THE HARBOUR OF THEODOSIUS

Yenikapı, Fatih - İstanbul - Turkey

GPS : 41°00'20.1"N 28°56'52.3"E / 41.005590, 28.947866



PHOTOGRAPHS ALBUM

The harbor was built in the late 4th century during the reign of Theodosius I, and was the city's major point of trade in Late Antiquity. The area was later transformed for agricultural use due to the effects of erosion and silting. In Ottoman times, the area was built over. The Harbor of Eleutherios later known as the Harbor of Theodosius was one of the ports of ancient Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, located beneath the modern Yenikapi neighbourhood of Istanbul, Turkey.

The Harbor of Theodosius in Istanbul dates back to the period of 4th century A.D. It was unearthed in Yenikapi in Istanbul. Various works of excavation in Yenikapi, Sirkeci and Uskudar count among the splendor remains of archaeology belonging to the periods ranging from Ottoman, Roman, Byzantine, Ancient Greek and Neolithic times. Istanbul, which happens to be capital of these two empires for several centuries has been successfully preserving its importance in all the periods of history till now.

The Harbor of Theodosius, which is regarded to be the most prominent harbor of the Byzantine era, is the result of these archaeological excavations. This harbor was unearthed in Yenikapi (‘Vlanga’ in the Ottoman times). The district of Yenikapi was known to be the fruit and vegetable garden of Istanbul. it has also become known by reading the notes of the travelers visiting Istanbul during the mid-16th century that the Harbor of Theodosius, built during the 4th century and used till 7th century was used as a truck garden after it silted up and became a part of the mainland.

Although the location of this harbor of Istanbul, namely, the Theodosius’ harbor was known from the maps in the ancient times, however, there was no knowledge about its exact size, position and the layout of this harbor which played an important role in the economy of the Byzantine period.

Founded on the crossroads between the Balkans and Anatolia and the pathway extending from the Aegean right up to the Black Sea, Byzantion’s location was a great contributor to the development of the city, so mush so that it dominated various commercial routes. To meet the growing needs of the expanding capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, Theodosius I commissioned the construction of the Theodosius Harbor between 379-395 A.D. so, a breakwater extending from east to west along the south way of a natural bay was built for creating this harbor.

And a large tower that stood at the far end for keeping a guard on the entrance of the harbor was among several other structures and silos for keeping the grain brought by big ships from Alexandria and neighboring ports that stood around the harbor. Sources claim that the Alexandria silo was the only silo of the city that was in wide use during the 10th century when this harbor silted up.

In the year 2004, the Istanbul Archaeological Museums undertook the work of archaeological excavations around the terminals before proceeding with the digging work for the Marmaray and the Metro construction. These excavations which are being carried out by the efforts of dig teams have unearthed several cultural treasures of historical importance for Istanbul.

In November 2005, workers on the Bosphorus Tunnel Project discovered the silted-up remains of the harbour. Excavations produced evidence of the 4th-century Port of Theodosius. There, archaeologists uncovered traces of the city wall of Constantine the Great, and the remains of over 35 Byzantine ships from the 7th to 10th centuries, including several Byzantine galleys, remains of which had never before been fou.nd.

During the archaeological excavation undertaken in the harbor, 34 ships were excavated out of which 21 were in the Metro while 13 were in the Marmaray excavations. Once again, this harbor silted up from the alluvion brought by the waters of the Lycos (Bayrampaşa) River which emptied in the natural bay. Apart from the alluvion, the built of enormous silt was also the result of the construction and farming carried out in the city.

From the excavations, it came to the notice that the majority of the shipwrecks in the Theodosius Harbor are at the eastern side nearing the entrance of the harbor. While the harbor was thought to have been silted up from the western end towards the east, the eastern end continued to be in wide use till a natural calamity that took place in the 10th or the beginning of the 11th century rendered extensive damage to the ships there.

The YK 1 ship that carried amphorae from the Marmara Island and was anchored here was claimed by the excavations to have been sunk. The YK 12 was another shipwreck that was found in the excavations in the area of the harbor. Several fragments of amphorae along with 16 intact amphorae were found on this YK 12. Although, at present, the exact cause of the disaster that struck these ships cannot be found, however, the assumption is some natural disaster or tragedy including tsunami or a storm might be the possible reason behind the cause of the disaster to these ships.

The history of Istanbul has got some very crucial data from the architectural remains recovered to the western side of the Yenikapi excavation area in the work being carried out in the 3rd and 2nd Zone towards the east. A quay consisting of stone blocks of rectangular shape has been found at the western edge within the breakwater.

The excavations in the Metro area uncovered a church building that was believed to be built in the 13th century A.D. when large amount of silt was piling up in the harbor. And around this church building were found twenty-three graves. The excavations also unearthed a gold coin belonging to the time of Justinian the Great (527-565 A.D.).

In the Yenikapi excavations being carried out under the Marmaray and Metro Project, nearly 25,000 artifacts have been unearthed so far. And the most distinguishing factor or such findings happens to be the vital information provided by them regarding day-to-day life, economy, trade, culture and religious aspects of the period to which they belong.

Some of the findings uncovered during the excavations include hawsers of the sunken ships, inscribed image of a ship on an amphora that belongs to the 10th century, iron and stone anchors and baked clay tablets with names, place of origin of the owners of the ship inscribed on them. All such findings also provide important information regarding the types of ships and the shipping during the period.

Apart from the above named findings, there are nearly 2,500 items made of wood including combs, different varieties of spoons, bath clogs etc. that have been found by the excavation work. Also, a Christ figure, tools of bone and ivory, a bronze balance, bronze weights, lead tablets and a scale weight in the form of Athena’s bust throw light on the lifestyle of the period they belong.

Under the Marmaray Project, the archaeological works being carried out in the eastern and the western shafts and in the south and the north entrance areas of the Rail Station in Sirkeci provide an excellent opportunity for knowing the stratigraphy of the city of Istanbul. In such excavation works, several structural remains that belong to the period ranging from the Early Byzantine to the Byzantine and even the Late Ottoman times along with a considerable number of small items and pottery have been found. These relate important details about the different aspects of the life of these periods.

