruling in Protogeometric and Geometric times, and a board of proaisimnatas/proaisimnon and aisimnatai (Megara), or aisymnetes and proshetairoi (Miletos), functioning as prytaneis of both cities’ oligarchic governments. In light of the appearance of these magistracies in the Megarian and Milesian colonies of the seventh/sixth centuries BCE, the existence of these offices can be presumed in the mother cities already before 700 BCE.
The striking resemblance between Megara and Miletos hints at the existence of xenia relationships between the leading aristocratic families. Concerted mythopoiesis played a prominent role in this process: the elites of both city states were able to strengthen their contacts via interconnected kinship myths, which even took into account a common pre-Greek, Karian-Lelegian past. Additionally, Herakles and the Argonauts are recorded as visiting or founding Megarian (Byzantion, Herakleia Pontika) as well as Milesian (Kyzikos, Kios, Sinope) colonies, and thus both colonisation partners became followers of Herakles, Jason, and other paradigmatic Greek discoverer heroes that manned the ship Argo. The function of the Argonautika as a charter myth becomes evident here.
The background to all of this may have been Megara’s and Miletos’ joint participation in the Eretrian coalition against Chalkis and her allies during the ‘Lelantine War’ of around 700 BCE, the first pan-Greek war, which resulted in an amazing boom of both Megara and Miletos in the 7th century. The subsequent colonisation of the Propontis and the Pontos was from a strategic point of view only possible, because Gyges’ Lydia, which was the main land power of central Asia Minor from ca 680 BCE and holding the former Phrygian key site Daskyleion/Hisartepe, permitted this expansion.

This paper reconsiders the emergence of an iconographic formula in the context of Western Anatolia in the sixth and fifth centuries BC, which came later to be termed the 'Funerary Banquet' or 'Totenmahl'. Consisting usually of a single  male shown in a 'sympotic' context (reclining on a kline, with drinking service), flanked by attendants and often accompanied by a female consort, this formula is known earlier, and elsewhere, but the standarisation of the image type as a funerary motif at this juncture is notable. The paper addresses why this phenomenon occurred there and then, and whether there were specific meanings associated with it. It argues that the motif emerged in a context of heightened competition in drinking culture in both the Achaemenid Empire and the late Archaic Aegean zone. While the 'funerary banquets' of Western Anatolia never displayed overt signs of eschatological significance, its ambiguity meant that it was particularly resonant in funerary contexts, and could accommodate multiple explanations on the part of viewers, encouraging investment with funerary meaning which eventually affected its further trajectory in later periods. (See also Introduction of the volume for general discussion of the 'funerary banquet' motif in ancient art and its interpretation.)

This paper uses three case studies to show that the integration of ‘art historical’ and economic history/landscape archaeology approaches can provide otherwise unattainable insights of importance for historical models, here specifically pertaining to the regional dynamics and impacts of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, but applicable more broadly.


"In a recent review of a book entitled Critical Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Art, Daniel T. Potts raises the question of whether, regardless of the fact that one can speak of a discipline of Ancient Near Eastern Art History, one should.  He explains that he is not concerned with denying the necessity of studying art or imagery as a part of Ancient Near Eastern History, but that it is insufficient for ‘a deep understanding of the ancient Near East’.  This worry picks up an ongoing tension between ‘ancient historians’ and ‘art historians’ (or archaeologists who work with imagery) that seemingly survives the pictorial turn and the use of ‘visual culture’ as a term emphasizing the whole visual sphere as historical source material, and revolves around the extent to which the ‘larger historical picture’ is sufficiently seen as an end goal. As Potts notes, dress and ornamentation, the ‘wigs, powder, perfume and silk’ of the French Revolution period, for example, can be considered epiphenomena.  On the other hand, ‘Warfare, fiercely contested battles for hegemony and struggles over access to irrigation water and arable land all formed part of the crucible in which Early Dynastic society and its hyper-competitive city state system were forged.’  Serious stuff, not to mention masculine, giving one pause to consider in the context of this book how the fate and trajectory of ‘art history’ within various sub-disciplines might depend on historically gendered scholarship cultures...."

