Saturday, November 27, 2010

Alexandria Troas Arch and Baths

So we were driving away, a one-lane road through the fields and olive groves, 
and saw this large structure; I walked over to it...four big walls, a large arched 
entrance, but absolutely no indication of what it was


















Walking back through the recently plowed fields, I couldn't help but notice they are 
as much clay pottery shards as rock; and some marble facing too*

















And then I saw this in the distance, buried among the trees
and dense undergrowth

















And this; feeling a bit like Indiana Jones, I went back for Vicki 
and together we explored





















This, the originally quadruple-arched entrance to the baths, the big bath complex 
we had read about
















Two of the arches are fully intact, one has collapsed, and one is supported, sort of, 
by a timber frame
















Thus















Another look















And there, looking through the arch, is one side of the 12-bay bath complex; 
the vegetation was too dense to get any better a shot; but that was part of the 
fun




















One of the 12 bays, all pretty much intact; it was a hoot getting to see all this
before the spades go to work


*PS [2023] We helped ourselves to some of the shards, some of the more impressively carved pieces, and carried them with us on the rest of our travels in Turkey, then Greece, and then Italy. It was at Fiumicino airport, returning to the US, passing through immigrations/customs, that the officials detained Vicki, who was carrying the shard-laden suitcase. The Italians are very serious about removal of antiquities from their land. I assured her that in the Italian penitentiary she would get all the great pizza she'd ever dreamed of.... At length, we convinced the officials that the shards were from Turkey, about which they very little cared, and we were on our way, shards and all, which spent the next decade and more in our storage unit in Missoula.... To be continued...

Alexandria Troas

Most of the ruins one sees are managed, orchestrated, even contrived. They have been gone over, finely, more than once, and then put back together, hopefully with an eye to authenticity and education. Everything you see has been put there by some contemporary of yours. Perhaps that's a cynical view, but, except for the largest items, I don't think it's far off. Every now and then, however, if you have the opportunity, you can see something significant that awaits excavation, or is in the midst of it. At Alexandria/Troas, a late 4th century BCE Hellenistic/Roman town, we had that opportunity and one of the best site visits we have ever had. Of course, part of it is just wandering through the olive groves, spotting something curious in the distance, and then finding it to be really spectacular. It was our last ruins site in Turkey. (I don't count Troy).
Near the agora, in Alexandria Troas; as an under-developed site, undergoing 
excavation, there was no entrance fee, no parking fee, so we spent the night 
there

















In the agora















Temple in the agora















Nicely carved piece















Excavation refuse pile, the small bits (pottery shards)















The medium-sized bits















The large bits















Including these Hellenistic cannon balls















And the extra large bits















Alexandria Troas is noted for having possibly the largest Roman baths complex 
in Anatolia; I saw three sets of these structures around the agora, and concluded 
I had seen the noted baths; but stay tuned...

Friday, November 26, 2010

Backroads of Aegean Turkey

We drove on, looking back to hilltop Assos and its situation
on the sea
















From a high point: much more stone fencing here than we
have seen in Turkey; olive groves everywhere, the whole
population out in the groves for the harvest; I love olives;
they're cheap and delicious here; but seeing the labor-
intensiveness, the back-breaking work, will make me value
each one a little more



















One of a dozen or more stone round-houses we saw, all
bunched together in one little town
















An exceedingly rocky country, but beautiful grasses and
pines and undergrowth everywhere; maybe it was the
Mediterranean/Aegean light, but the greens here were as
verdant and vibrant as any I have seen


















Lunch-time view















The seaside fortress at Babakale, the last Ottoman castle
built
















View from Babakale
















Another
















The Temple of Apollo at Gulpinar; those of you familiar
with the Iliad will recognize this as (a much later version of)
the Apollo temple that figures importantly in Homeric
matters; Agamemnon had to return the daughter of the priest
here, after offending Apollo, and then grabbed Achilles'
trophy-girl, thus inflaming Achilles' rage, of which Homer
sang; much less importantly, it is also a temple to mice (yes,
mice), who figure in the founding of the city in ways too
boring to recount; 2nd century BCE






