LOCATION SATELLITE MAP



These scripts and photographs are registered under © Copyright 2017, respected writers and photographers from the internet. All Rights Reserved.

MAGNAURA PALACE

Cankurtaran, Fatih - Istanbul - Turkey

GPS : 41°00'20.6"N 28°58'50.0"E / 41.005722, 28.980556



PHOTOGRAPHS ALBUM

It is recorded that in the year 425 of the Common Era era, by decree of the Byzantine emperor Theodosius II, a secular institution of higher learning was established in Istanbul, then known as Costantinopolis. Assembling the various branches of human inquiry under the roof of the so-called Magnaura Palace, this institution can be considered a very early type of university; indeed, in a history of universities, it appears on top of the list as being the oldest university in Europe with names such as University of Costantinopolis, or the Magnaura Palace University or, in Greek, "Pandidakterion tes Magnauras".

The name Magnaura is derived from the Latin phrase Magna Aula meaning a hall capable of containing large number of people, where official ceremonies, meetings are held. In our day, in those Italian universities dating from the Middle Ages, the graduation ceremony still takes place with the presence of "Il Magnifico Rettore" (the magnificent rector), in the prestigious Aula Magna in Italian the two words are placed in reverse order and pronounced as aula manya.

The Aula Magna designed by R. Erskine in 1997 for the Frescati Campus of the Stockholm University, making an honourable contribution to modern architecture, is a stucture which offers glass transparency to the surrounding old trees, its central idea being based on the classical amphiteater; the building is open to all kinds of cultural activities worthy of the University's high standard.

Following the closure in Athens of the Plato Academy in 529, the noble task of preserving the written heritage of the classical cultures was passed on to Costantinopolis, namely our city of Istanbul. In order to transmit this past knowledge to future generations, monks in the monasteries were working hard in the "Scriptorium" (‘writing-area') copying manuscripts under the watchful eye of the "Armarius" (‘head monk').

In the renowned monastery of Studion, close to Yedikule district and to the Marmara sea, for example, a group of monks slept while another group without interval continued copying and multiplying ancient manuscripts (this Monastery was also known as that of "Akoimetoi", i.e. ‘Non-Sleepers'). Scholars are telling us that books copied in the monasteries were generally related or limited to theological matters; whereas books of any kind, whether commissioned by the emperor or by the many urban benefactors (maecenas) were copied by the individual scribes and in workshops. It was thanks to such people curious about ancient lore that the city must have gained a paradise-like atmosphere for books.

The higher learning institute, pride of the Islamic world, Beytü'l-Hikme, established in Baghdat under al-Ma'mun (813-835), took the initiative to send envoys to Costantinopolis to obtain books specifically of Plato and Aristotle, which they planned to translate into the Arabic language. Again, such active interest in the intellectual accumulation of the past must be viewed within the context of valuing it and trying to incorporate it to new life.

The Costantinopolis University at Magnaura was restructured by the regent Bardas during the reign of emperor Michael III (842-867). Classes were offered through 31 chairs: 15 in Latin, 16 in Greek. Here, Platonism and Aristotelism were earnestly studied and discussed, and the two traditions thus constantly kept alive.

The functionining of the University lasted until the 15th century; however, after the Latin invasion in 1204, it appears to have lost its secular character which it had maintained since antiquity, entering gradually under the influence of the Church. In a last ditch of effort Manuel Paleolog (1391-1425) was able to establish an institution of higher learning which gained fame for its schools of grammar and Aristotelian philosophy.

Two eminent persons of culture acted as directors of this "Mouseion" covering many fields of study. One was G. Scholarios, respected Aristotelian, who became the first patriarch after the city was taken by the Turks; the other was G. Argyropoulos, more inclined to get closer to the Catholic Church in Rome. This last scholar, in fact, emigrated to Florence where he taught Aristotelian logic.

No wonder, Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, later Pope Pius II - himself a very learned individual - impressed by these " illustrissimi viri bizantini " once exclaimed: "anyone who did not possess Constantinopolitan education, could not consider himself thoroughly cultivated !"

It would be appropriate to remind the reader that at the early stages of organized higher education the 'university' as such was not identified with that term. The use of "universitas", came about first in Bologna where it was written down in the statute of the "Universitas Studiorum Bolognensis", established in 1088 (for this very reason some consider the University of Bologna as the oldest one in Europe). Furthermore, in Medieval Latin "universitas" did not carry a reference to an institution of learning of universal breadth; rather, it had a legal meaning.

Infact, at Bologna groups of students belonging to various fields of study (studium) went after teachers and together with them and other officials, including the rector, formed a larger community which operated in a given place, and, developing programs, according to rules and regulations, offered diplomas and rights to obtain them; such community incorporation of all parties was called "universitas".

The great reception hall at Magnaura kept also in it treasures which marvelled ambassadors, foreign or local visitors. Bishop Liutprand of Cremona visited it in the 10th century and in his description he tells that the huge throne was sided as sentinels by two gilded lions roaring frighteningly with open mouth, and every now and then beating the ground with their tail. Suddenly the throne started rising in the air all by itself. He noticed also, nearby, man made birds singing merrily on the branches of a golden tree.

Such fantastic mechanisms moving by themselves (automata) were seen in some palaces of the Islamic world too, especially those in Baghdad. It is understood from sources that during the reign of the emperor Theophilos (813-842), a lover of magnificence, gifts were exchanged between Byzantium and Baghdad. Could it ever be that this precious tree with birds of artifice singing on its branches was a gift from Baghdad?

To be blunt, this spot is not for the faint-hearted. Entering the garden behind Nakkaş Halı shop and Palatium café, you will see an area paved with glass, two metal staircases leading down on either side. Follow the staircase on the right: a full 10 meters below ground level, a brick wall holds a small door that opens into mysterious shadows. If you’re feeling nervous, the owner’s sign might not reassure you: “Dear Guests, While you are visiting this facilities our Company is not Responsible from any injury, Accident and Lost Items.” Luckily, our intrepid writer has explored and lived to tell the tale.

