Kyaneai
Kyaneai ( Greek Κυανέαι ) was an ancient and Byzantine city in Lycia in southwest Asia Minor in what is now Turkey. It was on a ridge above the Turkish village of Yavu. The village gave its name to the region, which is approximately identical to the territory (Chora) of the Hellenistic-Imperial Polis Kyaneai. The area was examined in an intensive survey from 1989 to 2001 by an international and interdisciplinary team of scientists under the direction of the Tübingen ancient historian Frank Kolb .
Kyaneai already existed in archaic and classical times. But it was only a matter of a dynasty seat with a castle, probably dependent on the nearby settlement on Avşar Tepesi (probably identical with the Lycian town of Zagaba). The Lycian name of Kyaneai was probably Khbahñ, a place name that is mentioned on the inscription pillar of Xanthos . Zagaba presumably held the function of a central place for the region in this early period, but probably went into operation in the first half of the 4th century BC. In the course of political and military conflicts between the dynasty of Xanthos and the dynasty of Limyra under.
Kyaneai is likely to have taken over the central location function and became the most important settlement in the Yavu mountainous region. Kyaneai is hardly mentioned in the ancient written sources, but according to its coins, inscriptions and archaeological remains it was an important polis. After 168 BC it belonged to Chr. The Lycian Federation and was under the empire of the Roman province of Lycia et Pamphylia . Coins exist from the time of the Lycian League up to Gordian III. In late antiquity and the Byzantine period, Kyaneai was the seat of a bishop who was subordinate to the Metropolitan of Myra . The titular bishopric of Cyanae of the Roman Catholic Church goes back to the bishopric . Kyaneai probably existed until the beginning of the 13th century.
The ruins of Kyaneai are located on a hill above the village of Yavu. The city wall and theater date from the early Hellenistic period, most of the other remains (including thermal baths and a market hall) from the Roman Empire. With more than 380 specimens, Kyaneai has the largest sarcophagus necropolis in Lycia. Most of the sarcophagi there are characterized by the landscape-specific ogival shape of their lids. The most important sarcophagus of Kyaneai dates from the first half of the 4th century BC. It shows various reliefs and a Lycian inscription. A certain Khudalijẽ, who is certainly one of the dynasts of Kyaneai, was buried in it.
literature
- George Ewart Bean : Kyaneai (Yavu) Turkey . In: Richard Stillwell et al. a. (Ed.): The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1976, ISBN 0-691-03542-3 .
- Gernot Lang: Classical Ancient Sites of Anatolia . BoD, 2003, ISBN 3833000686 , pp. 622–626 ( excerpt from Google Books ).
- Frank Kolb: Castle - Polis - Bishopric. History of the settlement chamber of Kyaneai in southwestern Turkey . Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein 2008, ISBN 9783805339001 .
- Frank Kolb (Ed.): The settlement of Kyaneai in Central Lycia I: Public buildings and residential areas (= Lykische Studien. 9, 1. Tübingen Ancient Historical Studies. 5,2). Habelt, Bonn 2010, ISBN 978-3-7749-3613-3 .
- O. Hülden: The settlement of Kyaneai in Central Lycia II: The necropolis of Kyaneai. Studies on ancient grave culture in Lycia (= Lycian Studies 9, 2. Tübingen Ancient History Studies. 5, 2). Habelt, Bonn 2010, ISBN 9783774936775 .
Web links
Coordinates: 36 ° 15 ' N , 29 ° 49' E