Olba and Diokaisareia

Coordinates: 36 ° 35 '  N , 33 ° 56'  E

Olba​

Turkey

Grandmaster

Olba (Ὄλβα, today Ura) and Diokaisareia (Διοκαισάρεια, Latin Diocaesarea, today Uzuncaburç ) are two related ancient cities in Cilicia , in the Silifke district of the Mersin province in today's Turkey . The cities are about 20 kilometers as the crow flies northwest of Korykos and 25 kilometers north of Seleukia on a plateau over 1000 meters high. According to Strabon (14, 5, 10), Olba was in the mountainous country above Kyinda and Soloi . Olba was the seat of a priestly dynasty, whose sanctuary, the Temple of Zeus Olbios, was about 4 km to the west. The city of Diokaisareia developed around this temple. The Kanytelleis, about 30 km south-east, also belonged to Olba .

history

Hellenistic defense and residential tower

William Mitchell Ramsay equates the Hittite Ura with Olba. This equation is generally doubted today, the identity of the name with today's village of Ura is seen as a coincidence.

The priests of Zeus Olbios ruled over the part of the tracheiotis between the Kalykadnos ( Güksu ) in the west and the Lamos ( Limonlu Çayı ) in the east until Zenophanes gained control. The Olbic symbols on towers and buildings in numerous places in the region testify to their rule . According to Strabo, a descendant of the family named Aba supported Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII and was therefore overthrown by Augustus , but rule over Olba remained in her family. On the front of a wall of the Temple of Zeus at Korykion Antron is a list of priestly rulers who lived from the 3rd to the late 1st century BC. Chr. Is enough.

With the emergence of the Roman province of Cilicia in the first century AD, the priestly dynasty lost power. At this time at the latest, the city of Diokaisareia was founded around the Temple of Zeus, the sanctuary of Zeus Olbios lost its regional importance and became a city sanctuary. The relics of Diokaisareia that can be seen today, with the exception of the temple itself, come from this expansion phase in the early imperial era . In late antiquity, Olba lost its importance in relation to the new city, but both remained until the 7th and 8th. Century bishopric ( suffragan dioceses of Seleukia).

Building the cities

The city of Olba is located near the village of Ura. In addition to a theater, a nymphaeum and an aqueduct, remains of the city fortifications and numerous rock graves can be seen there. The urban area of ​​Diokaisareia is about four kilometers west of the present day Uzuncaburç. You enter the excavation site through a grand gate, of which five columns have been preserved. Behind it, a colonnaded street leads past the Zeus Olbios temple to the temple of Tyche . Of this, there are also five granite columns with Corinthian capitals, which are connected by powerful architraves with dedicatory inscriptions. In the northwest a three-arched gate from Roman times leads out of the city. Another part of the city fortifications is the eponymous Uzuncaburç (Turkish long tower), a five-story, over twenty meter high watchtower in the northern city wall, which was already visible on ancient coins from Olba. Located on the upper right corner of the southwest façade Olbisches sign a Dioskurenkappe . There are several, sometimes very extensive, necropolises around Diokaisareia .

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  Aqueduct in Olba

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  Nymphaeum in Olba

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  North gate of Diokaisareia

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  Columns of the temple of Tychet in Diokaisareia

Temple of Zeus

According to legend, the famous sanctuary of Zeus Olbios was founded by the high priest (archiereus) Aias . It is about 4 km from the city of Olba.

Zeus Olbios Temple

The Temple of Zeus von Olba is a ring hall temple, Peripteros , with six columns each on the front and back and twelve columns on the long sides, the corner columns are counted twice. The base on which the columns stood, the stylobate , measures around 21 × 39 meters. The pillars rose on plinthless Attic bases . The column shafts with their 24 fluting were only faceted in the lower third. The fluting webs were placed on the faceting as raised fine bands; the facets themselves were slightly concave . Presumably as a result of careless processing, the faceting was not carried out to the same height on all columns.

