How to purchase your own archaeological site

For a rough 35 million Turkish Liras anyone can become the owner of the ancient Greek city of Bargylia located 30 kilometers from Bodrum between Iasos and Myndos.

Legend has it that the city was built by Bellarophon after his horse Pegasus killed his dear friend Barglos. The theme of Pegasus on the coins of Bargylia is referring to this myth.

This is a strange story for it is known that the site has been looted repeatedly by illegal treasure hunters knowing that no official or legal excavations were ever carried out. The reason for this ambiguous situation is that the land of Bargylia is on private property since 1927 where officials are unable to protect its historical heritage. 

It is everybody’s guess what treasures have disappeared and how much has been left to discover. Property owners would like the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to expropriate the land or exchange it for another plot. Yet not all the co-owners want to sell.

On the side, it should be noted that Alexander the Great spent some time in Bargylia while taking control of the region. Together with all the neighboring land, it later on became part of the Roman Empire.

Bargylia, which allegedly seems to include an amphitheater, a temple of Artemis (mentioned by Strabo), a bath complex from Roman times and a necropolis from the Byzantine era, is riddled with holes left by illegal excavators. A single example has been recorded where a mosaic was destroyed and stolen by smugglers.

It is terribly worrying to see the remains of ancient sites being plundered and looted but Turkey simply has too many of them. It is said that out of 192 archaeological sites in the province of Muğla alone, only 22 have been taken under protection and that does not mean that treasure hunters can no longer access the sites.

[Pictures are from The Archaeological News Network], except the Temple of Artemis which is from Guncel 7/24]

Crossing rivers using animal skins

Alexander aficionados like to believe that crossing rivers using animal skins is something Alexander “invented”. Well, I have to disappoint them for as it turns out, the practice was already known by the Assyrians who used this technique as early as the ninth century BC, i.e. at least five hundred years earlier. It is not impossible that the practice is even much older but has not been documented.

[Picture from Nemrud showing Assyrian soldiers using inflatable devices to cross a river from Ancient History]

Cyrus the Great, who Alexander greatly admired, used inflated or stuffed animal skins to cross a Babylonian river as mentioned by Xenophon. Another example is Darius I who used the same technique in 522 BC to cross the Tigris River. Much later, the Romans and the Arabs still resorted to this simple but ingenious solution.

One impressive such depiction comes from the Northwest Palace of Nimrud and shows how King Ashurnasirpal II and his army cross the Euphrates River on their march westwards in order to expand the empire all the way to the Mediterranean. This king immortalized his successes on the walls of his splendid Palace of Nimrud at some time between 865 and  860 BC. A substantial number of these reliefs found their way to museums around the world, including the British Museum in London.

Close encounter with an ancient Water Organ

Several years ago, I was browsing through the Archaeological Museum of Dion after exploring the nearby Macedonian sanctuary and Roman city. It is a lovely little museum but what truly impressed me was the water organ that stood on the first floor and was visited by only a handful of tourists. It was so recognizable as an organ that I even suspected that this reconstruction could be too far away from reality.

 

During excavations outside the beautiful Villa of Dionysus at Dion in 1992, archaeologists discovered a row of pipes together with large copper slabs bearing the imprints of pipes. After further examination in the on-site laboratory, they established that these pipes belonged to a water organ. It turns out to be the oldest surviving musical instrument of its kind, and it has been dated to the 1st century BC, making it 2,200 years old!

 

The ancient Greeks called it a ‘hydraulis,’ which first appeared in Alexandria. The first ‘hydraulis’ was built by Ctesibius and operated by compressed air channeled through a container of water to equalize the pressure. A row of pipes of different lengths produced the sound, and a polyphonic effect could be obtained by adding more pipes. What an invention! 

The arrival of the water organ was received with great success because of its powerful and pleasant sound, making it a favorite instrument in theaters, hippodromes, and other public gatherings. Eventually, it entered the Roman Imperial court. The Byzantines improved the organ and made it work without using water. The amazing fact is that this ‘hydraulis’ has been the ancestor of our church organs since the Middle Ages. 

