Side’s Museum clean up

The Archaeological Museum of Side had a charm that was quite unique. It is housed inside the ancient Roman Baths from the 2^nd century AD, which had been restored and roofed in the 1960s. 

I found the interior quite exciting, as the marble floors and water basins gave me a true sense of what the Roman public must have experienced when visiting these baths, with high vaulted ceilings and filtered natural light from the windows high above. 

[Picture from Turkiye Today, AA Photo]

Presently, the exhibition space has been revamped, i.e., officially restored. The pictures published in Turkiye Today show how the statues stand inside shop windows framed with neon light. Each highlighted ‘window’ regroups a number of artefacts in the otherwise semi-obscure interior. The features of the Baths have disappeared, including the remarkable original marble floor. 

The renovation is clearly meant to attract more visitors, or visitors of another kind. The newspaper article stresses the large collection of more than 3,000 artifacts and nearly 10,000 coins ranging from the Late Bronze Age to Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine times. Must we assume that they were hidden from view until now? 

Although the museum held many sarcophagi, statues, reliefs, and inscriptions, I was not really impressed by the quality of the pieces. The most striking object was the bit of inscription written in the lost Sidetic language (see: Progress in deciphering the lost language of Side). 

Since 2014, new excavations have exposed many more artifacts that are not being specified in any way. Some are said to be presented here for the first time. Otherwise, they are vaguely referred to as contributing to a better insight into Side's daily life. Let’s hope for more information to substantiate this theory!

Progress in deciphering the lost language of Side

Sidetic, the language spoken in the region of Side long before Alexander's arrival, remains generally a mystery. Till now, it is not fully understood, as only 26 letters of the alphabet have been identified. Researchers based their study on bilingual inscriptions (Greek/Sidetic) consisting of just one or two lines found during excavations of the archaeological site. 

Recently, longer bilingual texts, some of which run 30 to 40 lines, were discovered, and five more letters could be added to the existing list, raising the number to 31 letters. 

The research is now focusing on the structure of the alphabet, word forms, and possible links with Anatolian languages other than the Greek dialects of Sillyum or Aspendos that are unrelated. However, Sidetic could be compared with other Anatolian languages, such as Lycian and Carian, which, given the location of Side, make them good candidates. 

As I mentioned before (see: Side didn’t put up any resistance to Alexander), the word Side means pomegranate, and scholars tend to attach the same meaning to its Sidetic forms of ‘Siruawn’ and ‘ Siruawan’. After all, pomegranates are still widely grown in the area today, and it is obvious that they stamped their mark on the city’s name, language, and symbols such as its coins. 

It is often said that Greek supplanted Sidetic after Alexander conquered the city in 333 BC, but we should keep in mind that this change did not happen overnight. Many later inscriptions in Sidetic confirm that the inhabitants continued to use their own language. 

A striking example is the bilingual inscription found in the Temple of Serapis from the 2^nd century AD. Its construction behind the great theater was sponsored by local citizens whose names and deeds were carved in stone to thank them. It was obviously important that the people of Side could read and properly understand the importance of their contribution in their own language six centuries after Alexander!