Beycesultan

Coordinates: 38 ° 15 ′ 25 ″  N , 29 ° 42 ′ 12 ″  E

Turkey

Settlement hill from the east

Bronze Age area

Beycesultan is an archaeological site in western Anatolia , about 5 km southwest of the modern city of Çivril in the Turkish province of Denizli . Beycesultan lies on a loop of an old tributary of the Great Meander (today: Büyük Menderes).

history

Beycesultan had been settled since the late Copper Age. During the early Bronze Age in the 3rd millennium BC The size and importance of the settlement increased; it had considerable religious and secular buildings. The settlement experienced its greatest heyday in the early 2nd millennium BC. When a large palace and associated building complexes emerged. Around 1700 BC The palace was abandoned and destroyed. Up until that time, Beycesultan was culturally influenced by the west, mainly from the Aegean region and Minoan Crete .

After being half abandoned for a few centuries, Beycesultan rose again, this time mainly under the influence of the Hittite part of Anatolia. The resulting settlement was smaller than the previous city, but still relatively extensive. Today's excavators conclude from Hittite written sources that Beycesultan was the capital of the country Mira Kuwalaya, which belonged to the Arzawa countries, in the late Bronze Age (1600–1200 BC) . This second phase of Beycesultan's bloom ended around 1200 BC. When the city, like many settlements in Anatolia around the same time, was completely destroyed.

The place was also settled to a lesser extent in the Byzantine , Seljuk and Ottoman times. The thesis was considered that the Byzantine place and bishopric “Ilouza” (Ιλούζα) can be identified with Beycesultan and that the late Bronze Age city corresponds to Wilusa , which is known from Hittite sources .

Archaeological research

Section SX, in which Mellaart and Lloyd identified 40 layers

The settlement in Beycesultan extended in ancient times over two settlement mounds ( tells ), which are separated by an old trade route. The total diameter is about one kilometer, the western settlement hill reaches a maximum height of 25 meters.

In the early 1950s James Mellaart discovered ceramics in the so-called " champagne glass style " in the context of the late Bronze Age finds near the town . A surface inspection then led to the discovery of the settlement mound of Beycesultan a little upstream of the meander.

Seton Lloyd led, together with James Mellaart in Beycesultan, on behalf of the British Institute of Archeology in Ankara, six excavation campaigns from 1954 to 1959, each of which lasted about two months.

Another survey of the site and its surroundings was carried out from 2002 to 2007 by Eşref Abay from Ege Üniversitesi ; In 2007 new excavations began under his leadership. The archaeological research in cooperation with the Adnan Menderes Üniversitesi will continue in 2017.

While no epigraphic material has yet been found, some seals came to light during the excavations .

During the excavations in the 1950s, 40 settlement layers from the Copper Age to the Late Bronze Age could be distinguished. 20 of them are from the 5th and 4th millennium BC. Assigned to the 4th millennium up to the late Bronze Age, the end of the 2nd millennium. The early excavators reported a number of small buildings that were destroyed by fire, with the connection of which the champagne glass-shaped clay pots were found. There was also a palace, the layout of which is reminiscent of its counterpart in Knossos and which was built before it was destroyed around 1700 BC. Had been abandoned. At one entrance to the palace was a type of washroom where visitors washed before going to the courtyard. The floors in the inner rooms, which were erected less than a meter above the ground, are unusual. The spaces in between appear like the air shafts of a heating system, but so far there has been nothing comparable that is not at least a thousand years younger. The entire palace complex was 70 × 45 meters in size and had 47 rooms, the walls of which were made of adobe bricks built on stone plinths.

Outside the palace, a number of small shops are of particular interest. One represented a Bronze Age wine tavern with vats for wine supplies sunk into the floor and a very rich inventory of drinking vessels. Astragaloi were also discovered, "dice" for games of chance, one variant of which is believed to be a forerunner of modern day Chuck a Luck .

The excavators of the 21st century uncovered an extensive area on the western hill. Under the Seljuk and Byzantine classes, houses and streets from the Middle and Late Bronze Age were excavated there. They were divided into two phases (5a and 5b), the buildings visible today belong to phase 5a (1600–1500). The houses are two-room and L-shaped, some of them two-story. In the center, a larger, rectangular building with several rooms was excavated, which could represent a temple. In a room that is interpreted as a cella there is an altar.