Ancient music, more specifically Greek music, is an intriguing subject I tackled in earlier blogs (see: Reconstructing ancient music, an impossible task? and An insight into Ancient Greek Music). The history of this ‘hydraulis’ is another exciting contribution to this chapter.

 

The good news is that we will be able to listen to ancient Greek water-organ music at a live event - that is if you have the opportunity to travel to Athens this summer. The Acropolis Museum is organizing a free concert with quite an interesting program entitled "An introduction to the history of the ‘hydraulis’ and the discovery of the elements in Dion", given by Professor Pandermalis. 

[Reconstruction as shown in the Greek Reporter]

After that, the audience will be treated to a virtuoso recital on the ‘hydraulis” by the famous Greek organist, Ourania Gassiou. The concert will end with a special harp recital by harpist Thodoris Matoulas.

Roman “Villa of Alexandros” in Northern Greece

No, the villa did not belong to Alexander the Great, but to his namesake who lived in Amyntaio near Florina.

With a total of 96 rooms, this majestic villa whose construction started in the 2^nd century AD is one of the largest and most luxurious ever found in the area. The inscriptions with the names of Alexandros and Memmia refer to the successive owners who occupied the premises in the middle of the 3^rd century AD. The town of Amyntaio, which covered 25 hectares, flourished around that time since it was strategically situated along the ancient Via Egnatia.

The owners are thought to be wealthy Roman officials with a pronounced preference for everything Greek. The numerous floor mosaics cover an area of some 360 m2 and have much to tell about Greek mythology. The mosaics of the Europa Hall are the best preserved and include scenes like the Abduction of Europa, the Abduction of Dione, Pan with the Nymphs, and Apollo on a Griffin.

The so-called Nereids Hall is with its 90m2 the largest room and served as a reception hall for the guests. They must have been impressed by the elaborate mosaics arranged around a central fountain picturing sea nymphs seated on sea horses, cupids riding dolphins, a number of fishing scenes among birds and fish, and framed with the personification of the four seasons in the corners. This room also featured statues of the gods that did not survive in the best condition but are still recognizable as Hermes, Athena, and Poseidon. The remains indicate that these statues were of exceptional quality for Roman copies of Greek originals made in Attica.

A number of smaller items were also recovered from this room, such as statuettes, bronze and silver jewelry, and fragments of clay, bone, and glass objects.

Another room has been labeled as the Beast Warrior Hall after the floor mosaic showing a male figure being attacked by a lion. It is thought that the subject could refer to an actual fight that celebrated the emperor.

Excavations are still ongoing since only one-third of the complex has been exposed so far. Work will continue this summer and hopes are high to make more fascinating discoveries.

[Picture Credit: Thessaloniki Ephorate of Antiquities]

A peep inside the storerooms of the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki

As a matter of course, only the most beautiful or most telling artifacts find their way to the exhibition space of the museum, here as well as elsewhere. However, my hands are often itching to take a look inside their basement and browse the dusty shelves in search of forgotten or overlooked treasures.

Take, for instance, the collection of sarcophagi accumulated over the past two hundred years or so, some of which still contain the untouched bones and grave goods of their owners.

One such an impressive marble sarcophagus decorated with Amazons in battle was deterred in 1929. Inside are the bones of a woman, probably of Athenian origin as her gold signet ring carries the name of Ellada (ΕΛΛΑΔΙ). The grave goods belonging to the 4^th century AD were gathered and recorded to be stored away in the basement of the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki.

The same fate was shared by a series of 300 other marble sarcophagi collected from several cemeteries and excavation sites. Most of them belong to high ranking Roman citizens who died between the first and the third century AD. Common grave goods were gold rings, jewelry depicting the god Asclepius, pendants with the effigy of Tyche/Fortuna and a pendant in the shape of an oil lamp.