Through the doorway, you will find a brick chamber with high arches and beehive-like domes, as well as doors leading into further darkness. The structure’s ragged condition adds to the feeling of a lost civilization, concealed for thousands of years – no one knows what further excavation might uncover. When Fatih Sultan Mehmet took Constantinople in 1453, he is rumored to have quoted the Persian poet Ferdowsi: “The spider spins his web in the Palace of the Caesars.” Magnaura is a reminder that all empires, no matter how glorious, will be covered by the sands of time. Magnaura Palace is close to the Hagia Sophia, right beside the Four Seasons Hotel. Entrance is free, and you can visit any time from 11 am to 1 am.

A cement staircase in the courtyard of Asia Minor Carpet Shop on Kutlugün Street in Sultanahmet, leads down into the subterranean remains of the Senate House of Magnaura Palace. This shop is just one of the hundreds of neighborhood structures built atop the ruins of the Great Palace. In fact, excavations and construction are ongoing around.

ALBURA KATHISMA RESTAURANT KEEPS A SECRET
In the early 1990s, a Greek family refurbished a charming Ottoman home and opened Albura on the cobbled streets of Akbıyık Caddesi. The quality of the cuisine had locals and travelers flocking, making Albura one of the most popular restaurants in Sultanahmet. In 2009, Kathisma, a streetside terrace restaurant next-door, was added.

Today, the Greek family has sold up, but new owners Abuzer and Alp guarantee guests attentive service accompanied by a generous menu overflowing with succulent regional cuisine and tried-and-tested Ottoman favorites. Try the Chef’s specials, the jumbo shrimp in the wok, or the walnut kuzu (lamb with walnuts). For dessert, the traditional Turkish pudding is recommended.

You can choose to dine inside the cozy Ottoman abode or in the elegant streetside terrace, open-air in summer and enclosed in winter. When the belly is full and the plates are cleared, wander to the back of the terrace and find the entrance to one of Istanbul’s best-kept secrets—the well-preserved Byzantine ruins of Magnaura Palace. Take your time to explore this 4th-century basilica-like structure that inspired the design of the Kremlin Palace and San Marco Basilica in Venice.

Back in its heyday, the Palace was decorated in gold and silver, providing a grand setting for Byzantine emperors to welcome dignitaries to Constantinople. Today, it's yours to freely explore and marvel at Istanbul's past.

LOCATION SATELLITE MAP



WEB SITE : Albura Kathisma Cafè & Restaurant

MORE INFO & CONTACT
E-Mail : info@alburakathisma.com
Phone : +90 212 517 9031 / +90 212 518 9710
Fax : +90 212 517 9032

These scripts and photographs are registered under © Copyright 2017, respected writers and photographers from the internet. All Rights Reserved.

SATYROS MONASTERY

Küçükyalı, Maltepe - İstanbul - Turkey

GPS : 40°56'36.0"N 29°06'56.3"E / 40.943333, 29.115639



PHOTOGRAPHS ALBUM

It is claimed that the ruins of the 9th century Satyros Monastery or Bryas Place is located in the Küçükyalı Çınar district on land next to the mosque and the office of the village headman. Ioannes Grammatikos, who was sent as Byzantine envoy to Abbasid Caliph Memnun, recounted how impressed he was by the palace of the caliph to the Emperor Theophilus after his return home in 832. It is believed that the Architect Patrikios started construction of the palace in the year 832.

Architectural materials from the Satyr Temple, which was near to the palace, were used in its construction. The fate of the palace is unknown after the period of Emperor Theophilus. There is a very large cistern to the west of the ruins.

The Küçükyalı Arkeopark, a large archaeological area on the Asian side of Istanbul, hosts the only surviving Byzantine monastic complex in the city. The 9th-century complex contains gorgeous marble floors, valuable mosaics and beautiful art objects that she hopes to see in a museum someday

The remains in question represent the patriarchal monastic complex of Satyros. It is the only surviving 9th century-structure in the city and was built by Patriarch Ignatios between 866 and 877. His body was buried at the site next to a large sized church dedicated to St. Michael, a prominent figure in Byzantine history who is depicted in the mosaics inside Hagia Sophia.

The large triple-apsed church with cross-in-square plan and the large (2700 cubic metres) cistern must have belonged to the Monastery of Satyros (AD 867-877) and not the Palace of Bryas (first half of the 9th century) as had been thought.

The church was refurbished in the 12th century, with the addition of a “reliquary chapel” and opus sectile flooring in the apse of the church. Georadar and geoelectrical prospection, combined with topographical study of remains, indicates that the church and cistern were the nucleus of a much more extensive complex.

The vaulted monastery, cistern and water channels are considered rare examples of their time. The constructions when they were built could be seen from the Prince’s Islands. The French author Pargoire wrote a study on monasteries on the Marmara seashore that identified the ruins in the area as part of the Satyros Monastery, an identification later supported by Ernst Mamboury, a geometry teacher at Galatasaray High School.

In addition to identifying the site as Byzantine, the excavations have retrieved organic residue from the period that are being used to examine patterns of climate change and other aspects of the history of Istanbul. There is nothing from the Ottoman period here, not even a piece of pottery. Found beautifully decorated marble floors, golden mosaics, wonderful coins and beautiful art objects that deserve to be displayed in a museum.

Although the ancient monastery had been used in Ottoman times as a stable for sheep and possibly elephants, its identity remained obscure until excavations and research in the last 15 years identified it as the Monastery of Satyros built by Patriarch Ignatios born the son of a Byzantine emperor.

 Ignatios was castrated and exiled to the Princes Islands when rivals deposed his father. Later he became patriarch and built several monasteries on the islands and elsewhere in Constantinople. His grave is believed to lie in the Monastery of Satyros, awaiting continued excavations on the site. Visitors curious about his character can see his portrait at the Hagia Sophia in the upper galleries of the building.

