Sesönk
Coordinates: 37 ° 29 ′ 6.5 ″ N , 38 ° 4 ′ 4.4 ″ E
Sesönk ( Kurdish three stone ), also Dikilitaş ( Turkish erected stone ), refers to a burial mound from the 1st century BC. BC or AD in the area of the Kingdom of Commagene in southeastern Turkey . Possibly it represents a hierothesion for members of the royal family there.
location
The facility is located in an impassable rocky hill area south of the villages of Zormağara and Dikilitaş in the district of Besni in the Turkish province of Adıyaman . The Euphrates , which comes from the Ataturk reservoir , flows about four kilometers to the south . About 90 kilometers to the northeast is Nemrut Dağı , which is visible in good weather conditions and the most famous of the Commagenic Hierothesia. Samosata , the capital of the empire now flooded by the Ataturk Reservoir, was about 40 kilometers to the east. An ascent to the sanctuary is possible from Dikilitaş. Another way to reach the square is via a drivable path that meanders about five kilometers southwest into the rocky hilly landscape. In both cases, there is an arduous one hour walk.
description
The tumulus, artificially heaped up from gravel, has a diameter of 35 meters and a maximum height of six meters. The flattened tip has sunk, probably due to the activities of grave robbers. In the north, a dromos leads six meters deep into a burial chamber. This is rectangular and carved into the rock. On the sides there are three rectangular graves that are framed with simple profiles. On the back wall, the niche is disturbed by a buried tunnel that was created later and the purpose of which is unclear. According to the villagers, it led to the Euphrates. To the north-west of the hill, a shaft at least eleven meters deep, 2.55 × 1.65 meters with climbing devices in the walls, is driven into the rock. Carl Humann and Otto Puchstein , the discoverers of the place, suspected access to a cistern, other researchers believe a second burial chamber is possible. In the north-west, north-east and south, the tumulus is flanked by three pairs of unchanneled limestone columns with Doric capitals . Two are still largely upright, one of the capitals is still in situ . They stand on square plinths and were connected by a simple architrave , which consisted of two stone beams lying on top of one another and apparently carried sculptures. Some fallen remains of these sculptures have survived. Among them, a seating group of two people is particularly worth mentioning, which was framed by two eagle figures after the reconstruction by Humann and Puchstein. It has a preserved height of 1.10 meters and is broken into two parts today. The heads are missing and the bodies are also in poor condition. Both sit on a common throne and are dressed in a Greek coat. The figure on the left was identified as female by Humann and Puchstein, she held one arm under the robe on her lap. The right, male, carried an object in her left hand, resting on her knee, which they took to be a Barsom . Fragments of eagle and lion representations were also found, as well as a remains of a plinth, which they interpreted as part of a throne. Just a few meters northwest of the hill is a small quarry where the stones for the column drums and the sculptures were broken.
Plan and section of the hill from Humann and Puchstein
reconstruction
Seating area
Research history and interpretation
On April 27, 1882, Otto Puchstein, together with Charles Sester, discovered for the first time eastward on the almost horizontal ridge ... a small tumulus-like elevation ... which, as could be guessed more than clearly perceived, was framed by two columns. On July 1st of the same year he climbed the ridge for the first time with Carl Humann. They published their description in their travelogue Reisen in Asia Minor and Northern Syria. After that, almost a century passed before the grave shrine was revisited by researchers. In the 1970s and 1980s, these included the art historian John H. Young, the ancient historian Friedrich Karl Dörner , the archaeologist Jörg Wagner and the classical archaeologist Wolfram Hoepfner . In the 2000s, Michael Blömer, archaeologist at the Asia Minor research center , which has devoted itself to research into commagene , examined the tumulus and the sculptures, questioning some of the previous interpretations.
Humann and Puchstein had interpreted the tomb as a further hierothesion of members of the royal family of Kommagene. They suspected Laodike , the wife of Mithridates I and mother of Antiochus I , the builder of Nemrut Dağı, to be buried. Wagner and Young, on the other hand, considered Mithridates II , the son and successor of Antiochus, to be more likely, only Hoepfner also considered it possible that it was the grave of members of a high-ranking, Commagenic noble family. The determination of the royal family was based on the one hand in the similarities to the Hierothesion of Karakuş , on the other hand in the design of the group of sculptures. Blömer showed that because of the size, not the right, but the left person is male. Thus, the object in the hand cannot be interpreted as a Barsom - and thus as a ruler symbol - but rather represents a role or something similar, which is characteristic of the role of the woman depicted in the household. He also pointed out clear differences to Karakuş, for example the burial chamber is integrated in the tumulus there, while in Sesönk the hill is piled up above the chamber below as a hypogeum and therefore serves more as a grave marker. The simple furnishings of the burial chamber are similar to those of numerous other Roman graves in Syria and southern Anatolia. The composition of burial mounds and column monuments is also known from Syria and Cilicia. Blömer does not see a compelling connection between the grave monument of Sesönk and the ruling family. The dating to the 1st century BC. This is no longer documented. Similar tombs of Roman origin are also known from the 1st century AD. The lack of inscriptions on the tomb makes it impossible to decide this question.
literature
- Karl Humann, Otto Puchstein: Travels in Asia Minor and Northern Syria. Verlag von Dietrich Reimer, Berlin 1890. pp. 212–217
- Michael Blömer: The Sesönk Tumulus - A Monument to the Commagenic Ancestor Cult? In: Engelbert Winter (Ed.): From the Euphrates to the Bosporus. Asia Minor in Antiquity: Festschrift for Elmar Schwertheim on his 65th birthday . Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH 2008 pp. 103-110.
- Michael Blömer, Engelbert Winter: Commagene. The Land of Gods Between the Taurus and the Euphrates. An Archaeological Guide (= Homer Archaeological Guides. Volume 11). Homer Kitabevi, Istanbul 2011, ISBN 978-9944-483-35-3 , pp. 173-176.
- Herman AG Brijder (Ed.): Nemrud Dağı: Recent Archaeological Research and Conservation Activities in the Tomb Sanctuary on Mount Nemrud . Walter de Gruyter, Boston / Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-1-61451-713-9 , pp. 199–206 ( on GoogleBooks )
Web links
- Verteller van het Oude - Sesönk (Dutch)
Individual evidence
- ^ Karl Humann, Otto Puchstein: Travels in Asia Minor and Northern Syria. Published by Dietrich Reimer, Berlin 1890. p. 212
- ↑ Jörg Wagner: The kings of Kommagene and their ruler cult In: Jörg Wagner (Hrsg.): Gottkönige am Euphrat. New excavations and research in Kommagene. Zabern, Mainz 2012, ISBN 978-3-8053-4218-6 , pp. 55–56.
- ^ DH Sanders, JH Young: Sculpture Analysis. In: Donald H. Sanders (Ed.): The Hierothesion of Antiochos I of Commagene . Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake, Ind. 1996, ISBN 1-57506-015-9 , pp. 411-462.