Antiocheia The City of Pirates

Antalya Valiliği Kültür Turizm Dergisi, 2013

Antiocheia, which was hidden from large states thanks to its location, was the shelter of pirates for many years. The city of Antiocheia ad Cragum, which was built after Roman commander Pompey rid the area of pirates, is waiting for its visitors with its amazing structures.

Adalya, 2012

Akdeniz Dünyası incelenirken şüphesiz ki coğrafyanın en önemli sacayağı olan denizcilik faaliyetlerine de hakim olunmalıdır. Akdeniz’in denizcilik tarihi ilk ilkel gemilerden sofistike gemilere, uluslararası ticarete, ticaret rotalarına, deniz savaşlarına, keşiflere, korsanlık faaliyetlerine kadar çok geniş bir bilgi skalası oluşturmaktadır. Antik dönemde denizcilik ve gemiler hakkında tanınmış bir otorite olan Lionnel CASSON bu anlamda bize doyurucu eserler bırakmıştır. Elimizdeki “The Ancient Mariners: Seafarers and Sea Fighters of the Mediterranean in Ancient Times ” kitabı da Akdeniz’in denizcilik tarihi konusunda en önemli eserlerdendir.

TROAS’IN KAYIP KENTİ SKAMANDRİA, 2019

Being one of the small dwellings in the south of the Troad region, Scamandria is the leading among the towns that we have the least knowledge about. While the ancient sources almost never mentions about this little Troad town, it is also poor in terms of archeological finds. The name Scamandria was mentioned in ancient sources in three words “Scamandria civitas parva” in Naturalis Historia of Pliny. Translated as “Scamandria is a little town”, this phrase is the only clue in our hands to detect the location of this town up till now. Although we learn from Pliny that there was such a town in Troad region, there is no other information that can help detect the location of this place. Five centuries after Pliny, another ancient source Stephanos Byzantios shed more light on the issue. Writer mentioned that the root of the name of the town originated from Scamander River, the same as the case in Cardia and Cardianos. Although it was estimated that the name was correlated with the longest river of Troad region, it was verified that Scamandria is close by the Scamander River. However, there are tens of ancient towns through the Scamander River, which rises in Ida Mountain and flows into Hellespont after almost a hundred kilometers. Nevertheless, voyagers and researchers coming to the region since the late 18th century tried to detect the location of the town with the insufficient data from Pliny and Stephanos Byzantios. Moreover, discovery of coins and inscriptions belonging to Scamandria corroborated the existence of the town. Depending on literature, epigraphic, and numismatic proofs, it is understood that the town minted coins in the 4th century B.C., had an agreement with the Ilion in the 1st century B.C., and was the bishopric center in the 6th c. A.D. It is understood that Scamandria lasted approximately more than a thousand years. Despite increasing knowledge about Scamandria, the mystery of its location has not been solved yet. Thirteen different points have been offered about its location up till now. This is like a record for an ancient town in the history of research. However, a satisfactory result has net been obtained till now. Scamandria researches reactivated with the ancient ruins found during examinations in the region in the summer of 2000, in Asarlıktepe hill near Ezine town of Çanakkale province. On the south entrance of Araplar Valley, where Scamander River passes over with deep meanders, Asaralıktepe is a conical broad hill with 221 m elevation from sea level. Northern slope of the hill is pine forest while the south is maquis shrubland. The region is rich in terms of river sources. The reason for preference of settlement on the hill must be its defendable location and abundant water sources. In the surveys on the Asarlıktepe Hill, intense archeological remains were encountered beginning from the slopes of the hill. Towards the peak of the hill observed architectural pieces. On the north of the hill, there is a remnant of a fortification wall in east-west direction, which can be tracked for 15-20 m, with a width of 4-4.5 m. Architectural ruins intensify towards the peak. Numerous walls draw attention discovered in illegal excavations on the peak. Both the building techniques and the ceramics discovered in the excavations belong to 6th-4th centuries B.C. The walls here are similar to the Archaic/Classic era fortification walls observed in Troad. In the east and north of the hill, we encounter with a second fortification wall surrounding the inner castle. Groups of rocks tumbled down from this wall can be seen even today. Moreover, many walls, whose functions are not discovered yet, draw attention in the acropolis of the town. There appears another wall, in north-south direction with a length of approximately 15-20 m and a width of 3.5 m on the lower hill at the southeast of Asarlıktepe. It is understood from this wall that the walls of the town included not only the acropolis but also this little hill. The intermittent remnants of the fortification walls that we track also give an opinion about the expansion surface of the town. The town was surrounded by the fortification walls including the plain on the two hills on the west and southeast. The architecture in the acropolis, extensive roofing tiles, and ceramic pieces give an opinion about the character of the settlement in the region and the era. The necropolises of the town were discovered in the researches on the slopes of the acropolis. It is understood from the illegal excavations held before that there were three different necropolis areas. The largest of these necropolises was the lower hill on the southeast of Asarlıktepe. Ancient graves are in the center and north, east, and west slopes of this hill. Having nothing else from the graves, the hill and surroundings is thought to be the east necropolis of the town. Another necropolis area is the small slope on the south of the acropolis. It is understood from the illegal excavations that there was a density of burials here although not as much as the east necropolis. Being named as the southern necropolis of the town, this area is also included in the walls that surrounded the town. A third necropolis area is in the north and east of Kermetaş Hill 300 m south of Asarlıktepe. The finds taken out of the graves in this necropolis area are mainly belonging to Byzantine era. Apart from the necropolises in Scamandria, single tomb is also observed. One of these is the Hypoge on the southwest slopes of Asarlıktepe that overlooks the valley. The walls and ceiling of the grave that was carved in the bedrock was plastered with mortar. Belonging to the Byzantine era, this grave type is the only Hypoge found in Troad. All of the graves in Scamandria necropolises are burials carved into the bedrocks. Besides, the graves are built into the bedrocks after dressing and trimming the angles and sides in an orderly manner. With this shape, they rather look like a tomb. The directions of the graves differ according to the location of the bedrock mass. Some graves form a group side by side in the same bedrock mass. The ancient pottery that were collected during the surface explorations both on the acropolis and necropolis areas in Asarlıktepe, contributed much to the dating of the settlement. The earliest one of these ceramics was a Siana Cup piece that we dated back to the 570s B.C. Apart from the archaic era pieces, many pieces found belonging to the Classic and Hellenistic eras. On the other hand there are less pieces belonging to the Roman age. The Byzantium ceramics found on the east slopes of the Asarlıktepe reflect the wealth of the Byzantine era, with their quality and variety. The settlement on the Asarlıktepe is located in the southern entrance of the Araplar Valley and close by the Scamander River. Thus it is in such a location that can control the passage on the intersection of the south road coming from Adramytteion-Assos and the inner Troad-Skepsis road coming along with the Scamander River. It is surprising that Asarlıktepe ancient settlement that we detected highly valuable remnants on, has not been discovered until now. Although the region was examined by both the voyagers and by the modern researchers until recently, it has been somehow overlooked. The hill that was not discerned by the voyagers and modern researchers is the best possible spot regarding the location criteria of Scamandria. It is close by the Scamander River, besides, with the archeological material detected on the area, it is the most satisfactory locational suggestion among many up till now. It is an undeniable fact that Asarlıktepe is an ancient town, which has the most archeological finds among the other settlements as Scamandria suggestions. We can mention that it is the most accurate location which can be suggested for Scamandria until more detailed researches are conducted.