LOCATION SATELLITE MAP



These scripts and photographs are registered under © Copyright 2017, respected writers and photographers from the internet. All Rights Reserved.

BATHONEA PORT RUINS

Küçükçekmece - İstanbul - Turkey

GPS : 41°02'05.8"N 28°44'03.1"E / 41.034944, 28.734194



PHOTOGRAPHS ALBUM

Hidden for a millennium, it took a 21st-century drought to reveal the ruins of a long-lost port city. Five years after archaeologists discovered its four-kilometer-long seawall on a polluted lake 20 km from Istanbul, they continue to unearth Bathonea, which is yielding a wealth of rare artifacts and architecture spanning a thousand years of the Byzantine era. Excavations this year have essentially doubled Bathonea's known size, bolstering the idea that it was a well-connected, wealthy, fully outfitted harbor city that thrived from the fourth to 11th century, when a massive earthquake leveled much of it.

Bathonea is a rare and important find because little remains in Byzantium proper (now the modern city of Istanbul) of the first few centuries of the Byzantine, or Eastern Roman, Empire. The ancient urban center has been built over too many times in its 1,600-year history to leave much behind. Located on a long-farmed peninsula on Lake Küçükçekmece, once an inlet on the Marmara Sea, Bathonea reappeared in 2007 after a drought lowered the lake's water table, exposing portions of the seawall.

It turned out to be almost half the length of the wall that once surrounded Constantinople (as Byzantium had been renamed for Constantine the Great). The wall's substantial size suggested Bathonea was a significant safe harbor for ships on their way to Constantinople beginning in the fourth century, just as the city became the seat of power for the Eastern Roman Empire.

In previous years archaeologists have unearthed some of the seawall, a multistory villa or palace, an enormous cistern, the round foundations of a Greek temple, and the toppled remains of a Byzantine church and cemetery. Nearby, stone roads crisscross each other and 1,500 years of history.

This year they discovered a large multistory building and a series of smaller rooms adjacent to the villa that artifacts indicate was a monastery with workshops for making metal, jewelry and glass that began production in the fourth century. The jewelry molds they discovered may be the first archaeological evidence for jewelry production in Constantinople, a tradition known from historical sources.

Another key find is the exceptionally preserved, two-part network of underground water channels hundreds of meters long that kept Bathonea's cistern and buildings supplied with freshwater. They also found a Hellenistic building hiding in plain sight among 19th-century structures and a road connecting it to a second-century B.C. harbor, providing more evidence of Bathonea's earliest days.

A massive earthquake in the 11th century seems to have largely destroyed Bathonea. Archaeologists continue to find toppled walls (including one that killed the three men found beneath the rubble) from all the buildings. Yet judging from the pottery found, some residents eked out a life at Bathonea as late as the 12th century.

To try to answer these questions, Aydingün and her team will focus next year's dig on the seaward tip of the peninsula, where ground-penetrating radar has detected underground anomalies that may be structures. They also hope to restart underwater exploration. In 2008 they discovered an edifice that may have been a lighthouse. Local lore holds that it is a magical minaret that rises in warning whenever nearby villagers sin too much.

Hundreds of bricks stamped Konstans, made in Constantinople starting in the fifth century, were found at Bathonea. The find is Bathonea, a substantial harbor town dating from the second century B.C. Discovered in 2007 after a drought lowered the lake’s water table, it has been yielding a trove of relics from the fourth to the sixth centuries A.D., a period that parallels Istanbul’s founding and its rise as Constantinople, a seat of power in the Eastern Roman / Byzantine and Ottoman Empires.
   
While there are some historical records of this early period, precious few physical artifacts exist. The slim offerings in the Istanbul section of the Archaeological Museums here reflect that, paling in comparison with the riches on display from Anatolia, Mesopotamia and Lebanon. So Bathonea has the potential to become a “library of Constantinople,” says the archaeologist who made the initial discovery.

After the drought exposed parts of a well-preserved sea wall nearly two and a half miles long, archaeologist team soon saw that the harbor had been equipped with docks, buildings and a jetty, probably dating to the fourth century. Other discoveries rapidly followed. In the last dig season alone, the archaeologists uncovered port walls, elaborate buildings, an enormous cistern, a Byzantine church and stone roads spanning more than 1,000 years of occupation.
   
Since then, Dr. Aydingun’s team and researchers from eight foreign universities have found a second, older port on the peninsula’s eastern side, its Greek influences suggesting that it dated to about the second century B.C.

Spelunkers explored hundreds of feet of a two-part water channel system that archaeologists discovered. The channels directed freshwater to the cistern and buildings throughout Bathonea. They showed us that such an infrastructure can only be constructed for a very big and important settlement.
       
Nearby, atop the round foundations of a Greek temple, they found the remains of a fifth- or sixth-century Byzantine church and cemetery with 20 burials, and a large stone relief of a Byzantine cross. Coins, pottery and other artifacts indicate that the church suffered damage in the devastating earthquake of 557 but was in use until 1037, when a tremor leveled it -  crushing three men whose bodies were found beneath a collapsed wall, along with a coin bearing the image of a minor emperor who ruled during the year of the quake.
   
After bushwhacking through nettle-choked underbrush a mile and a half north of the harbor, the researchers excavated a 360-by-90-foot open-air cistern or pool, as well as walls and foundations from several multistory buildings that may have been part of a villa or palace altered over many centuries.
   
Because the archaeologists are at the beginning of a multiyear dig at a site not known from historical sources, they are hesitant to draw many conclusions. Even the name Bathonea is a placeholder, inspired by two ancient references: the first-century historian Pliny the Elder’s “Natural History,” which refers to the river feeding the lake as Bathynias; and a work by a ninth-century Byzantine monk, Theophanes, who called the region Bathyasos.

The archaeologists know this much: The site was large. It sprawled across at least three square miles, and its sea wall is nearly half the length of the one that surrounded Constantinople itself. It was moderately wealthy; the region was a country retreat for the urban elite, drawn by its fertile hunting grounds and Lake Küçükçekmece itself, the freshwater body closest to the city. They built villas and palaces all around the region.

