Cilician Plain Research Articles

The Case of Mleh (1170–1175): Cilician Armenia between Nūr al-Dīn and Manuel I Komnenos

Abstract The present paper discusses the reign of the Rubenid lord of Armenian Cilicia, Mleh (1170–1175), and examines his relations with the two great powers of the period, the Byzantine Empire and the Zengids under Nūr al-Dīn (1146–1174). Through examination of the contemporary sources of the period, the following conclusions may be drawn: Firstly, Manuel (1143–1180) did not send an expeditionary force against Mleh. On the contrary, Mleh faced and defeated the local Byzantine garrisons. Secondly, the Crusaders waged a campaign against Mleh in 1173, which was partially successful as it forced the Rubenid lord to recognize the suzerainty of the king of Jerusalem, albeit temporarily. Thirdly, a consequence of the Crusader success was the Byzantine re-conquest of the cities of the Cilician Plain. Finally, Mleh’s status as a client of Nur al-Din does not relate to his religious identity. The sources make it clear that he remained a Christian.

Characterization of a late bronze age “Kohl Box” from the Cilician Plain using FTIR and GC–MS

The subject of this study is a Late Bronze Age kohl box decorated with zoomorphic motifs recovered from Tepebağ Höyük (Cilician Plain, Turkey) and a quantity of black pigment that remained at the bottom of this box tubes. In ancient times, this kind of black pigments was used for the treatment of eye diseases and to reduce the brightness of the sun by applying it intensively around the eyes, rather than for its aesthetic and ornamental function. According to the spectroscopic results, the analyzed sample contains mostly lead-based minerals, which is mainly galena, a lead sulfide derivative known to be used as a kohl in ancient times. The chromatographic results indicated that there may be decomposed organic residues (ORs) in the sample, which may be from oil or fat. When the archaeological and archaeometric data are interpreted together, it is concluded that the powder compound within the sample, in accordance with the existing literature, is kohl and thus, the artifact may be a kohl box imported from Egypt.

On the Classification of Ancient Greek Toponyms (based on the Material of Ancient Toponyms of the Cilician Plain)

The article is devoted to the methods of classification of ancient toponyms from the point of view of their external and internal structure. The first paragraph of the article gives a brief outline of the history of the issue. Despite the generally large number of works devoted to individual problems of ancient Greek toponymy or individual toponyms, only a few works in both domestic and foreign scientific historiography are devoted to the study of ancient Greek toponymy as a system from a philological point of view. The object of research in this article is the problems of creating a common word-formation-semantic classification of ancient Greek geographical names as a whole. The subject of the study is the ancient toponyms of the Cilician plain (Greek. Κιλικία πεδιάς) – low plains in the south of modern Turkey. Among the toponyms of Plain Cilicia, geographical names of ancient Greek and Latin origin (24 ancient Greek and 5 Latin names) were selected and analyzed for morphological structure and semantic features. Special attention is paid to the problems of etymologization of toponyms and the indication of centuries of fixation. The classification of ancient Greek toponyms, proposed in a 1965 article by the Swiss Hellenist Ernst Risch, is taken as a basis. The results of the study are presented in a table reflecting the four main word-formation types of ancient Greek toponyms in diachrony.