Daskyleion kazı alanı Balıkesir ili, Bandırma ilçesi, Ergili Mahallesi’ndedir. Manyas Gölü’nün güneydoğusunda bulunan bölge, Manyas Kuş Cenneti Milli Parkı’na 16 km uzaklıkta olup hem doğal hem de arkeolojik sit sınırı içindedir. Bir İlk Çağ kenti olan alanda 28 yıldır arkeolojik kazılar aralıksız devam etmektedir.
Çok katmanlı kültürel ve tarihsel bir yapıya sahip Daskyleion’un en parlak dönemi Pers İmparatorluğu’nun Anadolu’daki satraplık merkezi olduğu MÖ 546-334 yıllarıdır. Bu nedenle Pers dönemine ait birçok yapı kalıntısı bulunmuştur. Bunların en önemlilerinden biri, Daskyleion’un üzerinde bulunduğu Hisartepe’nin en yüksek noktasında, deniz seviyesinden yaklaşık 35 metre yükseklikte ve Kuş Cenneti’ne doğru konumlanmış kutsal alan içindeki ‘Kült Yolu’dur. Zerdüşt dinine inanan Perslerin, birbirine paralel ve düzgün taş döşeli iki yürüme yolundan, yollar arasında kalan bir kanaldan, yolların birleştiği bir apsisten ve orta kısmında bulunan bir ateş çukurundan oluşan bu alan üzerinde tören yaptıkları düşünülmektedir.
Daskyleion Kült Yolu, Prof. Dr. Tomris Bakır başkanlığında, 2003 yılında açılmaya başlanmış kazı çalışmaları sonlandığında temizliği yapılarak 2006 yılında bir koruma çatısı ile örtülmüştür. 2013 yılında köylülerin anız yakması sırasında kıvılcımlar alana sıçramış ve çatı örtüsü yanmıştır. Bunun üzerine 2014 ve 2015 kazı sezonlarında Kült Yolu koruma ve onarım çalışmaları yapılmıştır.
Bu bildiride Daskyleion’un kısa tarihi, Kült Yolu’nun açığa çıkarılması ve korunmaya değer özelliklerine değinildikten sonra yapılan koruma ve onarım çalışmalarına yer verilmiştir.

Excavations held under the direction of Tomris Bakır since 1988 in Daskyleion have recently provided new data which shed light on Hellenistic religious identity of the city. A number of Hellenistic figurine fragments were unearthed during the excavations of the Hellenistic terrace walls located on the southeast of the Hisartepe mound. Among these groups of finds there are female worshiper figurines, female heads with stephanes, few Kybele figurines, figurines of women carrying children, applique Satyr heads, dancers, and some pieces belong to pinakes. Almost all of them were not found in situ, but within the earth flow. The reason why all these figurines were intensively grouped in this location cannot be determined because of the limited area of excavation. However, it can be suggested that this was a cult area in the Hellenistic times as almost all the finds are cult figurines. Among these figurines the female worshipers are more dominant (totally 110 fragments) than the other types and most popular among Daskyleion Hellenistic figurines according to recent data. All worshiper figurines were represented by dressed women standing and posing with right hand saluted in the front. They can be studied under four subgroups based on the differences of their dresses: The first (I) group of figurines carry stephanes on their heads. The himation going down from the top of the stephane moves from the right wrist leaving the saluted right hand outward to the left shoulder and surrounds the body tightly inclosing the left arm. The use of cloak worn over the head which is typical for worshiper female figurines have varied with the Daskyleion samples with stephanes. In the second (II) group of figurines, the himation on khiton is hanged down from the outward of the saluted right hand down to the waist. The third (III) group with types carrying children is less frequent among the female worshiper figurines. These types make worshiping gesture with right hand and carry a child in their left arms. On the last (IV) group of figurines, the himation hanging down from the top of the head and inclosing the right arm is pulled to the left with a straight line at the wrist level. Figen Çevirici, Ege Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi, Arkeoloji Bölümü, Bornova, zmir-TÜRKYE.