Gold ring with carved bust of Athena on its bezel and the name of its owner, Hellas, engraved round it [Credit: AWMT]

The only exception seems to be a couch-shaped sarcophagus that was discovered intact in 1837 near the Kalamaria Gate. It contained the bones of a couple, a wooden box holding gold jewels and a magic inscription on a gold sheet. This precious tomb was “acquired” by the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna. I hope that it found a worthy place in that museum at least?

Another rare artefact is the gold ring with a sardonyx stone in which the joined hands of a man and a woman have been carved out and enhanced with the inscription OMONIA. In Roman times, the image symbolized the handshake to seal an agreement or a contract but in this case since it was used on a ring it is thought to be a wedding ring. It was the custom for the bride to wear such a ring on the middle finger of her left hand as the Romans thought that the vein from that finger ran straight to the heart.

Recently, the Thessaloniki storerooms have been opened in order to digitize their archaeological content and this is obviously a proper opportunity to study these earlier finds. Who knows what exciting discoveries there are to be made!

Danake or Obol?

Some ancient sources mention a small silver coin that is labeled as a “danake” and this calls for further investigation.

The Greek word danake is copied from the Persian danak, a small silver coin more or less equivalent to the Greek obol (1/6 of a drachma). The danake, together with the silver half-danake seems to be a provincial coinage used mainly in Asia Minor. It was probably linked to coins from Sidon and Aradus, but in later years it was used by Greeks elsewhere and also in other metals like gold.

Gold danakes were often found in graves and examples are known from Lemnos, Euboia but also as far as Epiros – some of them stamped with a picture like for instance that of a Gorgon. A case is known from a tomb of the 4^th century BC in Thessaly where the lips of the buried woman were sealed with a gold danake. It is speculated that this idea is related to Orphic or Dionysiac mysteries.

The danake often replaced the obol and their names were used alternatively. The obol was given to the dead enabling them to pay the ferryman Charon for their voyage into the underworld and it seems that on certain occasions the danake was used to the same end. On the other hand, numismatists established that the Greeks used the label danake for small foreign coins without fixed denomination.

Gold danake from a sarcophagus of Thessaloniki[Credit: AWMT]

The above leads me to the most remarkable find of all, the double gold danake with a picture of Alexander the Great. This coin, interestingly, is being described as showing the head of Alexander on the front and a nude Alexander sitting on a rock and Bucephalus on the reverse. Based on the picture of the danake published by the Archaeology News Network I cannot match this description as it looks as if this side shows Alexander on horseback.

It is striking that in the 3^rd century AD a gold coin of some value was no longer used in burials. Charon’s obol was often replaced by the danake among which those depicting Alexander the Great - a way for the ruling class to remember their glorious past. This means that seven centuries after Alexander’s death, he was still very much revered! 

I am certain that Alexander himself would never have dreamed of being useful to this point!

[Picture from Archaeology News Network]

All Alexander’s Women by Robbert Bosschart (3rd edition)

This is the third edition of All Alexander’s Women by Robbert Bosschart (ASIN: B07B4HSQ1B). It is rare and rather exceptional to find a book on Alexander the Great looking at this world conqueror from an entirely different and unusual angle: the women who were part of his life in one way or another. This is what Robbert Bosschart has accomplished.

The role of these women was widely developed in his previous two editions in which he stated that Alexander the Great would have introduced equal rights for men and women had he lived long enough! This status of women’s equality was not something Alexander created but existed already in the Persian Empire he conquered. It is said to go back to the Zoroastrian doctrine backed by Cyrus the Great and even before that in a matriarchal era. The leading power was the goddess Inanna, equaled by Anahita and blended later on with Ishtar, Isis, Cybele, and the entire Greek female pantheon; she was still venerated in the Sassanid era.

In this third edition, Robbert Bosschart talks us through the relations Alexander had with women, the best known being his own mother Olympias and his sister Cleopatra, Queen Ada of Caria and Queen-Mother Sisygambis of Persia, who both had adopted him as their son. This was not a small matter for in the case of Persia it meant that Alexander was accepted to rule “by the power of Ahuramazda” together with that of the goddess Anahita.