Факторы идентичности и конфликты самоопределения в войнах Антиохии и Армении

Аннотация Статья рассматривает ряд определяющих факторов, связанных с войнами Антиохии-Армении, т.е. с циклом военных столкновений между княжеством Антиохийским и королевством Армения. Этот цикл войн, протекавших с небольшими перерывами в период между 1185 и 1226 годами, обескровил христианские государства северного Леванта, и по праву может считаться одним из наиболее интенсивных и сложных конфликтов эпохи крестовых походов. Исходными факторами в продолжающихся конфликтах служило стремление франкских князей Антиохии восстановить свое господство над давно утраченными территориями Киликийской Равнины и прямо противоречившее этому стремление гораздо более сильной стороны – армянского «властителя гор», а позднее первого короля Армении – к утверждению своего господства над Антиохией. Цикл войн Антиохии-Армении самым парадоксальным образом разделил жителей Киликии и северной Сирии. Abstract The article examines a series of factors, connected to the Antioch-Armenia wars, in other words — the cycle of military conflicts between the Crusader Principality of Antioch and the Kingdom of Armenia. This cycle of wars, which raged — with brief interludes — between 1185 and 1226, bled-dry the Christian states of the northern Levant, and can be rightfully called one of the most intense and complex conflicts of the Crusades. There were two motives for the continuing wars: the ambition of the Princes of Antioch to reclaim their rule over the longlost Cilician Plain, and the opposing desire of the far stronger ruler — the Armenian “Lord of the Mountains” and later on — the King of Armenia — to assert his authority over Antioch. The cycle of the Antioch-Armenia wars divided the inhabitants of Cilicia and northern Syria in the most paradoxical ways. The “Crusader” ruler of the Principality of Antioch and the County of Tripoli — Bohemond IV — completely ignored the demands and interdicts of the Roman pontiff, literally murdered (or rather — ‘condemned’ to slow and painful death) the Latin Patriarch, restored a Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Antioch (from which — for about 2 years — he and his nobles accepted the sacraments), along with the Muslim rulers of Syria and Anatolia he continuously raided the Christian lands and settlements of the Kingdom of Armenia… Nevertheless, this excommunicated ruler was supported not only by the Latin population (including a significant part of the nobility) of Syria, but also by the Knights Templar. Bohemond IV’s main rival — King Leo (Levon) I the Great — proved to be an equally complex statesmen, willing to renounce the religious and social ties traditional for the medieval world in order to secure the desired political alliances and to promulgate his own aims. To secure the recognition of his state and regnal title he forced the Armenian Church to accept the Union with Rome (even though the Armenians did have a plethora of the Union’s proponents, including the great theologian — the Armenian Archbishop of Tarsus St. Nerses of Lampron). In his war for Antioch he secured the support of the Knights Hospitaliers and a major part of the Frankish nobility of Antioch. Yet he proved equally acute to the ethno-religious balance in Antioch: if initially (in 1193) he tried to take Antioch used the forces of the fervent Armenian Miaphysite Hethum of Sasoun, later on the first Rex Armeniae entrusted the war for with the predominantly Greek Orthodox city and Principality to a Chalcedonian Armenian (Greek Orthodox) baron — Adam of Baghras.In his attempts to secure the sympathies of northern Syria’s population, King Leo I welcomed the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch in his kingdom and handed over to him a significant part of ecclesiastic properties, confiscated from the Latin Church. This step, naturally, ensured a papal excommunication for the newly-enthroned ‘Catholic’ king. But even after a formal excommunication from the Roman Church, Leo I continued to enjoy the support of two Catholic military orders — the Hospitaliers and the Teutonic Knights. Also, this monarch — whom later-day Armenian historiography viewed as a hero of Armenian nationalism — left his kingdom to a regent who was an adherent of the “Greek faith”, and a suitor for his young daughter — whom — in any scenario would be a Latin. Obviously, the article examines not only the motivation of the heads of state, but also of social, regional and ethno-religious communities that made this series of wars and a radical deconstruction of medieval norms and alliances possible. The author also examines the traditional chronology of this war cycle, especially the campaigns of the so-called War for the Antiochian Succession.

The ethnical history of Kizzuwatna: an onomastic approach

The mixed nature of Kizzuwatna’s population is widely accepted by the scholars, considering the Hurrians and the Luwians its main components. Which of these peoples came to the Cilician plain earlier than another one, is the subject of the discussion between archaeologists and linguists. In the course of this discussion, the onomastic and toponymical data were underestimated and became the subject of my investigation.The onomastic data collected from the historical and ritual texts coming from Kizzuwatna, seals and sealings discovered or bought at the Cilician plain give us a collection of proper names dating to Middle Hittite, New Hittite and Late New Hittite periods. Their distribution by language and period gives us the picture of the Hurrian domination in the Middle Hittite period. By the Late New Hittite period the Luwian names became prevailing. This trend supports the scenario of the Hurrian earlier arrival. Both Hittite and Luwian presence in the Middle Hittite period should reflect the traces of the first conquest of Kizzuwatna by the Old Hittite kingdom, and the Luwian influence increased after the second conquest of Kizzuwatna by the New Hittite kingdom. The geographical distribution between Luwian West and Hurrian East should be further investigated on the ground of the place names of the Cilician plain through ages.