As seen in this stitched-together image, the pipes poking through the cistern wall look almost modern and just as ready to pour fresh springwater as they were 1,650 years ago.  At least 80 meters long, the cistern was entirely constructed from bricks stamped with the name of Constantine or his sons Constantine II and Konstans, which have mostly been discovered at imperial sites like Hagia Sophia.

Roman glass and high-end pottery dating as late as the 14th century were found throughout the site. Marble, including a gorgeous milky-blue variety, lined the walls and floors of the church and at least one of the buildings.
     
Also discovered were hundreds of bricks stamped “Konstans,” which were produced in Constantinople beginning in the fifth century and had mostly been discovered at imperial sites like Hagia Sophia, the sixth-century architectural marvel and primary cathedral of the Byzantine Empire for almost 900 years, and nearby Rhegion, a fifth-century compound on a hill across the lake from Bathonea, overlooking the Marmara Sea.
   
Bathonea was also well connected. Some pottery was made as far away as Palestine and Syria, typical of places with access to foreign goods. It had wide stone roads, the earliest dating to the Roman era. But its relationship to Constantinople is still unclear. “I like the idea of Bathonea as a satellite port of a major city,” said Bradley A. Ault, a classical archaeologist with the University at Buffalo who has studied ancient port cities in Greece and Cyprus. “It falls in line with Athens and Piraeus, Rome and Ostia.”
   
If that is the case, the port may have served as a safe harbor on protected waters outside the city walls for both commercial ships and the imperial naval fleet. “In the fifth century, they had a major fleet around Constantinople,” said Robert Ousterhout, a Byzantine scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. “They had ports around the Golden Horn and the Marmara.” Now 13 to 65 feet deep, Lake Küçükçekmece would have been a deep bay navigable by ships of all sizes, Dr. Aydıngün said. Sonar has revealed what may be six Byzantine iron anchors buried in the sand just offshore, and nails commonly used in shipbuilding were unearthed at the site.
       
In recent years, Istanbul has been the scene of several stunning discoveries during salvage archaeology digs, most notably at the Yenikapı transit project, which unearthed a remarkable array of shipwrecks. No shipwrecks have been found at Bathonea; nor are they likely to be anytime soon, said Mr. Oniz, the underwater archaeologist. The lake is so polluted by industrial runoff that diving in it is dangerous, he said. A new water-treatment facility may make exploration possible within a few years.
     
The Bathonea archaeologists also hope to uncover more artifacts dating to the earliest days of civilization. In 2007, Dr. Aydıngün and Emre Güldoğan of Istanbul University found 9,000-year-old flint tools at the site that could be evidence of the earliest pre-pottery farming settlement in Europe. Bathonea’s role - and its real name - can be determined only through further study, Dr. Aydıngün said.
   
Ground-penetrating radar has indicated that extensive structures remain beneath the soil. And as all of their efforts have been focused on the waterfront, the archaeologists have yet to investigate the patches of trees and brush farther inland that farmers have long avoided because their plows cannot cut through them.
   
It doesn't look like much, but archaeologists were excited to find this plaster-coated building hiding in plain sight because it provides more evidence of Bathonea's beginnings. Adjoined to crumbling late-Ottoman buildings, obscured by trees and brush, its walls had been slathered in a deceptive layer of plaster. This summer the plaster was chipped away to reveal wide, rectangular blocks that are typical of Hellenistic buildings from the second century B.C.

It's located on a newly unearthed road that leads to the harbor of the same era. They also found Hellenistic pottery shards in the rubble near the wall. The team speculates it may have been a warehouse. Adjacent to the palace archaeologists unearthed one large building and a series of smaller ones that appear to be parts of a complex dating back to the fourth century, which included the palace, a monastery and a series of workshops for making metal, glass and jewelry.
.
The finds include smelting waste and rare jewelry molds. "From written sources it's known that Constantinopolis had jewelry workshops since the Roman and Byzantine times," archaeologists says. "Our findings may be the first-ever proof. But it is too early to claim it with some confidence. We are still checking with metalwork historians."

The remains of a well-appointed villa continue to yield evidence of its residents' wealth. The nine-meter walls held statue nooks and ornate wall mosaics; thousands of dirt-encrusted tesserae were found this year. Milky blue marble lined the floors and an extensive water system channeled freshwater throughout. The small graves likely once held children.

This aerial shows about a third of the excavated site - a section archaeologists call the "little harbor" after the second-century B.C. pier shown at left. At right are newly uncovered crisscrossing roads spanning 1,500 years, the round foundations of a Greek temple, a fifth-century Byzantine church and cemetery as well as an Ottoman-era building. Hidden by trees is a newly spotted Hellenistic edifice, positioned just up the road from the harbor.

LOCATION SATELLITE MAP



These scripts and photographs are registered under © Copyright 2017, respected writers and photographers from the internet. All Rights Reserved. 

İNCEĞİZ CAVE MONASTERY

İnceğiz, Çatalca -  - İstanbul - Turkey

GPS : 41°10'54.2"N 28°24'14.6"E / 41.181722, 28.404056



PHOTOGRAPHS ALBUM

The Cave Monastery is in the neighborhood of İnceğiz village nearly to the Karasu valley, 9 km to the northwest of Çatalca. There are three places on the first floor of monastery. Monastery has four storeys within the rock. The church is on the second floor. There are three places on the third floor which two of them are longer than the other. On the fourth floor there is a place of residence measuring 5 x 5 m and a chapel. The third group monastery is two floors and the longest cave of the 4 caves on the ground floor is 11 m in length and 7 m in width. The church on the second floor is at 7 m in length and 4,5 m in width. The cross planned naos is covered by a dome which is 2,6 m diameter.