Knidos Denizin Kucakladığı Kent, 2022

Knidos Kenti Datça Yarımadasının (Reşadiye Yarımadası) en batısında 6'lı Dor birliği üyesi olarak tarih sahnesinde yerini almıştır. Gerek Çıplak Afrodit ile gerekse de Knidos Aslanı ile adından söz ettirmiştir. Bu yazıda Knidos kentine kısaca değinilmiştir.

Vakanüvis - Uluslararası Tarih Araştırmaları Dergisi, 2024

Depremler dünyanın oluşumundan beri süregelen doğa olaylarından biridir. Kuzeyde Avrasya, güneyde Arabistan ve Afrika plakaları arasında kalan Türkiye’den birçok fay hattı geçmektedir. Bu nedenle Türkiye’de birçok yerleşim geçmişte olduğu gibi günümüzde de deprem riski taşıdığı bilinmektedir. Son yılların en yıkıcı depremleri de denebilecek 6-20 Şubat 2023’teki Kahramanmaraş’ın Pazarcık ve Elbistan ilçeleri ile Hatay-Defne merkezli 7,7 ve 7,6 büyüklüğündeki deprem oldukça yıkıcı olmuş; çok sayıda can ve mal kaybına yol açmıştır. İnsan ve Jeomorfoloji arasındaki hayati bir ilişki vardır ve bu ilişki daha çok yerleşme alanlarının tercihinde ön plana çıkmaktadır. Jeomorfoloji ile toplulukların toplumsal ihtiyaçları arasında denge kurmak, Jeomorfolojik yönden ortaya çıkacak sorunları belirlemek ve çözmek doğal afetler sırasında oldukça önemlidir. Bu çalışma 06-20 Şubat 2023 depremlerinden çok etkilenmiş olan ve geçmişten günümüze birçok yıkıcı deprem görmesine rağmen yine de sürekli bir...