Warrior relief by Efrenk
Coordinates: 36 ° 36 ′ 28 " N , 34 ° 4 ′ 31.4" E
The Warriors Relief Efrenk is located near the ancient river Lamos, today Limonlu , in Rauen Cilicia in southern Turkey .
location
The relief is located about two kilometers north of the town of Sömek in the Silifke district of the Mersin province , about 30 kilometers northeast of the district town of Silifke and 20 kilometers north of Kızkalesi , the ancient Korykos . It is located in a north-west facing rock face on a steep path leading down to the Lamos. A river crossing connected the ancient settlement of Efrenk on the hilltop south of the relief with that of Veyselli on the other bank of the Lamos. The road then continued along the river to the town of Lamos at the mouth, today's Limonlu . From the relief to the south, the road leads via Sömek to Cambazlı and Olba and to Korykos and Elaiussa Sebaste on the Mediterranean coast. The Lamos River is often viewed as the ancient border between the Rough Cilicia (Kilikia Tracheia) in the west and the Plains Cilicia (Kilikia Pedias) in the east.
The Athena relief of Sömek is located about 600 meters to the southeast .
description
The relief is carved into the vertical rock face about five meters above street level. It has a height of 1.90 meters. It shows a standing warrior frontally, framed by a naiskos . The legs are badly damaged, the right one is the standing leg, the left one is the free leg. The raised right arm rests on a vertical lance, on the left he carries a sword, the handle of which he holds with the bent left arm. He is dressed in a short chiton with a belt, the bulging folds of which are clearly visible. Traces of a white paint as a primer can be seen on the entire relief, including the frame, in some places, for example between the head and right arm, traces of red paint can be seen. Paintings are extremely rare on the rock reliefs in Cilicia.
On the left pilaster , at about the height of the belt, an eight-line inscription is carved after the reading by Keil and Wilhelm:
῾Ός δ 'ἂν βά-
λη ἤ ἀ [φ] αι-
ρήση τὸ [ἡ-]
ρῶιον, βά-
λοι αύτ [ον]
ὁ ῾Ήλιος
καὶ ἡ Σελή-
ν [η].
Keil and Wilhelm also report illegible remains of an actual grave inscription that stood on the relief ground to the left and right of the figure's head […]. The letter shapes date the inscription to the middle Roman Empire ; by comparing posture and clothing, Serra Durugönül , who researched the Cilician rock reliefs in the 1980s, dates the relief to the 2nd century AD.
Research history
The first brief description and an incomplete reading of the inscription was published by Edward L. Hicks in his Inscriptions from Western Cilicia in 1891 . The two ancient historians Josef Keil and Adolf Wilhelm traveled to Cilicia in 1891 and 1925 and published their report Monuments from the Rough Cilicia in 1931 , in which they also described the relief of Efrenk and presented another reading of the inscription. In 1989 Serra Durugönül's dissertation, Die Felsreliefs im Rauhen Kilikien , was published, which also dealt in detail with the warrior relief .
literature
- Edward L. Hicks: Inscriptions from Western Cilicia. In: The Journal of Hellenic Studies 12, 1891, p. 260 No. 36.
- Josef Keil, Adolf Wilhelm: Monuments from the Rough Kilikien. (= Monumenta Asiae minoris antiqua vol. 3). London 1931, p. 98 Inscr. 111.
- Serra Durugönül: The rock reliefs in the Rough Cilicia . (= BAR International Series. 511). BAR, Oxford 1989, ISBN 0-86954-652-7 , pp. 47-48, 103, 150 and passim.