The Corinthian capitals of the columns were made from three pieces. The lower workpiece comprised a column neck and wreaths of leaves, the upper half with stems, volutes and an abacus was horizontally divided into two parts: a working technique that can be found at the Augustus Temple on Philai in the Ptolemaic culture. The two wreaths of leaves on the capitals are each made up of eight leaves. The underside of the abacus sheets are decorated with a tooth cut .

According to the remains of structural elements scattered in the ruins, the entablature was of Doric order . The dating of the temple is controversial and varies between the early 3rd century BC. And the middle of the 2nd century BC Chr.

In the early Byzantine period (2nd half of the 5th century) a church was built into the temple. Walls were drawn between the columns, and a cross-shaped baptismal font was set into the floor in the north side room.

literature

• Josef Keil , Adolf Wilhelm (ed.): Monuments from the Rough Kilikien (= Monumenta Asiae minoris antiqua. Vol. 3 = Publications of the American Society for Archaeological Research in Asia Minor. Vol. 3, ZDB -ID 972862-4 ). Longmans, Green & Co et al., London et al. 1931, pp. 44-79.
• Yusuf Boysal: Uzuncaburç ve Ura Kilavuzu (= TC Millî Eğitim Bakanliği. Eski Eserler ve Müzeler Genel Müdürlüğü yayınlarından. Seri 1, 15, ZDB -ID 2431326-9 ). Millî Eǧitim Basımevi, Istanbul 1963.
• Theodora Stillwell MacKay: Olba in Rough Cilicia. Bryn Mawr 1968 (Bryn Mawr, Bryn Mawr College, Dissertation, 1968).
• Ekrem Akurgal : Greek and Roman Art in Turkey. Hirmer, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-7774-4280-1 , p. 441.
• Theodora Stillwell MacKay: The major sanctuaries of Pamphylia and Cilicia. In: Hildegard Temporini , Wolfgang Haase (Hrsg.): Rise and decline of the Roman world . History and culture of Rome as reflected in recent research. Part 2: Principate. Volume 18: Wolfgang Haase (Ed.): Religion. (Paganism: The Religious Conditions in the Provinces). Volume 3. de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 1990, ISBN 3-11-010382-6 , pp. 2045-2129, here pp. 2083 ff.
• Ralf Schenk: The Corinthian Temple until the end of the Augustus' Principle (= International Archeology. Vol. 45). Espelkamp, ​​Leidorf 1997, ISBN 3-89646-317-9 , pp. 23-28.
• Detlev Wannagat : New research in Diokaisareia / Uzuncaburç, report on the work 2001-2004. In: Archäologischer Anzeiger . 2005, pp. 117-166.
• Detlev Wannagat, Kai Trampedach (ed.): Diokaisareia in Kilikien. Results of the survey 2001-2006.
  • Volume 1: Norbert Kramer: Ceramics and small finds from Diokaisareia. De Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2012, ISBN 978-3-11-022215-9 ;
  • Volume 2: Marcello Spanu: The Theater of Diokaisareia. De Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2011, ISBN 978-3-11-022221-0 ;
  • Volume 3: Johannes Christian Linnemann: The necropolis of Diokaisareia. De Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-025735-9 (also: Rostock, University, dissertation, 2010).

Web links

Commons : Olba / Diokaisareia  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Livius.org
• New research in Uzuncaburc. Completed research project at the University of Rostock
• DAI Diokaisareia in Byzantine times ( Memento from October 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Olba / Diokaisareia - priestly state and twin cities (PDF; 2.8 MB)
2. ↑ On the bearers of the name Zenophanes from Olba see AM Vérilhac, Gilbert Dagron: Une nouvelle inscription du temple de Zeus à Diocésarée Uzuncaburç (Cilicie). In: Revue des études anciennes . Vol. 76, 1974, pp. 237-242.
3. ↑ For discussion see Ralf Schenk: The Corinthian Temple to the End of the Principate of Augustus . 1997, pp. 25-28.
4. ^ Stephan Westphalen : The monuments from Byzantine times. In: Archäologischer Anzeiger 2005, pp. 149–158.