Issus

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Issus (also Issus ) is an old sea town in Cilicia ( Asia Minor ) on the Gulf of İskenderun . Archaeologists from Bilkent University identified Issus with the Kinet Höyük archaeological site near Dörtyol . The excavations carried out from 1992 to 2012 revealed the earliest traces of settlement from the 6th millennium BC. Chr .; from the Early Bronze Age II (approx. 2900/2800 BC) to the middle of the 1st century BC The place was continuously populated without major gaps before it was abandoned for a long time. The excavators were able to distinguish 29 layers from this period. Around 1140 a new settlement was founded here and an artificial harbor basin was created. Approx. In 1330 the place was finally abandoned. The city ​​of Issiya named in Hittite sources , where the Great Queen Puduḫepa was in the middle of the 13th century BC. BC said a supplication by the sea is probably also to be equated with Issus or Kinet Höyük.

Issus is known from the battle of Issus in 333 BC. In which a Macedonian army under Alexander the great over the army of the Persian great king Dareios III. won. According to Xenophon and Diodorus , Issus was an important, prosperous city during the Persian period and also at the time of Alexander the Great , while it was in Strabon's time , towards the end of the 1st century BC. BC, was only an insignificant town.

The area of ​​the famous battle of Issus between Alexander the Elder Great and Darius III in 333 BC

As a donkey bridge , you learn the saying at school: “ Three - three - three, at Issos brawl. "

Remarks

  1. ^ Ian Rutherford : Puduhepa, Piyamaradu and Sea. KUB 56.15II5-24 (ATh 26) and its Background. In: Aygül Süel (Ed.): Acts Of the IXth International Congress of Hittitology Vol. 2 Ankara 2019, pp. 823f.
  2. ↑ Xenophon, Anabasis 2, 24; 4, 1. Diodorus 17,32,4.

literature

  • Walther Ruge : Issus . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IX, 2, Stuttgart 1916, Col. 2247.
  • Hansgerd Hellenkemper : The recovered Issus . In: Jakob Ozols, Volker Thewalt (Ed.): From the East of the Alexander Empire. Peoples and cultures between Orient and Occident. Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India. Festschrift for Klaus Fischer's 65th birthday . Cologne 1984. pp. 43-50. ISBN 3-7701-1571-6 .
  • Marie-Henriette Gates, Charles Gates, Scott Redford, A. Asa Eger: Excavations at Kinet Höyük and Hisn al-Tinat. In: Aynur Özfırat, Çilem Uygun: Hatay Arkeolojik Kazı ve Araştırmaları. Antakya 2014, pp. 157-168.

Web links

Coordinates: 36 ° 51 '  N , 36 ° 9'  E