Clay Figurines from Sirkeli Höyük

Sirkeli Höyük is a settlement mound in the cilician plain near Adana, Turkey. It was first excavated in the 1930s by John Garstang. Work there was resumed in the 1990s by Barthel Hrouda and Horst Ehringhaus, and then again from 2006 until the present day; initially by the Universities of Tübingen and Çanakkale and subsequently (2011 onwards) by the Universities of Bern and Çanakkale. My Master’s thesis focused on the terracotta figurines unearthed during the excavations from 1992 onwards. Its aim was to construct a classification for the material from Sirkeli Höyük, which I documented, classified and catalogued according to their shape. I did not create a completely new classification, but rather tried to build on work form A. Pruss and H. Goldmann, who’s approaches I adapted to suit the material from Sirkeli Höyük. The terracotta figurines found to date span the following epochs: the Hellenistic period, the Iron Age, the Late Bronze Age, and the Middle Bronze Age. The first aim of my PhD is to construct a working typology for these terracotta figurines by clearly defining the criteria of each of the different types. In a second phase I intend to elaborate my existing comparison of the material from Sirkeli Höyük and figurines from other excavations in the cicilian plain, to document their geographical distribution and diversity. The final phase will be an evaluation of the temporal dispersion of differing styles with a view to determining the extent of any extra-regional influences.

Siedlungskammer Kilikien

AbstractAn essential aspect of understanding past human activity is knowledge about the natural environment. Like almost no other landscape in Asia Minor, the Cilician Plain is defined by strong topographic contrasts: a large fertile plain surrounded by the sea and steep mountain ranges. The Cilician Plain is separated by a natural border into a western (Çukurova) and an eastern (Yukarıova) settlement cluster. All central places in the Çukurova have been located over the millennia at the foothills of the mountains. By contrast, the central places in the Yukarıova were less constant. The avulsion of the rivers can be seen as a reason for this development. However, there also exists for the construction of main Late Bronze and Iron Age monuments in the Cilician Plain a correlation with rivers and channels.

Tarsus-Gözlüküle Höyüğü Geç Tunç IIB Katmanında Rastlanan Seramik Devamlılıkları

The period extending from the end of the Bronze to the Iron Age is one of the most discussed in the East Mediterranean, marked by the collapse of re­gional powers, a shift from urban and centralized or­gan­i­za­tion to a more rural one, migrations, and an over­all heterogeneity in material culture. However, in the last three decades many new excavations in the region and the re-evaluation of past excavations has confirmed that the narrative of this period is more nuanced. This article investigates the local pottery tradi­tion of Tarsus-Gozlukule in the Cilician Plain during the Late Bronze Age IIb Period. This settlement is at an important cross-roads linking the Syro-Anato­lian world with Central Anatolia and to maritime trade routes opening into the Mediterranean. Both continui­ties and divergences from the earlier Late Bronze Age pottery traditions of this settlement are studied, with the aim of understanding the reconfigura­tions of various networks during this period, tumultu­ous for the entire eastern Mediterra­nean region. The results indicate that this is a period of both instability and continuity eventu­ally taking the different regions in their distinc­tive trajectories, each determined by a wide variety of var­ia­bles, the combina­tion of these variables being specific to each region.

Two new inscribed Storm-god stelae from Arsuz (İskenderun): ARSUZ 1 and 2

AbstractIn 2007 two stelae, each bearing figures of the Storm-god leading a ruler and a duplicate Hieroglyphic Luwian text, were discovered at Uluçınar (formerly Arsuz), on the Turkish coast south of Iskenderun. The inscription is the work of a Suppiluliuma, son of Manana, king of the land of Walastin, now understood as the Luwian designation of the Amuq plain with its capital at the Iron Age site of Tell Tayinat. The stelae, probably dating to the later tenth century BC, record the successful reign of the ruler and his happy relations with the Storm-god. Historically important is a passage which describes this Amuq king's victory over the Cilician plain, the city of Adana and the land of Hiyawa.

