Doliche

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Doliche , Dolike or Dolikhe is the name of the oldest settlement in the Gaziantep province in southeastern Turkey , about 40 km from the Euphrates . The place is about ten kilometers from the city of Gaziantep near the village of Dülük . The ancient urban area extends across from the modern village on a hill called Keber Tepe, which is used for agriculture today. In Armenian sources of the Middle Ages, the name appears as Tlup . In Arabic sources the city is known as Duluk, in Latin sources of the Crusader period as Tuluppa, Teluch or Dolichenus. The Assyrians called the place Doluk.

history

The ancient place was an important place of worship of the Syrian Baal . Older Near Eastern roots point to the figure of the northern Mesopotamian weather god Hadad , Babylonian Adad , who was shown standing on a bull with a double ax and a bundle of lightning .

After the conquest of the city of Doliche and its incorporation into the province of Syria in the last third of the 1st century AD by the Romans, the cult was transferred to Jupiter and spread throughout the Roman Empire as the soldier god Iupiter Dolichenus .

After the destruction of the main shrine in Doliche by the Sassanid king Shapur I in the middle of the 3rd century AD, the cult went under. However, the city continued to exist and was still a military and administrative center of the region even after the conquest by the Arabs in the 7th century.

Excavations

The central sanctuary of Jupiter Dolichenus has been archaeologically proven on the 1211 m high Dülük Baba Tepesi , about 3 km south of the ancient city . An international team has been working there since 2001 under the direction of Engelbert Winter , Asia Minor Research Center , University of Münster. In addition to exploring the sanctuary in Roman times, the focus of the work is on the area's early history. One of the largest excavated finds of late Iron Age stamps and cylinder seals was discovered. The subsequent settlement under Christian auspices since late antiquity is also a focus of research. In 2007, a basalt stele was found, the first and so far only representation of the popular deity at its original hometown.

literature

  • Immanuel Benzinger : Doliche 4 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume V, 1, Stuttgart 1903, Col. 1276.
  • Anke Schütte-Maischatz, Engelbert Winter (ed.): Doliche. A commagenic city and its gods. Mithras and Iupiter Dolichenus (= Asia Minor Studies. Volume 52). Habelt, Bonn 2004, ISBN 3-7749-3240-9 .
  • Engelbert Winter, Michael Blömer: Iupiter Dolichenus - The God on the bull. An oriental cult and its origins . In: Ancient World . 36, 4, 2005, pp. 79-85.
  • Michael Blömer, Engelbert Winter: Doliche and the sanctuary of Iupiter Dolichenus on the Dülük Baba Tepesi. 1st preliminary report (2001–2003) . In: Istanbul communications . 55, 2005, ISSN  0341-9142 , pp. 197-214.
  • Engelbert Winter, Michael Blömer: Doliche. An ancient city at the interface of cultures. A guide through the ancient city area and the sanctuary of Iupiter Dolichenus . Nurol Matbaacılık ve Ambalaj Sanayi AS, Sincan-Ankara 2006.
  • Michael Blömer, Engelbert Winter: The Dülük Baba Tepesi near Doliche and the sanctuary of Iupiter Dolichenus. 2. Preliminary report (2004-2005) . Istanbul communications . 56, 2006, ISSN  0341-9142 , pp. 185-205.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hansgerd Hellenkemper : Commagene in the Middle Ages. In: Jörg Wagner (ed.): God kings on the Euphrates. New excavations and research in Kommagene. 2nd edition, Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2012, ISBN 978-3-8053-4218-6 , pp. 215–222, here p. 216.