Arrowheads made of leaded bronze and unearthed
in Daskyleion during the excavations
between 1954-1959 and 1988-2019 constitute
the subject of this study. 406 leaded bronze
arrowheads have been found up to now in
a grave named Tumulus T6. Leaded bronze
arrowheads from Daskyleion date to the 5th
and 4th centuries BC. The arrowheads are here
classified according to their function. Especially
some of the suggestions on archaeological
typology proposed by different scholars are
practically tested here as a case study using the
Daskyleion arrowheads. This typology points
to which arrowheads were used as military
or hunting weapons in Daskyleion. It can be
argued that lead, highly detected, was used
in these arrows for “engineering” purposes. In
addition, the deformation observed on the arrowheads
is explained using historical events
that occurred in the settlement and narrated
by ancient authors. Consequently, the leaded
bronze arrowheads used at Daskyleion are
comprised of samples quite common in the
Eastern Mediterranean. Fortunately, these examples
were mostly found in the datable layers
at Daskyleion.

Özet
Manyas Gölü'nün (Bandırma, Balıkesir) güneydoğu kıyısında bulunan Daskyleion'un, yerleşim alanına ek olarak doğu ve güneyinde iki de nekropol alanı bulunmaktadır. Bu nekropol alanları, Daskyleion'un farklı dönemlerine ait çeşitli tip ve büyüklüklerde mezarları barındırmaktadır. Bu mezarlar arasında, Kaya Mezarı II olarak tanımlanan mezar, anakayaya oyulmuş uzun bir dromos ve mezar odasından oluşmaktadır. Mezarda 2014 yılında yapılan kazı çalışmalarında, anakayaya işlenmiş iki kline ile çeşitli tür ve biçimlerde ölü hediyeleri açığa çıkartılmıştır. Çalışmaya konu olan buluntu, bu klinelerden biri üzerine defnedilmiş olan bireye mezar hedi-yesi olarak bırakılmış çelikten yapılmış bir hançerdir. Kınıyla birlikte ve in situ olarak günü-müze kadar korunagelmiş olması, bu hançere Anadolu ve bölge arkeolojisi açısından ender bir buluntu niteliği kazandırmaktadır. Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli Üniversitesi, Tarihi Malzeme Koruma ve Araştırma Laboratuvarı (MAKLAB) bünyesinde arkeometrik yönden incelenen hançer üzerinde XRF, X-ışını radyografi, metalografi, SEM-EDX ve LIPS analizleri yapılmış-tır. Analizlerden elde edilen veriler ışığında, hançerin kimyasal kompozisyonu, üretim süreci ve olası hammadde kaynağı hakkında bilgilere ulaşılmıştır.

Abstract
Dascyleum is located on the southeast coast of Lake Manyas (Bandırma, Balıkesir/TURKEY). In addition to the settlement, Dascyleum has two necropolis areas in the east and south. These necropolis areas contain various types and sizes tombs, from different periods of Dascyleum. Among these tombs, the tomb which is defined as the Rock-cut Tomb II, consists of a long dro-mos and a burial chamber cut into the bedrock. During the excavations at the tomb in 2014, two klines carved into the bedrock with grave goods various types and forms has been revealed. The subject of the study is a dagger made of steel left as a grave good for the individual buried on one of these klines. Owing to the still in its sheath and well preserved in situ, this dagger serves as a rarely encountered archaeological find in terms of Anatolian and regional archeology. On the dagger that archaeometrically examined at the Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University, Historical Material Conservation and Research Laboratory (MAKLAB), XRF, X-ray radiography, metallography, SEM-EDX and LIPS analyzes were performed. As a result of the data obtained from the analysis, informations about the chemical composition of the dagger, its production process and possible raw material source has been reached.