The man-made, multi-story Byzantine monastery caves and rock-cut churches in the deep valley formed by the Karasu Stream have been known by the scientific community since the 1950’s. These caves are situated near the Inceğiz village, 9 km NW of Çatalca, the most NW district of Istanbul. Thanks to their geological texture, the limestone formations in this area provided structures that can be easily hewn and comfortably used by humans.

As Dirimtekin points out, the monastery-cave and the rock-cut church system had been used from the 4th century until the end of the 12th century A.D.. However, in 1992 it became clear that the area had been settled since much earlier periods thanks to the rescue excavations of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. The directorate of Istanbul Archaeological Museum carried out excavations between 1992 and 1995 to urgently rescue the ancient tombs that had been unearthed by illicit diggers in the area called Maltepe.

This is a plateau stretching in N-S direction at the top of the formation that hosts the rock-cut cave system of Inceğiz. These fieldworks identified a residential area, a necropolis, an ancient road, waterways and an ancient water source that are dated between the 3rd century B.C. and the 5th century A.D.. Hence, the rescue work ascertained that the earliest habitation in the area started at the hilltop long before the beginning of activity in the Inceğiz Caves down on the hillside.

Consequently, the locality of Maltepe was evidenced to have hosted a Thracian village or a small town that had intense trade contacts with Byzantion and Perinthos, both having a similar Aphrodite cult. According to Pasinli, the dwellers of this ancient village might have started using the cave shrines down on the hillside after the 4th century A.D., following the adoption of Christianity. These excavations, however, were confined only to the S sector of the plateau and did not expand towards NW.

Having considered that the region had not been investigated for nearly twenty years, the scientific committee of the Istanbul Prehistoric Research Project decided that the area should be re-surveyed. The aim of this research was to clarify if it was inhabited in earlier periods than those so far identified. In new field surveys, two deep, well-like shafts were encountered in the Maltepe area, which have not been reported in the museum excavations. The reports of the museum fieldwork only spared a few sentences to remark the presence of a water canal discovered in 1994.

It has been stated that the canal could lead to potential cisterns, as it continued towards the NW tip of the plateau, where the remains of a settlement had already been identified (Pasinli et al., 1996). Accordingly, we tried to understand whether the two new shafts were cisterns or structures serving a different function. In consequence, it has been decided to carry out the detailed investigation of the structures, whose primary examination had been performed by archaeologist Haldun Aydıngün from the scientific committee of the research project.

However, specialist researchers from speleology were required for a more comprehensive exploration of such structures. By this necessity, members of Anatolian Speleological Society (ASPEG) were invited for assistance. Following the survey and investigations of the speleology team, sufficient evidence became available for our scientific committee to define and name these structures as the Thracian Cult Pit and the Two Chamber Byzantine Cistern.

The entrance of this Thracian Cult Pit was observed to be a precise square of 230 x 230 cm dimensions, clearly indicating that the structure was man-made. Besides, each corner of this square were precisely pointing towards one cardinal direction, manifesting that the digging of this pit was not a haphazard act but a careful and well-planned undertaking from the beginning. In our investigation it became clear that a pyramidal structure with a cut-off top was created by gradually widening the pit towards the bottom.

The bedrock, into which this structure was dug, is a limestone formation of Eocen age, which is designated by geologists as the Çatalca Formation. This pyramidal pit, the counterpart of which is known in Bulgaria, is nearly 8 m deep. The bottom of the pit is covered by a dense deposit of earth that is 2-3 m thick. It was due to this deposit that we were not able to determine if the structure has other compartments. A part of this earth deposit was found scattered haphazardly by the entrance of the pit, which indicates activity of illicit diggers.

A pile of archaeological finds, which had apparently been recovered by these people from the earth deposit, was found right at the pit’s entrance. The pile contains ceramic sherds dated to the timespan between the 3rd millennium and the 1st century B.C. The earliest sherds are of a hand-made, dark-colored, polished type with inverted rims, which is well known from the major Bronze Age center of Troy I and dated to the Early Bronze Age I period (early 3rd millennium B.C.).

The group of sherds that comes next in the line of chronology belongs to the wheel-made, grey ware tradition of early 2nd millennium NW Anatolia, which is designated in recent years as the “Anatolian Grey Ware”. A single well-slipped and quite lustrous sherd resembles the Grey Ware of the Greek Mainland from the same period. The sherds of Anatolian Grey Ware are predominantly body pieces and long handles. Besides these types, hand-made, thumb-impressed, banded sherds and applique plaques of the socalled Barbarian Ware were recovered.

The Barbarian Ware is regarded an especially significant type of pottery as it is commonly considered as trace of Thracian peoples, who migrated into Anatolia around 1200 B.C. The recovery of the first examples of this pottery in Level VIIb1 settlement of Troy lead to the presumption that peoples of Thracian / Phrygian origin must have crossed the Dardanelles in their migration into the interior of Anatolia.

However, ancient authors wrote that these Balkan peoples moved into Anatolia around this time along two distinct routes, one across the Dardanelles, and other across the Bosphorus. While the evidence for the former route is progressively gaining strength through excavations at Troy and Kilisetepe in Gelibolu, the evidence for the latter route was almost nonexistent until recently.

The only example of the Barbarian Ware from around Istanbul was a small and somewhat neglected sherd found at the construction site of an extension to the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. The occurrence of the Barbarian Ware in significant quantities in our fieldwork in Çatalca enabled us to present these finds to the scientific community as the first evidence for the movement of Thracians / Phrygians across the Bosphorus. Large quantities of burnt animal bones (dog, sheep and horse), and a few burnt human bones were also attested in the thick soil deposit inside the pit.

This evidence lead to the presumption that following the cremation of the deceased, sacrificial rituals were practiced by the pit, which involved deposition of animal bones and broken pottery as offerings. Also to note is the recovery of iron slags and ores inside and around the pit, which demonstrated that people of the area knew how to work iron. As a parallel event, a small iron mine was also discovered by our research team on a sloping hill near the Çakıl Village, not far from Inceğiz.

Finally, there are the megalithic monuments, the stone blocks of which were found scattered in this area. Based on these pieces of evidence, the presence of Thracian / Phrygian peoples in this region now became more visible than before.

