Şamlıgöl
Coordinates: 36 ° 33 '23.9 " N , 34 ° 10' 11.5" E
Şamlıgöl is the name of a hallway in the rough Cilicia in southern Turkey . The ruins of a settlement from the Roman Empire lie on the site .
location
The remains of the settlement are in the Erdemli district of the Mersin province , about 14 kilometers southwest of the Erdemli district center and 50 kilometers west of the provincial capital Mersin . They are found at an average altitude of 480 meters in the mountainous hinterland of Ayaş , the ancient Elaiussa Sebaste , eight kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea, near a road that leads from Limonlu , the ancient Lamos, to Yanıkhan , Sömek , Cambazlı and on to Uzuncaburç , leading to ancient Olba . The ancient road connection from the Mediterranean coast near Lamos was a road running along the western bank of the Lamos river , from which another road turned west after about five kilometers, which roughly corresponds to today's road layout. It reached Şamlıgöl, from where it continued to the one kilometer north of Öküzlü . There are still remnants of the ancient paving. Another route led through a valley cut that begins on the coast at Akkale and reaches Şamlıgöl after about seven kilometers. There was also probably a footpath to Şamlıgöl from Kanytelleis .
description
About 200 meters south of the ruins is the eponymous circular pools (one Karst slump ), which the present inhabitants Şamlıgöl (Syrian Lake) call. Today it is used as a water reservoir. The edge of the lake is artificially bordered and is now hidden under plastic sheeting, the date of this expansion cannot be determined. To the north of this, on a plateau sloping gently to the southeast, the remains of around 15 houses from the Middle Imperial and Early Byzantine times can be found. They are located on both sides of a west-east running street, which should therefore be identical to the ancient route. Buildings from the Hellenistic and early Roman times, which can be found in most of the settlements of the Rough Cilicia, do not appear here. The houses stand individually and are surrounded by courtyards. The Christian archaeologist Ina Eichner initiated in the framework of a DAAD -Stipendiums in 1998-2000 and 2003, a survey project to accommodate early Byzantine houses in Turkey and examined it primarily a house in the center of the settlement, which they called home A. It is the best preserved building in town. In its current state, it has a floor area of 112 square meters. In the north there were other rooms, of which only heaps of rubble remained. Most of the east facade has been preserved. There was a porch there, possibly a portico , and the entrance was also here. Traces of a balcony can be seen on the north wall. Inside, three rooms can still be determined, but wall connections indicate further rooms in the west. In addition to living rooms, utility rooms were also housed on the ground floor, while the upper floor was only used for residential purposes. There are holes in the south wall for tying up animals to indicate that livestock is kept, arable farming is proven by the terracing of the surrounding area that can still be seen. An oil press east of the house shows that olives were also grown. The masonry made of small blocks suggests dating to the 5th and 6th centuries. Chiseled crosses in the lintels point to Christian times, but they could also have been added later.
The other houses were also at least two-story. On the first floor they were illuminated by slit windows and on the upper floor by rectangular windows. In the area of the settlement there are several cisterns of different, above and below ground construction. There is a Muslim cemetery near the lake with plate graves, some of which were spolia from the ancient settlement.
House A east wall from the inside
House walls
Karstone quarry, today a water reservoir
literature
- Hansgerd Hellenkemper, Friedrich Hild: New research in Kilikien. Publications of the commission for the Tabula Imperii Byzantini Volume 4. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1986, ISBN 3-7001-0771-4 , pp. 79-80.
- Friedrich Hild , Hansgerd Hellenkemper : Kilikien and Isaurien. Tabula Imperii Byzantini Volume 5. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1990, ISBN 3-7001-1811-2 , p. 395.
- Ina Eichner: Early Byzantine houses in Cilicia. Architectural history study of the types of housing in the region around Seleukeia on the Kalykadnos (= Istanbul Research Vol. 52). Wasmuth, Tübingen 2011 ISBN 978-3-8030-1773-4 , pp. 71-92.