Evaluating the Quality and Accuracy of TanDEM-X Digital Elevation Models at Archaeological Sites in the Cilician Plain, Turkey

Satellite remote sensing provides a powerful instrument for mapping and monitoring traces of historical settlements and infrastructure, not only in distant areas and crisis regions. It helps archaeologists to embed their findings from field surveys into the broader context of the landscape. With the start of the TanDEM-X mission, spatially explicit 3D-information is available to researchers at an unprecedented resolution worldwide. We examined different experimental TanDEM-X digital elevation models (DEM) that were processed from two different imaging modes (Stripmap/High Resolution Spotlight) using the operational alternating bistatic acquisition mode. The quality and accuracy of the experimental DEM products was compared to other available DEM products and a high precision archaeological field survey. The results indicate the potential of TanDEM-X Stripmap (SM) data for mapping surface elements at regional scale. For the alluvial plain of Cilicia, a suspected palaeochannel could be reconstructed. At the local scale, DEM products from TanDEM-X High Resolution Spotlight (HS) mode were processed at 2 m spatial resolution using a merge of two monostatic/bistatic interferograms. The absolute and relative vertical accuracy of the outcome meet the specification of high resolution elevation data (HRE) standards from the National System for Geospatial Intelligence (NSG) at the HRE20 level.

A Tale of Two Potting Traditions: Technological Assessment of the Light Clay and the Red Gritty Ware Types at Tarsus-Gözlükule (Cilicia-Turkey) at the Beginning of the Third Millennium B.C.

The mound of Tarsus-Gozlukule is located in the Cilician Plain in southern Turkey at the crossroads of important trade routes tying the central Anatolian Plateau to the Mediterranean and Syro-Anatolian worlds. This paper presents a technological assessment of two different pottery production processes at Tarsus-Gozlukule during the Early Bronze Age-namely, the Light Clay and the Red Gritty Ware types. The Red Gritty Ware appears abruptly at the beginning of the Early Bronze Age, reaches high levels of distribution within the settlement, and remains a distinct production process from the other dominant ware type, the Light Clay Ware, for the duration of the third millennium B.c. Mineralogical, morphological, and chemical analyses from selected Early Bronze Age pottery samples are incorporated into more traditional stylistic analysis to define the technological framework of each production process and to investigate their interaction with the economic and social structures.

The Byzantine conquest of Cilicia and the Hamdanids of Aleppo, 959–965

AbstractBetween 959 and 965, Byzantine forces, directed and most often led by Nikephoros Phokas, launched a series of successful campaigns of conquest, particularly in the east. Although little studied, these conquests are significant. The subject of this article, the conquest of the Cilician plain in 965, represents the culmination of a century of Byzantine pressure on the Arab border states, of which Tarsos was the last. Simultaneously, the elimination of the Hamdanid emirate of Aleppo as a threat to the Empire helped to lay the groundwork for further successes in Syria after 965. It is the contention of this article that these objectives were intertwined and that Nikephoros Phokas followed a concerted and structured strategy through this period, aimed primarily at the conquest of Cilicia. Other objectives, though dramatic, should thus be seen as subordinate to this underlying objective.

The Alacami in Kadirli: Transformations of a Sacred Monument

Situated on the outskirts of the modern town of Kadirli is the best preserved late Roman church in eastern Cilicia. Its characteristics of design and construction are of pivotal significance for addressing the development of early Christian architecture in the region, as it represents the archetype of a definable group of churches in the upper Cilician plain, which link the building traditions of Syria with those of Anatolia and the southern shores. As it stands today, this structure known as the Alacami displays over a millennium and a half of local history, the liturgy of three different faiths and even more transitional building phases. In 1949 a full measured survey of the building was conducted by Michael and Mary Gough who in the same year were working at nearby Anazarbus. The results were never published and remained lost until 1994 when work commenced on cataloguing the Gough archive. The following study presents the full details of the Gough's survey for the first time and provides a detailed discussion of the monument in context, charting its development from the Roman period to the present day.