Numerous pieces of lekythoi, skyphoi, kantharoi, megarian bowls and amphorae were also found scattered by illicit diggers, which demonstrate that the pit was also used after the Iron Age, during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. These pieces belong to high quality and apparently expensive vessels for their time. The evidence indicates that the pit attracted local people for several millennia to be used for cult purposes.

This ceremonial significance should be the result of spiritual meanings attributed to its location and geological features. Two Chamber Byzantine Cistern The second underground structure in the Maltepe area is a two-chambered cistern system with two entrances. The larger entrance is an 8 m deep shaft with a regular rectangular cross-section of 150x115 cm dimensions. The two walls of the shaft that extend in NE-SW direction contain small niches placed at intervals, which served as steps to facilitate climbing down and up.

The second entrance is situated 17.5 m away from the first and has a regular rectangular cross-section of 120x70 cm. Just like the main entrance shaft, the second shaft was also dug vertically from above and likewise provided with small niches on opposing walls. As this second shaft is filled with branches and rocks thrown in from the outside, it could not have been entered during our research.

The cistern is accessible from the bottom of the larger shaft and consists of two separate chambers aligned in NW-SE direction. The roofs of both chambers were vaulted with a gentle curvature and very neatly plastered. A narrow, gently sloping tunnel connects the upper part of the SE chamber with the lower sector of the second entrance shaft. This connecting tunnel should have been dug in order to transfer the surface water into the cistern. A dike located at the joint of the tunnel and the chamber was possibly built to prevent the insertion of alluvium into the cistern and keep it inside the tunnel.

Thereby, the cleaning of the accumulated silt became possible as it could be reached via the smaller shaft, even when the chamber was full of water. It is generally known that the access shafts of Byzantine cisterns were closed by means of a lid system so that the collected water could remain clean. In our investigations, we could not attest either inside or outside the cistern any remains of stone, metal or brick that could belong to such a system. Taken the 1.5 x 1.15 m dimensions of the shaft into consideration, one can imagine that it could only be closed by a wooden lid.

As this cistern had been continuously disturbed by illicit diggers for many years, a dump of excavation earth has accumulated, from which only a small number of ceramic sherds were recovered. These pieces predominantly belong to the Early and Middle Byzantine periods. We think that this cistern may have been constructed to supply water to the Monastery Caves that are situated at a lower altitude on the slope of the same geological formation, into which the cistern was dug.

It was determined that these caves had been inhabited for a long time starting from the Early Byzantine period, which synchronizes them with the cistern. The construction technique of the shafts, as well as the niches in them have their exact counterparts in the Early Byzantine Manazan Caves near Taşkale in Karaman, which provides one further criterion for the proposed date of the structure. Shaft systems of the same type are also attested in Cappadocia. The cistern should also have been associated with the water canal identified in the rescue excavations of the museum.

When we visited the site in August 2012, we witnessed that illicit diggers had entered and disturbed the cistern. They apparently discovered a shallow pit in bedrock on the E side of the larger entrance shaft and dug into it to a depth of 17.5 m. They eventually accessed the smaller chamber through a horizontal tunnel, disturbing the original structure. The shallow pit, where these people started digging, is well dressed on its S and W sides, and could be an unfinished shaft of the cistern. Unfortunately, both chambers of the cistern are partially filled with rubble excavated in these illegal activities.

Recent discoveries by the Istanbul Prehistoric Research Project near the Inceğiz Village of Çatalca district prove that the area was used for cult and domestic purposes much earlier than previously thought. When we consider the evidence from the two new underground structures together with earlier research at rock-cut Byzantine shrines, it is ascertained that the habitation of the area extends from the beginning of the 3rd millennium B.C. until the end of the 12th century A.D.

This is not a surprising result given the soft limestone formations that are easy to cut, the fertile soil that is suitable for agriculture, the temperate climate of the region, and the somewhat secluded and protected character of the Karasu valley system. However, if more systematic and comprehensive excavations will be carried out, it seems possible that the history of the region can be extended even into earlier prehistory.

LOCATION SATELLITE MAP



These scripts and photographs are registered under © Copyright 2017, respected writers and photographers from the internet. All Rights Reserved.

AYDOS CASTLE EXCAVATIONS

Sultanbeyli - İstanbul - Turkey

GPS : 40°56'58.9"N 29°15'29.7"E / 40.949694, 29.258250



PHOTOGRAPHS ALBUM

The construction date of Aydos Castle, located in Pendik at a height of 531 m from the sea, is unknown. This Byzantine castle was annexed in the Ottoman territory between 1327 and 1328 by Sultan Orhan I. The ellipse-shaped structure of the Castle that is 120 meters at its widest point and 50 meters in length, completely encloses the summit of the hill. The Castle dating from the Byzantine period is called by locals as Keçikale. It was conquered by Kara Abdurrahman Gazi in the period of Orhan Gazi, in 1328. The maintenance and repair of the castle is continuing.  There is a cistern, whose dimensions are 12 x 7,5 m, within the walls.

AYDOS CASTLE EXCAVATIONS IN 2010

Excavation and workshop activities were conducted at the Aydos Castle located in the territories of the Kartal, Pendik, Sultanbeyli and Samandıra municipalities in the İstanbul Province under the supervision of our Museum between 13.09.2010 and 17.02.2011. The excavations were conducted in accordance of the Regional Board for the Conservation of Cultural and Natural Assets, issued to meet the requirements of the survey, restitution and restoration projects prepared by the Samandıra Municipality, and with the excavation and drilling permission  of the General Directorate of Museums.

The castle is named after the hill called Mount Aydos, on which it is located. The name "Aydos" supposedly comes from "aetos", the Greek word for "eagle". The castle, which covers an area of 26,000 square meters beginning from its outer walls, is located on a 325-meters-high hill and overlooks the region in which it is located, like other castles. In terms of its plan, it is situated in the northeast-southwest direction in accordance with the topography, and it has an oval shape.

