Böhlendorf-Arslan, Assos

Assos University Press Scholarship Online Oxford Scholarship Online The Archaeology of Byzantine Anatolia: From the End of Late Antiquity until the Coming of the Turks Philipp Niewohner Print publication date: 2017 Print ISBN-13: 9780190610463 Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: April 2017 DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190610463.001.0001 Assos Beate Böhlendorf-Arslan DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190610463.003.0017 Abstract and Keywords Early Byzantine occupation at Assos is attested through the remains of churches and houses inside the ancient city, a cemetery church, and the presence of couple of neighboring villages with their own churches. Archaeological evidence peters out in the second quarter of the seventh century, and there is some evidence for earthquake destruction and abandonment around that time. Late eighth- or early-ninth-century burials were laid out in and around the cemetery church. In the eleventh to twelfth century the church itself was renovated twice, which resulted in the transformation of the original, early Byzantine basilica into a single nave plus side rooms for burials. Otherwise only the fortress on the acropolis above the ancient city can be assigned to the later Byzantine period. It had five towers and included cisterns and storage buildings. Keywords: Shops, Houses, Cemetery church, Small finds, Villages, Domed church, Burials, Fortress ASSOS IS situated on the northern coast of the Gulf of Adramyttium/ Edremit on the southwestern side of the Troad Peninsula, opposite the Greek island of Lesbos. The urban area of Assos extends over several trachyte bedrock terraces, from the ancient acropolis and Byzantine fortress hill down to a narrow coastal strip with an artificial harbor. The Page 1 of 10 PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.oxfordscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2017. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use (for details see http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/page/privacy-policy). Subscriber: OUPReference Gratis Access; date: 27 March 2018 Assos northern slope of the fortress hill is today occupied by the Ottoman village of Behramkale and crowned by an early Ottoman mosque. In the north, the Tuzla River, the ancient Satnioeis, is crossed by an early Ottoman bridge from the fourteenth century. The first settlements at Assos can be traced back to the Bronze Age. Assuwa, mentioned in Hittite texts, and Pedasos, mentioned in Homer’s Iliad, are both believed to refer to Assos. According to antique sources, Methymnians from the island of Lesbos founded the Greek city of Assos in the seventh century BC. Under Lydian and Persian control during the Classical period, Assos famously defended itself against the Persians in 365 BC. In 133 BC, the city fell under Roman control. In the Hellenistic and Roman times, Assos was famous for its sarcophagi production, which was sold all across the Mediterranean world.1 The apostle Paul went to Assos during his third missionary journey after staying in Alexandria Troas.2 Starting with the third council of Ephesus, which was conducted in AD 431 at the time of bishop Maximus, Assos was listed as a bishopric until the fourteenth century.3 In the eleventh or twelfth century some citizens verbally attacked their bishop Gregorios and his disciple Leon, a native of Assos. The two were summoned to Constantinople and acquitted, but then were attacked again and finally fled to Gregorios’ native island of Lesbos.4 In the thirteenth century, when the Turks advanced into the region, Assos became a center for refugees from the Ida Mountains or the Scamander River valley. Then “the inhabitants and the refugees left Assos and fled to Lesbos,”5 and the (p.218) Turks finally conquered Assos in the early fourteenth century and built a village, a mosque, and a bridge. First excavations in Assos were conducted by J. T. Clarke, F. H. Bacon, and R. Koldewey between 1880 and 1883 on behalf of the American Institute of Archaeology.6 One hundred years later, the excavations were restarted from Turkey by Ü. Serdaroğlu, and, after his death, continued by N. Arslan.7 Initially, research focused on individual localities like the Temple of Athena on the acropolis, some public buildings, or the west necropolis outside the city walls. More recent research is also addressing the history of urban development. The early Byzantine period Since the Hellenistic period, Assos has been surrounded by a massive fortification wall. In early Byzantine times the ramparts were used as a back wall for multistory buildings, as shown by a cross on the inner side of the western wall.8 Page 2 of 10 PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.oxfordscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2017. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use (for details see http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/page/privacy-policy). Subscriber: OUPReference Gratis Access; date: 27 March 2018 Assos Next to and inside the western walls and up to a church on the southeastern slope of the theater terrace, a lot of building activity is attested for the early Byzantine period (Fig. 16.1). The new buildings integrated the preexisting constructions only partially. Instead, new small houses were constructed with rubble stones and with large stone framed doors, which were sometimes decorated with crosses. Some of the building complexes include special installations like the chapel, which was integrated into a house near the western gate.9 The socalled Western Church was constructed in three stages (Fig. 16.1 and 16.2).10 The first church building from the fifth century was a threeaisled basilica 38 m long and 19.5 m wide. In the east the church ends in a semicircular apse. The nave and the bema were paved with a geometric mosaic floor, including votive inscriptions and individual animals.11 In the later sixth century the basilica was separated off into isolated aisles.12 With a third construction phase, carried out not much later, a narthex and an atrium were added to the west. An upper story was accessible through a staircase at the northeastern corner. Fig. 16.1. Plan of Assos (Assos Excavation Archive/BTU Cottbus) Page 3 of 10 PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.oxfordscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2017. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use (for details see http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/page/privacy-policy). Subscriber: OUPReference Gratis Access; date: 27 March 2018 Assos In the city center a gymnasium was no longer in use in the early Byzantine period.13 The northern portico of the gymnasium now included a three-aisled basilica. At the east side, the nave ends with a polygonal apse. A floor mosaic in the nave is similar to the bema mosaic in the Fig. 16.2. Assos, aerial view of the Western Church and a living quarter (Assos Excavation Archive) Western Church.14 The agora, which used to be the political and representative center of ancient Assos, lost its function in the early Byzantine period. An ancient entrance at the western end of the agora was replaced with small-scale houses. The northern stoa (p.219) (p.220) was filled with a packing of stones and earth.15 New shops were built 1 m above the Roman floor. Bone devices, hairpins, needles, and other objects were found and appear to have been sold there. In the sixth century the area was leveled again, filled up 2 m high, and then covered with a regular stone paving, which appears to have connected the agora with a newly built living quarter on the slope above the northern stoa. At the same time, a new house was constructed to the west of and above the Roman Agora Temple, reusing the western wall of the temple (Fig. 16.3). The house was built with rubble stones and bricks joined together with mud. The inventory suggests that the building was used as a dwelling. In addition to cooking and coarse wares from the sixth or early seventh century, a number of imported and local sigillata wares were found here, e.g. Phocaean Red Slip, Light Colored Ware, and African Red Slip. The small finds include a marble plate with fish paintings and clay and glass lamps with lead wick holders. Several spindle whorls and loom weights made of marble, limestone, and clay, and a spindle hook point to textile production. Together with bone hairpins and buttons that once belonged to the women and girls of the house, jewelry, like some bronze earrings and finger rings, was also found. A small belt bracket made of bronze with gold plating on the sides and finely chiseled loop and spiral pattern on the top dates from the late sixth or the first half of the seventh century.16 An abraded decanummium of Justinian I, dated Page 4 of 10 PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.oxfordscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2017. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use (for details see http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/page/privacy-policy). Subscriber: OUPReference Gratis Access; date: 27 March 2018 Assos 560/1, and a half follies of Phokas (602–610) were the most recent of many coins from this context.17 (p.221) Another church was built on a lower terrace to the southwest of the agora next to a kiln, where the necessary lime for mortar appears to have been produced by burning ancient marbles (Fig. 16.1).18 The church, which has not been excavated yet, has a length of 21.25 m and a width of Fig. 16.3. Assos, aerial view of the Agora with early Byzantine dwellings (Assos Excavation Archive) 14.44 m. The ground plan shows nave and aisles to be separated by solid walls. Such “churches with isolated aisles” were more common at Assos, where another church to the east of the theater is of the same type,19 and in Western Anatolia.20 Nave and aisles each end in a polygonal apse, and the aisles could be accessed via small doors from the east as well as from the west. Remains of an ambo are standing in the vicinity of the bema. To the west, the church connects to a hall that is approximately 10.5 m long and 6.3 m wide and has an apsed niche inscribed into its west wall (Fig. 16.4). Narrow passages on both sides of the niche lead to two back rooms. The hall’s interior was once a magnificent space. Differently colored marble plates covered the walls. The apsed niche contains a pair of columns, and the floor in front of the niche was covered with pebbles and a row of marble and cobblestones. Wall surfaces in the back rooms were covered with frescoes, most of which have fallen off and broken into many small fragments. The construction appears to date from the fifth or sixth century, and small renovations show that use continued into the seventh century. The building may have functioned as an audience hall for the bishop of Assos.21 Page 5 of 10 PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.oxfordscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2017. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use (for details see http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/page/privacy-policy). Subscriber: OUPReference Gratis Access; date: 27 March 2018 Assos About 20 m further south a large complex of early Byzantine rooms was built within a large Hellenistic building (Fig. 16.1). A Hellenistic portico was closed with irregular stones and subdivided into smaller rooms. Stairs indicate (p.222) Fig. 16.4. Assos, niche with columns in a second floor. One of the hall to the west of the Lower Terrace the rooms was a Church (Assos Excavation Archive) kitchen with a built-in oven and a bench. The rooms contained various kinds of coarse and fine ware pottery, a lot of glass vessels, a marble mortar, weights, clay lamps, a belt buckle, bone hair pins, and other small finds. Some of the objects, including an African Red Slip plate with the image of a saint and a horse-shaped fibula, attest to contacts with the Near East and the Western Mediterranean. The findings suggest that the complex was privately used by a wealthy family from the late fifth until the seventh century. The rural vicinity in the early Byzantine period A church on a low hill about 350 m northwest of the western city gate is called “Ayazma” in the cadastral plans, and there are some springs and wells in the area, but conclusive evidence for a Hagiasma is lacking. The church lies in the ancient necropolis and dates from the fifth/sixth century (Fig. 16.1).22 A large, prominent grave was cut into the bedrock and included in the construction of the church. A channel that leads to the grave appears to have served for libations. The inclusion of the grave in the church, its prominent position, and the channel indicate that the grave received special veneration and may have contained (p.223) a local saint.23 The early Byzantine church was built with three aisles and a narthex. The floor was covered by a mosaic with geometric borders similar to the early Byzantine floor mosaics inside the city. A small apsidal annex on the southeast served as baptistery and contains a cross-shaped piscina (Fig. 16.5). Page 6 of 10 PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.oxfordscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2017. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use (for details see http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/page/privacy-policy). Subscriber: OUPReference Gratis Access; date: 27 March 2018 Assos Further afield from Assos, there are four small village settlements from the early Byzantine period. The farthest is a small settlement on the Kadırga Peninsula, east of Assos, nearly 2 km away from the old Fig. 16.5. Assos, Ayazma Church; yellow: harbor of the city.24 early Byzantine phase (Assos Excavation The dimensions Archive) suggest an estate or outpost for fishing or farming. A second settlement north of Assos is connected to the bridge over the Satnioeis River and may perhaps have guarded the bridge and controlled the traffic to the city.25 A third village to the west of the city is located on a ridge above a fertile plain. A huge three-aisled basilica with a more than 8 m wide, semicircular apse lies at the center of the settlement (Fig. 16.1).26 The nave measured nearly 27 m in length, and the total width of the church was approximately 18 m. There is evidence for a narthex and an adjacent atrium. A large pit in the atrium area may indicate a cistern that has fallen in. A number of column shafts, capitals, and bases are visible in or around the church.27 The architectural features and the surface finds show that the church was in use until the early seventh century. Remains of a fourth village are to be found about 800 m west of the harbor on flat high ground near to the shoreline (Fig. 16.1). A few meters inland from the cliff the apse and some walls are visible and appear to be the remains of a (p.224) basilica. Tesserae of a mosaic floor were uncovered during illegal excavations.28 Glass cubes in different colors attest to a wall mosaic, most likely in the apse. Capitals with crosses were found fallen into the sea, just below the church. The church is protected by a solid wall extending from the cliff. A surrounding settlement is also in evidence, but mostly buried under dense vegetation. Page 7 of 10 PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.oxfordscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2017. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use (for details see http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/page/privacy-policy). Subscriber: OUPReference Gratis Access; date: 27 March 2018 Assos The later Byzantine periods Archaeological evidence for occupation inside the ancient city peters out in the late seventh century, and there is some evidence for earthquake destruction and abandonment around that time. In the street beyond the portico of the gymnasium all columns were found fallen onto the pavement and the street appears to have been in use until the collapse.29 Pottery and a worn coin of Maurice were found below of one of the fallen columns and establish a terminus post quem in the seventh century. Life at Assos must have continued outside the city walls, possibly on a flat field that extends south from the Ayazma Church, and/or behind the acropolis, where the Turkish village of Behramköy is now located. The fortress on the acropolis that includes five towers, cisterns, and storage buildings, is traditionally assigned to the late Byzantine period. At the Ayazma Church graves to the east of the basilica date from the late eighth or early ninth century. The baptismal font was filled in, and a cist grave was laid out in one of the cross arms. An approximately two-year-old child with arms crossed over the chest was found buried there.30 Another grave was dug where the apse of the baptistery used to be. The walls of the grave were lined with bricks, and it contained a reused Roman ostothek and the body of a newborn child.31 In the first half of the eleventh century, the church was completely transformed (Fig. 16.5). The aisles were walled off from the nave and formed separate rooms.32 The floor of the nave was renewed, the old mosaic gone and replaced with marble slabs that were in fact cut up sarcophagi. A huge ambo, also constructed from ancient sarcophagi and other spolia, was placed in the nave. The bema was separated by a templon.33 A small apsed room was annexed to the southeast, with an entrance from the south. The entrance to the new annex overbuilds the piscina of the baptistery and the graves that had been laid out in its vicinity. In their stead a new cemetery for babies and young children was created in and around the new annex.34 In a second construction phase, which occurred not later than the early twelfth century, the side rooms (originally the aisles) and the northern part (p.225) of the narthex were also used for burials. At the same time, additional rooms to the west of the narthex and a cross-domed chapel at the southeast corner provided more space for separate indoor burials and the latter may have been a private chapel.35 There is no evidence for continuing use of the church after the twelfth century. Notes: (1.) e.g. Arslan/Böhlendorf-Arslan, Assos. Page 8 of 10 PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.oxfordscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2017. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use (for details see http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/page/privacy-policy). Subscriber: OUPReference Gratis Access; date: 27 March 2018 Assos (2.) Actus Apostolorum XX, 13–14. (3.) Laurent, Corpus, vol. 1 pp. 193–96; Notitiae episcopatuum, ed. Darrouzès, pp. 206. 354. (4.) Kaldellis/Efthymiadis, Lesbos, pp. 83–85. (5.) Georges Pachymérès, Relations historiques, ed. A. Failler, Paris 1984–2000, p. 480 B 438. (6.) Clarke et al., Assos. (7.) Serdaroğlu, “Assos”; Arslan/Rheidt, “Assos.” (8.) Böhlendorf-Arslan, “Assos in byzantinischer Zeit,” p. 127 pl. 24, 3. (9.) Böhlendorf-Arslan, “Forschungen zu Assos,” p. 230. (10.) Wittke, “Westkirche in Assos,” 228–31. (11.) Clarke et al., Assos, pp. 185 f. (12.) e.g. Buchwald, “Isolated Aisles.” (13.) Clarke et al., Assos, pp. 183–85. (14.) Clarke et al., Assos, pp. 171. 186 fig. 1. (15.) Arslan/Rheidt, “Assos,” p. 213. (16.) Cf. e.g. Paroli, Umbria, p. 100–3 fig. 16, 9 pl. 22. (17.) Bellinger, Coins, p. 123 cat. 158; Sear, Coins, cat. 643–44. (18.) Böhlendorf-Arslan, “Forschungen zu Assos,” p. 229 f. fig. 35. (19.) Arslan/Böhlendorf-Arslan, Assos, pp. 148 f. (20.) Buchwald, “Isolated Aisles.” Cf. chapter 10 on churches in this volume. (21.) Böhlendorf-Arslan, “Repräsentieren und Wohnen,” pp. 64 f. fig. 4. (22.) Böhlendorf-Arslan, “Forschungen zu Assos,” pp. 232–43; Böhlendorf-Arslan, “Ayazmakirche.” (23.) Böhlendorf-Arslan, “Ayazmakirche,” pp. 204–5. (24.) Böhlendorf-Arslan, “2010 Ezine, Bayramiç ve Ayvacık,” pp. 440. 447 fig. 15. Page 9 of 10 PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.oxfordscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2017. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use (for details see http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/page/privacy-policy). Subscriber: OUPReference Gratis Access; date: 27 March 2018 Assos (25.) Böhlendorf-Arslan, “2009 Ezine, Bayramiç ve Ayvacık,” pp. 261 f. 269. (26.) Böhlendorf-Arslan, “Assos in byzantinischer Zeit,” p. 129 pl. 25, 3– 4. (27.) Arslan/Böhlendorf-Arslan, Assos, p. 153. (28.) Arslan/Böhlendorf-Arslan, Assos, pp. 152 f. (29.) Kassubke, “Stadtsurvey,” pp. 226 f. fig. 33. (30.) The anthropological identification was carried out by H. Üstündağ from Eskişehir University. (31.) Böhlendorf-Arslan, “Ayazmakirche,” pp. 210–11 fig. 3. (32.) Dennert, “Ayaszma Tepe,” p. 112. (33.) Böhlendorf-Arslan, “Forschungen zu Assos,” p. 232 fig. 39. (34.) Böhlendorf-Arslan, “Ayazmakirche,” pp. 211–16. (35.) Dennert, “Ayaszma Tepe,” pp. 112 f. Access brought to you by: Page 10 of 10 PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.oxfordscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2017. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use (for details see http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/page/privacy-policy). Subscriber: OUPReference Gratis Access; date: 27 March 2018