Metropolis in Ionia

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Coordinates: 38 ° 7 ′ 30 ″  N , 27 ° 19 ′ 21 ″  E

Relief Map: Turkey
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Metropolis​
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Turkey
View from the east of the thermal baths and the Acropolis

Metropolis in Ionia was a city in the ancient Ionia countryside . It is located on a mountain near Özbey in the district of Torbalı in the province of Izmir in western Turkey .

Surname

The name of the place ( ancient Greek Μητρόπολις, from μήτηρ for mother and πόλις for city, other names Ματρόπολις, Μητρόπολις ἡ Εφέσια, Μητρόπολις ἔν Ἰωνία) refers to a mother godhood . A cave with a place of worship for the Anatolian fertility goddess was found nearby. The name of the nearby Turkish city of Torbalı is a Turkish transformation of Metropolis.

history

Finds of pottery shards, stone axes and obsidian fragments indicate that the place was already settled in the early Bronze Age (third millennium BC). Geometric and archaic ceramics found on the Acropolis could date from 725 to 500 BC. To be dated. The archaeologist Recep Meriç concludes from this that the city was founded around 725 BC. During this time the finds are limited to the area of ​​the Acropolis. There are no finds from the fourth and third centuries BC.

In the Hellenistic period in the third century BC The city had its heyday. Increased urban development began, which can be recognized by the construction of city walls and fortifications. The construction of the Temple of Ares on the Acropolis and other monumental structures, the Stoa , the Buleuterion and the theater on the mountain slopes began.

In Roman times, altars with reliefs in honor of Emperor Augustus and his great-nephew Germanicus were erected in the theater . A bath and a grammar school were built on the northern slope . A national festival called Sebaste Kaisareia was founded. The earthquake of 17 AD affected at least the Stoa.

In Byzantine times, around the 14th century, a new fortress was built between the acropolis and the stoa. Soon after the Ottoman conquest in the 15th century, the city was abandoned and the residents moved to Torbalı.

A fortified Late Bronze Age settlement was discovered on the nearby bathgediği Tepe, possibly identical to Puranda, a city of the Arzawa empire, which, after Tapalazunauli , the son of the last Arzavian king Uḫḫaziti , settled there in 1317 BC. Was fortified, besieged and starved by the Hittite king Muršili II . Among other things, a lot of locally produced Mycenaean pottery from the 14th and 12th centuries BC came to light during the excavations . To light, including fragments of a crater depicting a sea battle from the early 12th century BC. In the 12th century BC BC (Layer II) the settlement was fortified by a new defensive wall made of Cyclops masonry .

  • theatre

  • Hypocaust in the thermal baths

  • Mosaics in an outbuilding of the theater

  • Stairs from the bathroom to a fortification tower

exploration

The city was explored from 1989 by Recep Meriç from the Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Izmir . Since 2007, Serdar Aybek from Trakya University Edirne has been in charge of the excavations in collaboration with the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo , with Håkon Ingvalsden working on the coin finds.

literature

  • Serdar Aybek: Metropolis İonia I: Heykel, Metropolis'de Hellenistic ve Roma Dönemi Heykeltıraşlığı. Istanbul 2009.
  • Serdar Aybek, Ekin Meriç, Öz A., KA: Metropolis: A Mother Goddess City in Ionia. Istanbul 2009.
  • Serdar Aybek, Ekin Meriç, Öz A., KA: Metropolis: İonia'da Bir Ana Tanrıça Kenti. Istanbul 2009.
  • Recep Meriç: Metropolis. City of the Mother Goddess. Istanbul 2003.
  • Recep Meriç: Metropolis. Ana Tanrıça Kenti. Istanbul 2003.
  • Recep Meriç: Late Hellenistic-Roman ceramics and small finds from a shaft well on the state market in Ephesus. Vienna, 2002.
  • Recep Meriç: Metropolis Kazılarının İlk 5 Yılı. Istanbul 1996.
  • Recep Meriç: Metropolis. Istanbul 1992.
  • Recep Meriç: Metropolis in Ionia: Results of a survey in the years 1972-1975. Koenigstein, 1982.
  • L. Herling, K. Kasper, C. Lichter, Recep Meriç: Nothing new in the West? Results of the excavations 2003-2004 in Dedecik-Heybelitepe. Istanbul Communications, 58, pp. 13–65, 2008.
  • Recep Meriç: Metropolis. In: Wolfgang Radt (Ed.): Byzas 3. City excavations and urban research in western Asia Minor. Istanbul 2006, pp. 227-240.
  • Recep Meriç: Excavation at Badegeiği Tepe (Puranda) 1999-2002: A Preliminary Report. Istanbul Communications, 2003, pp. 79–98.
  • Recep Meriç, Penelope A. Mountjoy : Three Mycenaean Vases from Ionia. Istanbul Communications, 51, 2001, pp. 133-137.
  • Recep Meriç, A. Schachner: A stamp seal of the late 2nd millennium BC From Metropolis in Ionia. Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici, 42, 1, 2000, pp. 85-102.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gernot Lang: Classical Ancient Sites of Anatolia. Books on Demand 2003, p. 67, ISBN 3833000686 at GoogleBooks
  2. ^ Charlotte R. Long: The twelve gods of Greece and Rome. Brill, Leiden 1987, ISBN 90-04-07716-2 at GoogleBooks .
  3. ↑ a b c Recep Meriç: Metropolis. Medoder (Friends of Metropolis Society), 1996.
  4. ↑ Archaeological Excavations / History  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.metropoliskazilari.com  
  5. ^ Recep Meriç: A preliminary report on a late Bronze Age fortified hilltop settlement near Metropolis in Ionia. The Arzawa city of Puranda? In: Justus Cobet et al .: Early Ionia. An inventory. Panionion Symposium Güzelcamli 26 September - 1 October 1999 , Zabern-Verlag, Mainz 2007, pp. 27–36 .; ders .: Excavation at Badegediği Tepe (Puranda) 1999-2002: A Preliminary Report. Istanbul Communications 53, 2003, pp. 79-98.
  6. ↑ cf. on equating also Susanne Heinhold-Krahmer : Has the identity of Ilios with Wiluša been finally proven? In: Studi micenei ed egeo-anatolici 45, 2004, p. 47.
  7. ^ Recep Meriç, Penelope A. Mountjoy : Mycenaean Pottery from Badegediği Tepe (Puranda) in Ionia: A Preliminary Report. Istanbuler Mitteilungen 52, 2002, pp. 79-98
  8. ↑ Penelope A. Mountjoy: A Bronze Age Ship from Ashkelon with Particular Reference to the Bronze Age Ship from Badegediği Tepe , AJA 115, 2011, pp. 483-488.