Category: Turkey

Headless Statuary from Aphrodisias!

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

All of a sudden my email box is full to bursting with good stuff … this one’s from Hurriyet:

The ongoing excavation works at one of Turkey’s most important archaeological sites, the Karacasu Aphrodisias Ancient City, have revealed two headless statues.

According to information provided by the Culture and Tourism Ministry, one of the statues is in 1.76 meters in height and the other is 1.68 meters. One of the statues holds a roll in its left hand and its right hand is on its chest. There is a pack of documents behind its left foot, but the fingers and head are broken.
The second statue is also headless. Its right hand is broken from the humerus down, and the left hand is broken from the elbow. There is also a pack of documents next to its right hand.

U.S. professor R. Roland Smith is heading the excavations at the site. The city of Aphrodisias, is one of the country’s most visited places. It is included in UNESCO’s world heritage permanent list.

There are some rather small photos accompanying the original article … for some background to the project: Aphrodisias.

Theatre Masks from Ilisu?

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From Hurriyet:

The ongoing excavation works organized by Mardin Museum at Ilısu Dam have revealed very unique pieces, such as two theater play masks from the Roman period.

“The artifacts belong to Roman times. After the restoration is completed they will be exhibited in Mardin Museum … The excavation works held are still continuing.” Mardin Culture and Tourism Manager Davut Beliktay said.

“During ancient times there were no theater stages near Ilısu, so we think these masks came from travelling theater communities coming to Ilısu in ancient times,” he added. The artifacts are thought to come from 200-300 A.D.

“One of the masks is bronze and the other one is made from iron,” Beliktay said, adding that the restoration work on them was currently being conducted at Mardin Museum.

The masks are very rarely found in Turkey, he said. Many artifacts have been revealed during the excavations but these masks are perhaps the most important finds, as there are very few of them in Turkey, Beliktay added.

… and again I’m going to break with my usual practice and actually show the photo that accompanies the article:

via Hurriyet

I think some more thinking needs to be going on with regards to this one. It’s pretty easy to see that the masks do not have any opening around the mouths and so it seems likely that they weren’t actually used in a performance. More likely, these are examples of masks which were included as offerings in tombs (cf this example from the British Museum) …

A Major Mosaic Museum in Şanlıurfa

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Another one from Hurriyet:

Turkey’s largest mosaic museum is being built where a theme park had been planned in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, one of the oldest cities in the world.

A few years ago, during the foundation excavations for a theme park in the Haleplibahçe neighborhood, mosaics featuring hunting and fighting scenes of warrior “Amazon women” from the Roman era in the fifth and sixth centuries were discovered. Experts have classified these mosaics as the world’s most valuable.

The project was then transformed to include an archaeology museum, archaeopark and mosaic museum, as specialists were concerned that the artifacts being excavated could be damaged if transported to another place.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has ordered the acceleration of the project, which will cover an area of 200,000 square meters and cost 38 million Turkish Liras.

‘City deserves this museum’

Şanlıurfa Gov. Celalettin Güvenç told Anatolia news agency that cultural centers, museums and big sporting arenas were the leading highlights of cities, adding that Şanlıurfa’s cultural background merited such a museum. “This museum will be a significant cultural tourism destination. Haleplibahçe will attract Western attention to this city as well as Göbeklitepe. We plan to finish construction work here in 500 days.”

Şanlıurfa Culture and Tourism Director Selami Yıldız said the project consisted of the Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum on 26,000 square meters, the Edessa Mosaic Museum on 4,000 square meters and an archaeopark on a 29,000-square-meter area between the two museums. There will also be an amphitheater, cafes and walking areas as well. “We will have the largest museum complex on a 60,000-square-meter area,” said Yıldız.

The Şanlıurfa Museum currently covers an area of 2,500 square meters, but the new museum will be 10 times larger, Yıldız said. “This new museum will display the world’s oldest artifacts. No museum in the world displays 12,000-year-old works. We will exhibit the artifacts that should be exhibited in a closed area.” Yıldız also said Istanbul, Gaziantep and Hatay had noteworthy mosaics. “Now Şanlıurfa will come to the fore.”

We mentioned the find of mosaics (the Hurriyet piece has a small photo of one) back in 2008: Roman Palace in Turkey. Didn’t know about the ‘theme park’ connection …

Temple of Athena From Laodicea

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

Found another one from Hurriyet lurking in the depths of my mailbox (it’s a few weeks old):

During the excavations carried out in the ancient city of Laodicea in the Aegean province of Denizli, a temple dedicated to the weaver goddess Athena from the second century A.D. was found in the largest divine area.

The head of the excavations, Professor Celal Şimşek said the pieces found during excavations showed that the history of weaving dated back 4,000 years in Denizli, an area identified with the textile sector in modern Turkey.

“As far as we have learned from Laodicea, there are three temples in this 250-by-100 meter divine area. One was dedicated to Zeus and to Athena. There is a bust of Athena on a column in the temple. We are still searching for the god of the third temple.”

I’ll join Dorothy King in marvelling at the bust of Athena on the column of the temple from Laodicea. You can visit the original article for a small photo thereof, or check out this Turkish coverage, which includes a rather long video interview with Simsek and plenty of shots of the site (including an inscription/graffito I’m trying to wrap my head around). The video is in Turkish and I suspect he’s saying plenty of interesting things. On the ‘bust’, I suspect this would have been on the drum immediately under the capital, and so might almost be a Karyatid …

Artemis from Parion

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Another one from Hurriyet:

A sculpture depicting the goddess Artemis and estimated to be about 1800 years old has been discovered at an excavation site at the ancient city of Parion, near the village of Kemer in the Biga district of the northwestern province of Çannakale.

The excavation is being conducted by Professor Cevat Başaran, an instructor in the archaeology department at Erzurum’s Atatürk University, and is being carried out in six zones of the ancient city.
The marble sculpture was dug out in pieces at Odeion, one of the six excavation sites. Başaran, the head of the excavation, has announced that the sculpture depicts a clothed woman, is 1.70 cm tall and approximately 1,800 years old, and is a high quality sculpture of its kind. The excavators also found marble sculptures depicting animals including sheep and dogs.

“The bow and arrow in her hand indicates that the sculpture belongs to Artemis [Diana], the goddess of hunting, the wilderness and wild animals,” Başaran said.

I’m not sure whether the photo which accompanies the Sabah version of this story is the statue in question. Other than that, some Turkish coverage I came across has some photos of other finds made this season, but the text (via Google translate, of course) doesn’t really add anything. The last time we blogged about the dig at Parion was a couple of years ago, when they were excavating a necropolis and found a sarcophagus containing what was dubbed the Parion Princess … this find seems to be from the same necropolis.