HELLENISTIC SETTLEMENT IN SMOOTH CILICIA

199 Pages·2016·21.5 MB·English

HELLENISTIC SETTLEMENT IN SMOOTH CILICIA (CILICIA PEDIAS)

A Master’s Thesis

by
SELİM YILDIZ

Department of Archaeology
İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University
Ankara
June 2016

To my family
HELLENISTIC SETTLEMENT IN SMOOTH CILICIA (CILICIA PEDIAS)

The Graduate School of Economics and Social Sciences
of
İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University

by

SELİM YILDIZ

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree
of
MASTER OF ARTS

THE DEPARTMENT OF
ARCHAEOLOGY
İHSAN DOĞRAMACI BİLKENT UNIVERSITY

June 2016
I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in
scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts in the
Department of Archaeology.
~~
Asst. Prof. Dr. Charles Warner Gates
Supervisor
I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in
scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts in the
Department of Archaeology.
Examining Committee Member
I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in
scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts in the
Department of Archaeology.
~ _M __
Prof. Dr. Deniz ~=~j/ciyas
Examining Committee Member
Approval of the Institute of Economics and Social Sciences
-__ · ~ -----------
H~li~l
r. Demirkan
ABSTRACT

HELLENISTIC SETTLEMENT IN SMOOTH CILICIA (CILICIA PEDIAS)

Yıldız, Selim
M.A., Department of Archaeology
Supervisor: Asst. Prof. Dr. Charles Warner Gates

June 2016

This thesis investigates the nature of the Hellenistic settlements in Smooth Cilicia
from the perspective of five multi-period sites that give clear, stratified evidence for
architecture and other aspects of material culture. Before the 1990s, such a study
would have been impossible. The only excavation project in the region that could
have contributed evidence was Tarsus. Otherwise, the Hellenistic period was known
only from textual records and some surveys. Now, thanks to excavations at Soli-
Pompeiopolis, Sirkeli Höyük, Tatarlı Höyük, and Kinet Höyük, in addition to those
at Tarsus, sufficient data for examining the nature of Hellenistic settlements is
available. This thesis first examines historical events and geographical features that
might have effects on settlements. The main focus, however, is the architecture, its
development through the Hellenistic centuries, and the ceramics and other cultural
material recovered from stratified deposits. The data used in this study mainly comes
from the excavation reports, which are either detailed, as for Tarsus, or, as for the
recent excavation projects, short and preliminary. This thesis concludes that the
Hellenistic period in the multi-period settlements of Smooth Cilicia was
characterized by small towns with simple buildings in contrast with those yielding
monumental and impressive structures in Greece, Western Anatolia, or Egypt.
Occupation at these sites, except at Tarsus-Gözlükule, had been continuous from the

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previous Persian period. In the Roman era, most of these settlements were
abandoned, to be reestablished at new locations nearby with monumental and
impressive structures.
Keywords: Hellenistic Cilicia, Kinet Höyük (Issus), Sirkeli Höyük, Soli-
Pompeiopolis, Tarsus-Gözlükule.

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ÖZET
OVALIK KİLİKYA’DA (KİLİKYA PEDİAS) HELENİSTİK YERLEŞİM
Yıldız, Selim
Yüksek Lisans, Arkeoloji Bölümü
Tez Yöneticisi: Yrd. Doç. Dr. Charles Warner Gates
Haziran 2016
Bu tez Ovalık Kilikya’daki Helenistik Dönem yerleşimlerinin doğasını, mimari ve
malzeme kültürünün diğer yönleri için açık, tabakalaşmış kanıt veren çoklu-dönem
(höyük) yerleşimleri perspektifinden inceler. 1990’lardan önce, böyle bir çalışma
yapmak imkânsız olabilirdi. Bölgede, kanıt sunabilecek tek kazı projesi Tarsus idi.
Bunun dışında, Helenistik Dönem sadece yazılı kaynaklardan ve yüzey
araştırmalarından bilinmekteydi. Günümüzde, Tarsus’takilere ek olarak, Soli-
Pompeiopolis, Sirkeli Höyük, Tatarlı Höyük ve Kinet Höyük’te yapılan kazılar
sayesinde, Helenistik yerleşimlerin doğasını incelemek için yeterli veri mevcuttur.
Bu tez, öncelikle, yerleşmeler üzerinde etkileri olabilecek olan tarihi olayları ve
coğrafik özellikleri inceler. Bununla birlikte, tezin odak noktası, mimari ve
mimarinin Helenistik asırlar boyunca gelişimi ve seramikler ile tabakalaşmış
kontekstlerden gelen diğer kültürel malzemelerdir. Bu çalışmada kullanılan veriler
genellikle, ya Tarsus’unki gibi detaylı olan ya da günümüz kazı projelerininki gibi
kısa ve ilk değerlendirme niteliğindeki kazı raporlarından gelir. Bu tez, Ovalık
Kilikya’nın çoklu-dönem (höyük) yerleşimlerindeki Helenistik Dönem’in,
Yunanistan, Batı Anadolu veya Mısır’daki anıtsal ve etkileyici yapılar verenlerin
aksine, basit yapılardan oluşan küçük kasabalarla karakterize olduğu sonucuna varır.
Tarsus-Gözlükule dışında, bu yerleşmelerdeki iskân, bir önceki Pers Dönemi’nden
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devam etmekteydi. Roma Dönemi’nde, bu yerleşmelerin çoğu, yakılanlardaki başka
yerlerde anıtsal ve etkileyici yapılarla yeniden kurulmak üzere terk edildiler.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Helenistik Kilikya, Kinet Höyük (Issus), Sirkeli Höyük, Soli-
Pompeiopolis, Tarsus-Gözlükule.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Dr. Charles W. Gates, for
his great encouragement and valuable guidance throughout this thesis. I am also
appreciative of my examining committee members Assoc. Prof. Dr. Julian Bennett
and Prof. Dr. D. Burcu Erciyas for their helpful comments and insightful questions. I
also would like to thank Dr. Jacques Morin for teaching me Ancient Greek and
commenting on my thesis.
I am grateful to the rest of the faculty in the Bilkent Archaeology Department, for
creating an intellectual environment and providing me with scholarships to conduct
my research projects. In particular, I am deeply indebted to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Marie-
Henriette Gates, for her patience and guidance to find my way, even if I came up
with ridiculous questions.
I would like to thank my excavation directors Prof. Dr. Mirko Novák and Assoc.
Prof. Dr. Ekin Kozal for giving me the opportunity to work on the Hellenistic Period
of Sirkeli Höyük which led me to write this thesis on this topic. I am grateful to Dr.
Alexander Ahrens, my pal, bearing with me the hell-like heat of Adana in the
trenches for years and commenting on the Sirkeli section of my thesis. I would like
to thank Dr. Susanne Rutishauser for sending me her PhD thesis and helping me with
maps. I also owe thanks to Dr. Natascha Kreutz and Dr. Peter Stone for helping me
with the dating and the terminology of the Hellenistic pottery. I would like to express
my appreciation to my friends in Sirkeli, Jonathan Gerber, the IT guru, and Nicole
Gäumann.
My special thanks go to Sevilay Zeynep Hacıbekiroğulları for her support, who has
been and shall always be my best friend. There are no words to express my gratitude
to my family who has consistently trusted and supported me in whatever I do.
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