Beyce Sultan's Türbe

On the eastern hill is the restored by the excavators Türbe the Turkmen dervish Beyce Sultan, which gave the place its name. The octagonal building dates from the 14th century.

literature

• Seton Lloyd, James Mellaart: Beycesultan I. The Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Levels ( Occasional Publication of the British Institute of Archeology at Ankara. Volume 6). British institute of archeology at Ankara, Ankara 1962.
• Seton Lloyd: Beycesultan II. The Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Levels ( Occasional Publication of the British Institute of Archeology at Ankara. Volume 6). British institute of archeology at Ankara, Ankara 1962.
• James Mellaart, Ann Murray: Beycesultan III. Part 1: Late Bronze Age architecture (= Occasional Publication of the British Institute of Archeology at Ankara. Volume 11). British institute of archeology at Ankara, Ankara 1995, ISBN 1-898249-06-7 .
• James Mellaart, Ann Murray: Beycesultan III. Part 2: Late Bronze Age and Phrygian Pottery and Middle and Late Bronze Age Small Objects (= Occasional Publication of the British Institute of Archeology at Ankara. Volume 12). British institute of archeology at Ankara, Ankara 1995, ISBN 1-898249-06-7 .
• Fulya Dedeoğlu, Eşref Abay: Beycesultan Höyük Excavation Project: New Archaeological Evidence from Late Bronze Layers In: Arkeoloji Dergesi XIX (2014). Pp. 1-39

Web links

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

• Excavations from 2010 in Beycesultan ( Memento from March 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
• Information on Beycesultan (Denizli) in English and Turkish ( Memento from July 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
• Ceramic from Beycesultan in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations at the Australian National University

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jak Yakar: The Twin Shrines of Beycesultan. In: Anatolian Studies . Volume 24, 1974, pp. 151-161.
2. ↑ Information board of the Ege Üniversitesi on site
3. ↑ James Mellaart : The Second Millennium Chronology of Beycesultan. In: Anatolian Studies. Volume 20, 1970, pp. 55-67.
4. ^ Vangelis D. Pantazis: Wilusa: Reconsidering the Evidence. In: Klio . Volume 91, 2009, number 2, pp. 291-310 ( online ).
5. ↑ Information board of the Ege Üniversitesi on site
6. ↑ James Mellaart: Preliminary Report on a Survey of Pre-Classical Remains in Southern Turkey. In: Anatolian Studies. Volume 4, 1954, pp. 175-240.
7. ↑ Seton Lloyd, James Mellaart: Beycesultan Excavations. First preliminary report. In: Anatolian Studies. Volume 5, 1955, pp. 39-92.
8. ↑ Seton Lloyd, James Mellaart: Beycesultan Excavations. Second Preliminary Report 1955. In: Anatolian Studies. Volume 6, 1956, pp. 101-135.
9. ↑ Seton Lloyd, James Mellaart: An Early Bronze Age Shrine at Beycesultan. In: Anatolian Studies. Volume 7, 1957, pp. 27-36.
10. ↑ Seton Lloyd, James Mellaart: Beycesultan Excavations. Fourth Preliminary Report 1957. In: Anatolian Studies. Volume 8, 1958, pp. 93-125.
11. ^ Seton Lloyd, James Mellaart: Beycesultan Excavations: 1958. In: Anatolian Studies. Volume 9, 1959, pp. 35-50.
12. ↑ Seton Lloyd, James Mellaart: Beycesultan Excavations 1959 Sixth Preliminary Report. In: Anatolian Studies. Volume 10, 1960, pp. 31-41.
13. ^ Christian Marek , Peter Frei : History of Asia Minor in antiquity. 2nd edition, CH Beck, Munich 2010, p. 90.
14. ^ Christian Marek, Peter Frei: History of Asia Minor in antiquity. 2nd edition, CH Beck, Munich 2010, p. 93.
15. ^ Diggers. In: Time Magazine, July 11, 1955.
16. ↑ Information board of the Ege Üniversitesi on site
17. ↑ Information board of the Ege Üniversitesi on site