More archaeology going on at Gulpinar















Funded by Efes; never forget that Jack Horner's first funder
was Rainier Beer; cheers for Efes
I am going to guess this is where the archaeology students
hang out in the summer-time; more Efes fans

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Assos

After Pergamum we decided to spend a few days doing the coastal backroads of Aegean Turkey, at least up to Troy. Tuesday night found us on a lay-by overlooking Assos (present-day Behramkale), in a bit of a gale. The next morning, as the skies cleared, we visited ancient Assos. It's well off the tour bus circuit, the site was actually closed for the season, but they left the gate open. Assos is important, to me, because Hermias, the 4th century BCE ruler, was a student of Plato, and he invited his schoolmate, Aristotle, to found a school of philosophy at Assos. (Which reminds me: I forgot to mention that the pre-Socratic Heraclitus was a native of Ephesus).
Um, I think this might be a more recent
representation of Aristotle




















Part of the city wall, necropolis, and cliff above Assos,
which evidently provided most of the building material
















A temple in the agora















Baths















Nice view from the residential section; that's Lesbos in the
distance ('distance' being a couple miles)
















Very faint inscription: "Aristotle's
'Peripatetic' School of Philosophy,
Office of Career Placement Services";
actually, all this does not have a happy
ending: the Persians arrived (again) in
348 BCE, Aristotle fled to Lesbos, and
Hermias was tortured to death
























Assos theatre
















Greek theatres were generally placed on a hillside with a
great view (in case the play was boring); this one is hard
to beat

















The seat inscriptions are usually for the stone masons'
guild or the tanners' guild, et al; this one is for the followers
of the Sarapis cult (an Egyptian god)

Pergamum

Pergamum has the usual Hellenistic/Roman pedigree--settled by Aeolians in the 8th century BCE--except that it was a hilltop city, not a port city. The city was quite spread out, including the hilltop main center, the Red Hall and associated structures below it, and the Asclepion on a hillside across the valley. The Asclepion was a sort of Mayo Clinic of later antiquity. The great ancient physician Galen taught and healed there. After touring the Bergama Museum, we drove up to the Asclepion, then decided we were not interested--Vicki was not enthused about drinking from the sacred spring, even using the SteriPen--so we drove back down, through the city, and up to the telepherique that goes to the top of Pergamum. (Ordinary cars can drive, but anything over 2.7m high, including us, is verboten.)
The museum was OK; actually the first one we have seen where the ethnoghraphic 
stuff was better than the archaeological stuff

















The Pergamum telepherique--nicest, most up-to-date I have ridden, period; and I 
have ridden a few in the past year or so
















The most famous parts of Pergamum are its theatre and its Trajan Temple, above; 
1st century
















Trajan Temple complex, different view















Ditto















To me, there was at least one other fascinating aspect of 
Pergamum, namely, how they got the water up there for
100,000+ residents and their baths--240,000 pieces of terra 
cotta pipe spanned 45k to a mountain-top spring, a 
kilometer or more of lead pipe going the last distance from 
the valley, all employing siphon technique; the ditch 
pictured is where the pipes entered the city, at its arsenal



























Pergamum's cliff-hanging Greek theatre, from the vicinity of the Asclepion, 
across the valley
















Function follows form; the hillside did not permit the usual 180+ degree theatre 
form, so the builders made it much steeper and higher; climbing the staircases 
one almost wants to be belayed...

















Looking down on the Altar of Zeus, considered the most magnificent altar of 
antiquity; alas, it was excavated by Germans, who took it all, including the great 
friezes, back to Berlin


















And that's it, at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, which was closed when we were 
there in 2009











Temple of Dionysus, right next to the theatre stage; the stage building was timber, 
fitted into the square supports in a previous picture, and thus temporary, so it 
would not block view of the temple during non-festival times


















So much for the upper city; at this point I began walking down (Vicki stayed in the 
camper this day), first to the middle city, and then through the lower city; this is a
nearly intact mosaic, found only a decade or so ago, in one of the large peristyle 
residences in the middle city; the so-called "Building Z"



















Sanctuary of Demeter















Gymnasium and environs, middle city















At length--all this took 3 hours or so-- I reached the bottom, 
ran out of path, but fortunately got back on the road, thanks to
this hole cut in the barbed-wire fencing that encloses the whole 
site