It is a vast topic hardly mentioned in our Western literature since ancient Greeks generally treated women as mere trade goods. It is easy to understand why this concept of equality - which must have looked very “Barbarian” in their eyes – was willfully left out of their literature. The macho Roman writers did the same and as a matter of course our Western world was unaware of the customs and habits of the East.

Robbert Bosschart is taking us a step further as he develops the Persian point of view on the matter of equality, which he only touched on superficially in his previous versions. He is digging even deeper into the subject exploring many oriental sources. One of them is the Persepolis Fortification Tablets, an archive of thousands of clay tablets containing over 15,000 texts from the Achaemenid Period which are only partially translated till now.

Another aspect highlighted in this book is the Persian version of the Alexander Romance, the Darab-Nama and the Sikandar-Nama, a mixture of Old Persian tradition with Hellenistic and Muslim themes. Also discussed is the Liber de Morte, a fictional last will which is often but not always attached to the Alexander Romance. Last but not least, the author reminds us that Alexander is elevated to the status of the prophet in the Koran, hence his nickname the “Two-Horned”. The book also includes an interesting chapter about the “King’s Eyes”, integer secret keepers that were responsible for reporting to the king (a kind of Persian Intelligence Service avant-la-lettre) and controlling the implementation of his laws and orders all through the King’s huge empire.

To complete his extensive research and to take it to a level to be comprehended by all, Robbert Bosschart has added a number of helpful lists and tables: Historical Dates/ Facts in Alexander’s Life; Chronological list of Persian kings; The Classical sources on Alexander’s era; Reference works; Biographical/Geographical Index (alphabetical); and an extremely useful list of Where Alexander’s Women appear in the Classical Sources”.

I find the subject of this book truly fascinating! The Persian viewpoint for one, is unique. And just imagine what our world would have looked like had Alexander lived long enough to realize his “merging” of East and West as he undoubtedly planned when he celebrated the mass wedding in Susa. Not only would our world have known one single ruler, one single currency, and one single vehicular language (Greek), but we also would have lived in a society where men and women were each other’s equals.

P.S. For those who can’t wait, a select extract of a good 50 pages of this book is available (free of charge) at Academia.edu.

The restoration of Ostia Antica, the harbor of Rome

Would it not be a great experience to travel from the heart of Rome to the site of Ostia Antica by boat just as the ancient Romans once did? Well, the good news is that the project is taking shape with a departure from Ponte Marconi on the Tiber River where the works on the dock are in progress and expected to be finalized in the summer of next year (2019). Meanwhile, Ostia still can be reached by train.

The restoration carried out at Ostia Antica is not centered on specific buildings but comprises 187 structures on the left of the Decumanus, the main road running from the Porta Romana to the Porta Marina.

Among the buildings involved, are the so-called Republican Area, the Collegiate Temple, and the Seat of Augustals. Also along this road, restorations were carried out at the Caseggiato del Sole, a residential building, and at the Mitreo dei Serpenti whose frescoes have now been protected with a roof. More extensive work was done in the thirty-one rooms of the Terme dell’Indivioso, including the large mosaics of sea creatures.

One of the main problems in Ostia – also current in Pompeii, for instance – is the maintenance of the many monuments, warehouses, arcades, taverns, and private houses. Archaeologists are hoping that private funds will be made available in order to clean up more of the construction. Over the past four years, however, they were able to clear the heavy overgrowth of vegetation but also to treat and eliminate the surface deposits and organic residues on the stones.

I imagine that this face-lift is long overdue and the city should finally attract the many tourists it deserves. We will remember that Ostia was Rome’s access to the Mediterranean. Situated on the mouth of the Tiber, it was one of the most important ports in antiquity. In its heydays in the 2^nd and 3^rd century AD, the city counted 100,000 inhabitants but from the 3^rd century onward most of the activity shifted to the larger and newly constructed harbor of Portus, leaving Ostia to the rich aristocrats who turned it into a seaside resort.

[More pictures can be seen on The Archaeology News Network, courtesy of La Repubblica]