Apparently, the castle was built upon the bedrock, and during its construction, the top of the hill was partially flattened. In order to reinforce the defense, it has two different walls, namely the inner and outer walls. The inner defensive wall has six and the outer defensive wall has seven visible bastions. In accordance with the requirements of the restoration project, excavation activities were conducted on both sides of the inner wall, in and around the bastions adjacent to the wall, in the cisterns seen inside the castle and around the gates discovered during excavation activities, on water systems and on one grave.

During excavations conducted in this limited area, important architectural units of the castle and many movable cultural assets were unearthed. The main architectural units unearthed include the bastions adjacent to the inner wall, wall-walk stairs near the bastions, gates, water systems, cisterns, and loopholes.Bastions and wall-walk stairs: All bastions unearthed during excavations are made of local stones and have a semicircular form.

In the outer wall masonry of the inner bastion located southwest of the castle, a well-preserved waffle slab decorated with bricks was discovered. This waffle slab bears the architectural features of the 13th-14th centuries. This bastion appears as the most important bastion of the castle with its size and careful masonry. The eastern part of the castle overlooks a steep valley, and therefore, it is very difficult to climb to the castle using this direction. Thus, the defense needs were limited and there is only one bastion in this part.

During activities carried out around the inner bastion, the well-preserved wall-walk stairs made of local stones and mortar leading to the wall-walk (walkway allowing soldiers to move easily on the higher parts of defensive walls and to defend the castle) were found. Gates: During excavations conducted at the castle, three gates, located south, east and west of the inner wall were unearthed in total. The gate to the southeast was constructed fully as a gate and in a careful manner; there are traces of semicircular defensive towers on both sides of it.

It is known that castles have entrance gates protected by towers on their both sides. Thus, this was probably the main gate to the castle. Apparently, in a later period, the south of this arched gate was closed with stone filling, and it was added to the large bastion south of it. It is known that castle gates were sometimes closed during attacks; thus, this gate supposedly lost its function during or before an attack in order to construct a stronger tower, and it was added to the large bastion.

Furthermore, in the area east of the castle, where the beginning and end of the inner wall intersects, a floor the ground of which is made of Khorasan mortar and bricks, and a wide gate opening surrounded by a marble lintel and remains of columns were unearthed. This should be another important gate to the castle.

Small Finds: Most of the small finds unearthed during excavations consist of glazed and unglazed pottery and remains of pottery dating from the 13th-14th centuries. Other finds include coins dating from the 11th-14th centuries and remains of ceramic ware dating from the 11th-13th centuries. Almost no material dating from the Ottoman Empire was obtained (except a bowl dating from the 19th century).

Grave: During excavations, one grave was discovered southeast of the castle, next to the inner wall. The preliminary inspection by archaeologist-anthropologist Dr. Yasemin Yılmaz revealed that the skeleton belongs to a woman aged between 22 and 29.

Aydos Castle Legend: The Aydos Castle is renowned not only for its remains, but also for its legend mentioned in Ottoman sources. The main characters of this legend narrated in Tacü't Tevarih ("Crown of Histories"), regarded as one of the main sources of the foundation period of the Ottoman Period written by Hoca Sadeddin Efendi, are the daughter of the ruler (tekfur) of the Aydos Castle and Abdurrahman Gazi, a commander of Orhan I known as the conqueror of Aydos.

One night, the daughter of the ruler of the castle fell into a deep well in her dream, and she was rescued by a young man. The daughter of the ruler fell in love with her rescuer. When the castle was besieged by the Ottoman army, the daughter of the ruler, who saw the young man leading the army, recognized that he had been the young man in her dream. This commander leading the siege was Abdurrahman Gazi.

The daughter of the ruler sent a note to the man she loved, and asked him to prepare a withdrawal plan, so that she could let them into the city in the night. So, the Ottoman army moved away, like a retreating army. The people in the castle thought that the Ottoman soldiers had escaped. The commander of the Ottoman army, Abdurrahman Gazi, who returned in the night, was let into the city by the daughter of the ruler, the gates of the castle were opened, and Ottoman soldiers seized the castle.

Assessment
The Aydos Castle should have had an important position in the eastern border of the Byzantine Empire during the Late Byzantine Period, when its territory was shrinking. Between 1326 and 1328, Ottomans seized the present-day Kocaeli peninsula and some of the settlements in the Anatolian side. In that period, the Ottoman-Byzantine border was on the line between Aydos and Pendik. When it was constructed, the castle should have been on a secondary road towards the inner parts of the Kocaeli Peninsula connecting Constantinople to the east.

It is known that the Byzantine State, which had weakened militarily and politically in the 11th century and begun to lose land in Anatolia after the defeat of Manzikert (Malazgirt) in 1071, constituted a defensive network in the whole Anatolia against the Turks. In this period, most of the structures built by the Byzantine Empire in Anatolia were castles. It is thought that the first construction activities for the Aydos Castle also had been carried out in the same period, because of the small finds dating from the 11th-12th centuries.

Additionally, on the basis of current finds and our current knowledge, it can be said that the first phase of the castle had been realized in and around the southeastern gate protected by the towers on its both sides, namely the inner bastion. The outer covering system of the bastion that we call the "Başkale" ("Main Castle") suggests that it had been added in the 13th-14th centuries; in other words, that there had been a new construction activity in the 13th-14th centuries.

The traces on the same bastion reveal that the bastion underwent additions in three different periods. The lack of small finds dating from the Ottoman Period confirms the information provided by the publications of Ottoman historians who stated that the castle had been abandoned shortly after its seizure by the Ottomans. Architectural features and small finds indicate that the castle had reached its peak use period in the 13th and 14th centuries.

LOCATION SATELLITE MAP



WEB SITE : Sultanbeyli Municipality

MORE INFO & CONTACT
E-Mail : belediye@sultanbeyli.bel.tr
Phone : +90 216 564 1300
Fax : +90 216 398 4884

These scripts and photographs are registered under © Copyright 2015, respected writers and photographers from the internet. All Rights Reserved.