The Stamp Seals from Tell esh Sheikh

The site of Tell esh Sheikh was excavated in 1947 and 1948 as part of the British project at Alalakh-Tell Atchana in the Amuq plain. It is located two miles west of Tell Tayinat, which adjoins Alalakh, with the mound of Tabara al Akrad one and a half miles east. Other sites on the eastern edge of the plain include Çatal Höyük and Judeidah. Woolley discusses Tell esh Sheikh in the reports of excavations at Alalakh. The seals are described most fully by Buchanan, based on information and sketches supplied to him by the excavators. The present study reflects research done in the Antakya Museum and references to its inventory books. As stated by Buchanan, the seals are distributed over seven levels at the site and include a number of gables made of bone. Further information regarding archaeological context is lacking, according to David French, who is reviewing documentation and finds for the forthcoming publication of the Tell esh Sheikh excavation.An investigation of seals and sealings at such sites as Norşuntepe and Değirmentepe in eastern Anatolia, and Tepe Gawra in northern Mesopotamia, has provided close parallels for materials, shapes, motifs and styles found in the Tell esh Sheikh seal corpus. Such associations in part confirm results of pottery analysis but also raise questions about the correlation of pottery and seal chronology, and about relations between sites on the Cilician plain and regions closer to the resource-rich areas in the northeast. A review of findings follows below.

Bandit Highlands and Lowland Peace: the Mountains of Isauria-Cilicia

breakdown of provinces subdivided the Cilician Plain, but left mountainous Isauria as a single unit 104). The geographical base for control of the mountains, however, was still a plain; the new provincial centre was Seleukia on the Kalykadnos, the river valley forming the major 'internal plain' of the southern Taurus. The military situation reflected in the Notitza Dzgnztatum emphasizes the continued peculiarity of Isauria as a province; unlike elsewhere, there was no separation of the civil and military commands 15). The same document reveals the continued inadequacy military resources-two legions (Legzones II and III Isaura) and some auxiliary troops, perhaps

Three Cilician Castles

The 1962 Cambridge Expedition to South-East Turkey spent five weeks in Cilicia studying the castles of Tumlu, Gökvelioğlu, and Yılan. No member of the expedition had any previous experience of this work and this report is therefore confined to facts: descriptions, measurements, plans and photographs. It is hoped that this material may help others, more experienced than ourselves, to make wider generalisations and perhaps to write the architectural history of the buildings.The castles probably date from the period of the Armenian occupation of Cilicia (1080–1375) during which time numerous castles were constructed and existing Byzantine foundations were strengthened. The castles were frequently built upon precipitous mountain sites and conformed with the sinuosities of the rock, thus making the best of the natural strength of the site. The kingdom of Lesser Armenia was centred chiefly on the Cilician plain and surrounding mountains (Fig. 1).

The Castle of Vahga

The castle of Feke, formerly known as Vahga, stands at a height of 1,250 m., less than 10 km. NE. of the modern town of the same name, and about 60 km. NNE. of Kozan. The site is a prominent rock outcrop overlooking the right-hand bank of a principal tributary of the River Seyhan, the Gök Su, whose valley here carries one of the lesser passes of the Anti-Taurus range southwards into Cilicia.The castle played an important part in the establishment of the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia. The fortress appears to have been among the first to fall into Armenian hands, Constantine, son of Roupen, capturing the castle from its Byzantine garrison by a stratagem during the last decade of the 11th century, at a time when the Armenian princes were consolidating their positions in the mountain passes of the Taurus and Anti-Taurus preparatory to their descent upon the Cilician plain.

Recent discoveries in Eastern Cilicia

Hearing of extensive and unidentified ruins on the banks of the river Jeihan (the ancient Pyramus) at a spot now called Bodroum to the east of the Cilician plain, just as the river enters the plain from the gorges of the Anti-Taurus, we determined to visit the site. The result of our explorations, made in the early months of this year, are as follows.Our route took us past the rock of Anazarba and Kars Bazaar, at which places we decided to spend a few days, and though the spots have both been previously described we were able to add a few points to the information concerning them, both epigraphical and topographical.Anazarba.—Caesarea penes Anazarbum, as Ptolemy calls it, was second only in importance to Tarsus of the cities of Cilicia during the days of imperial Rome, and was the metropolis of the eastern portion of the great plain. The town was built at the foot of a long rocky mountain, rising like an island out of the plain for the extent of three miles and attaining an altitude of 2,000 feet. The walls as they at present stand are of Armenian and Saracenic construction, enclosing a parallelogram, one side of which is protected by the mountain; but they contain many portions of Roman work, notably the great southern gate formed by a triumphal arch erected in the time of Justinian, when that emperor restored the town after it had been ruined by an earthquake.