Assos

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Coordinates: 39 ° 29 ′ 26 ″  N , 26 ° 20 ′ 12 ″  E

Relief Map: Turkey
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Assos​
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Turkey

Assos ( Greek Άσσος ) is an ancient city on the southwest coast of the Troas in Ayvacık district in the Turkish province of Çanakkale ; today's Turkish village there is called Behramkale .

history

View of the Acropolis

The settlement site, a 234 m high rock made of dark trachyte directly by the sea, was inhabited as early as the Bronze Age. In the 7th century BC Assos was founded from Methymna on the neighboring island of Lesbos . The city was a member of the Attic-Delian League, but apparently played in the Greco-Persian conflicts of the 5th and 4th centuries BC. No role. It is only important in the satrap revolt , here in 366 BC it was entrenched. The rebellious satrap Ariobarzanes . Since around 360 BC It was under the rule of Eubulus and his successor Hermeias . During this time, Aristotle also lived in Assos from 347 to 345. 334 to 241 BC The city was under the rule of Alexander the Great and the subsequent Seleucids . 241 to 133 BC BC Assos belonged to the Empire of the Attalids of Pergamon before it became part of the Roman Empire . In Byzantine times, Assos was a bishopric and was part of the Aegean theme . In 1306 the Byzantines were able to defend the fortress of Assos, which was only in the area of ​​the old acropolis , against the Ottomans , but shortly afterwards the settlement passed into their possession.

buildings

Athena temple in Assos

The city wall is still very well preserved in its extension of 3 km with towers and gates in large parts. It was built in several phases from the 4th century BC. In addition, the remains of an archaic city wall are visible.

The Doric temple of Athena at the highest point of the city mountain was built around 530-520 BC. Built in BC. Some of the pillars made of native trachyte , which were covered with white marble stucco in antiquity, were partially re-erected as part of archaeological research. The Temple of Athena is the only known archaic temple of the Doric order in Asia Minor. From here you have a good view of the opposite island of Lesbos .

Murat Hüdavendigar Mosque, which was built after the city was conquered

In the urban area, on the slopes between the agora and the sea, the agora with two halls ( Stoen ) on the north and south sides, the buleuterion , the gymnasium , the theater and a Roman thermal bath are still preserved. To the west of the city wall is a well-preserved necropolis with tombs and sarcophagi.

The Murat Hüdavendigar mosque from the time of Murat I (1326-1389), which is one of the earliest Ottoman mosques, is located on the outskirts of today's village . It was built using numerous ancient and Byzantine spolia .

The theater on the sea side of the city. The island of Lesbos is visible in the background.

Research history

American excavations took place in Assos from 1881 to 1883 under the direction of Joseph Thacher Clarke and Francis H. Bacon, and Robert Koldewey also took part as an architect . Numerous finds, especially parts of the temple sculptures, ended up in the Louvre in Paris and in the museums of Istanbul and Boston. Turkish excavations have been taking place since 1981 under the direction of Ümit Serdaroğlu († 2005), from 1989 to 1994 a German team under the direction of Reinhard Stupperich was involved. The excavations have been continued since 2006 by Nurettin Arslan from the University of Çanakkale . From 2010 to 2017, the Department of Building History at the BTU Cottbus was involved under the direction of Klaus Rheidt .

The finds will be taken to the Çanakkale Archaeological Museum .

Hellenistic city wall of the lower town and necropolis in front

literature

  • Ludwig Bürchner : Assos 1 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume II, 2, Stuttgart 1896, Col. 1748-1750.
  • Joseph Thacher Clarke: Report on the Investigations at Assos, 1881 . Boston 1882 ( Papers of the Archaeological Institute of America. Classical Series 1) ( digitized ).
  • Joseph Thacher Clarke, Francis H. Bacon Robert Koldewey: Report on the Investigations at Assos, 1882, 1883, Part I . New York 1898 ( Papers of the Archaeological Institute of America. Classical Series 2). ( Digitized version ).
  • Joseph Thacher Clarke, Francis H. Bacon, Robert Koldewey: Investigations at Assos. Expedition of the Archaeological Institute of America. Drawings and photographs of the buildings and objects discovered during the excavations of 1881, 1882, 1883 . 2 volumes, London 1902–1921 ( digitized version ).
  • Reinhold Merkelbach : The inscriptions of Assos (= inscriptions of Greek cities from Asia Minor, Vol. 4). Habelt, Bonn 1976, ISBN 3-7749-1338-2 .
  • Henry S. Robinson :  Assos Asia Minor . In: Richard Stillwell et al. a. (Ed.): The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1976, ISBN 0-691-03542-3 .
  • Ursula Finster-Hotz: The architectural jewelry of the Athena temple of Assos. Studies in iconography . Rome 1984, ISBN 88-85007-78-3 .
  • Ümit Serdaroğlu, Reinhard Stupperich (Ed.): Excavations in Assos (= Asia Minor Studies Vol. 2; 5; 10; 21). 4 volumes, Habelt, Bonn 1990–1996.
  • Ümit Serdaroğlu: Assos (Behramkale) . Istanbul 1995, ISBN 975-7538-76-0 ( German partial translation of the text ).
  • Federico Utili: The archaic necropolis of Assos (= Asia Minor Studies Bd. 31). Habelt, Bonn 1999, ISBN 3-7749-2823-1 .
  • Nurettin Arslan, Beate Böhlendorf-Arslan: Assos. Living in the Rocks. An Archaeological Guide. Homer Kitabevi, Istanbul 2010, ISBN 978-9944-483-30-8 .
  • Bonna Daix Wescoat: The Temple of Athena at Assos . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-814382-6 .
  • Nurettin Arslan, Klaus Rheidt: Assos. Report on the excavations and research on the history of urban development from 2006 to 2011 . In: Archäologischer Anzeiger 2013/1, pp. 195–246.
  • Nurettin Arslan, Eva-Maria Mohr, Klaus Rheidt (eds.): Assos. New research results on the architectural history and archeology of the southern Troas (= Asia Minor Studies Bd. 78). Habelt Bonn 2016, ISBN 978-3-7749-3951-6 .

Remarks

  1. ^ Haiko Türk: The wall as a mirror of the city. New research on the fortifications in Assos . In: A. Kuhrmann, Leo Schmidt (Ed.): Research, Build & Receive. Yearbook 2009/2010, Berlin / Bonn 2009, ISBN 978-3-939721-17-8 , pp. 30–41; Haiko Türk: A new face for the city. The fortifications of Assos in the Troad . In: Koldewey-Gesellschaft (Ed.): Report on the 46th Conference for Excavation Science and Building Research, Constance May 12-16, 2010 . Dresden 2012, pp. 119–128; Haiko Türk: Along - towards - through. The importance of the fortifications for the development of the city of Assos . In: Dietmar Kurapkat, Peter I. Schneider, Ulrike Wulf-Rheidt (eds.): The architecture of the path. Designed movement in built space . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2014, pp. 27–38.

Web links

Commons : Assos  - collection of images, videos and audio files