A Dedication of Philip III Arrhidaeus and Alexander IV

Strolling through the temporary exhibition about Samothrace at the New Acropolis Museum in Athens, I was surprised to find two odd-looking objects labeled as Dedications of Philip III and Alexander IV.

When Alexander the Great died in 323 BC, there was no heir to the throne of the King of Asia, and his generals had a rough time agreeing on a successor. Alexander’s son with Roxane had not been born yet, and his earlier son with Barsine was never recognized by Alexander. After many flaring discussions, it was decided that Alexander’s simple-minded half-brother Arrhidaeus would share the throne with Roxane’s baby boy under the respective names of Philip III Arrhidaeus and Alexander IV. Neither was to rule as king, at least not at this very early stage.

Here at the museum, this is the first time I have seen artifacts tied to both kings, and I wonder whether these are the only ones. The Dedication dates from between 323, when their co-kingship was implemented, and 317 BC, the year in which Philip III Arrhidaeus was brutally murdered by Olympias.

Samothrace is, of course, the place where Philip II and Olympias, Alexander’s parents, met during an initiation ceremony to the sacred rites of the most secret Mysteries, but why is this island so important that even young Alexander IV and his simple-minded uncle honor it with a dedication of their own?

According to Diodorus, initiation at the Sanctuary of the Great Gods promised an opportunity to “become a better and more pious person.” Divine forces of earth, sky, and sea played a fundamental role in the mysteries that shrouded (and are still shrouding) the island. From as early as the 7^th century BC all the way down to the 4^th century AD, the Sanctuary provided insight into spiritual, political, and cultural life. The intense activity is shown through the host of monuments erected here since they are all set in selective locations throughout the landscape to enhance the initiates’ experience.

     

 

The marble Doric building where the Dedication of Philip III Arrhidaeus and Alexander IV was found would have been the first significant construction the visitor saw when entering the Sanctuary. It stood nine meters high and welcomed the pilgrims with the dedicatory inscription reading “King Philip [and] Alexander to the Great Gods,” a proof – if needed – that both kings ruled equally. I did not find the inscription at the museum; only a fragment of a monumental eagle’s head and a wing bit from the two large eagles that once adorned the construction, probably as acroteria. The Dedication monument was the work of local craftsmen who used two different kinds of marble. For the façade, which counted six columns, Pentelic marble from Attica had the preference, while the sides and back marble came from the nearby island of Thasos, as was common elsewhere in Samothrace. The open chamber is said to have preserved its mosaic floor with a central panel unusually made of rhomboid marble tesserae, which I have not seen at the museum but may still be in situ.

The construction of such a significant monument by the two kings or whoever acted on their behalf was meant to reinforce their rightful succession to Alexander the Great. Using Pentelic marble for its façade was an iconic reference to other great monuments in Athens and to Athenian dedications in other locations. To the visitors of those days, this Dedication would also be seen as Macedonia’s claim to power over mainland Greece.

After this exciting discovery, I spent more time investigating the other artifacts to learn more about Samothrace. The most valuable tools are an excellent reconstruction of the site and a clear map of all the pertaining buildings.

I find another intriguing testimony of Alexander’s heritage in one of the showcases: a tiny gold applique of a lion of Achaemenid origin, once inlaid with precious stones. It has been dated to the 4^th century BC and may be a trophy one of his soldiers brought back from Persia.

There is also the top part of a stele containing a dedication of King Lysimachos of Thrace from between 288 and 281 BC. Based on the surviving first fifteen lines, Lysimachos is honored for restoring sacred lands on the mainland initially granted to Samothrace by either Philip II and Alexander the Great or Philip Arrhidaeus III and Alexander IV. Boundary stones for said sacred land have been found near Alexandroupolis in Greece. Lysimachos is also honored as a friend and benefactor of Samothrace, hence his title of Lysimachus Euergetes as inscribed on the altar erected in his honor and used during annual festivals.

Just a few years later, between 285 and 281 BC, Ptolemy II built a Propylon, one of the most lavishly decorated entrance buildings from Hellenistic times. This must have been an impressive monument since the metopes were an elegant succession of alternating 100 rosettes and 104 garlanded bucrania or ox skulls. It makes you wonder about the richness of the other details.

To remain with the Ptolemaic dynasty, Arsinoe II built a splendid Rotunda at the Sanctuary. It is not clear, however, whether this Rotunda was made while she was married to Lysimachos of Thrace, mentioned above, and her first husband (288-281 BC) or after she became the wife of her brother Ptolemy II, her third husband (273-270 BC). The meaning of the Dedication thus varies accordingly. If the Rotunda was built during her marriage with Lysimachos, it might stand for the alliance of Egypt with Thrace and the northern Aegean. If erected when she married her brother, it could mean to thank Samothrace for sheltering her after fleeing from her second husband, Ptolemy Keraunas. This Rotunda was also decorated with reliefs of alternating rosettes and bucrania, a favorite theme. A lovely rosette and a strange-looking, round and flat tile from the roof are exhibited here.

Much more recent is the Dedication to the Great Gods of Samothrace by the Thessalian League from 170-140 BC. It tells us that their embassy was led by Damothoinos, son of Leontomenes and a member of a prominent family from Pherae; he was the leader of the league in 161/160 BC. This Dedication shows the importance of the Thessalian League after being freed from Macedonian rule.

The best-known sculpture from Samothrace is the famous Nike, now at the Louvre and recently restored and cleaned for the pleasure of our eyes! It has been dated to the 2^nd century BC and was a gift from the people of Rhodes to thank the gods who protected seafarers and granted them victory in war, maybe in commemoration of the Battle of Myonnissos or the victory over Antiochus III at Side in 190 BC.

Yet the Athens exhibition shows another Nike statue, less flashy than this famous one, which is said to be one of four that stood at each corner of the Hieron built between 325 and 150 BC.

Another piece that caught my attention was this lovely frieze of dancing girls. It was found in an imposing building of 34x23 meters that is neither a temenos nor a propylon and thus has been labeled as the Hall of Choral Dancers after the frieze that was discovered inside. Dating from the middle of the 4^th century BC, this Hall is the first marble structure of the Sanctuary, maybe even the oldest and the largest one. The frieze we see here is only a small section of the continuous row of hundreds of dancing maidens running around the entire building. Besides the dancing figures, female musicians also accompanied the long procession. The wealth exposed in this monument leads experts to believe that it was commissioned by an influential donor and that the name of Philip II, Alexander’s father, has fallen since it was here that he met Queen Olympias.

Because of Philip’s and Olympia’s early presence and the splendid monumental dedications made during the later Hellenistic period, it is generally believed that Samothrace played a crucial role in Macedonia’s legacy. I would even add a pivotal role to Alexander’s legacy!

A shipwreck located near Larnaca, Cyprus

Underwater archaeology is becoming more and more popular and the Mediterranean Sea situated at the core of many antique civilizations is a vast and favorite diving area.

The most recent news comes from Mazotos near Larnaca where a shipwreck from the Classical Period was discovered in 2007. It sits at a depth of 45 meters and dates from the 4^th century BC.

[Picture from Cyprus Mail]

Over the past ten years, the wreck has yielded many fascinating artifacts giving us a unique insight into the sea trade between the Aegean Sea and Cyprus. So far, it has been determined that the ship set sail in the days before Alexander the Great, probably at the height of Classical Greek civilization. It is the kind of wreck that will provide information about seafaring, seaborne trade, and shipbuilding in those days mainly because of its incredible state of preservation.

The main cargo was composed of wine amphorae, probably originating from the island of Chios, and an estimated 500 amphorae are scattered all over the nearly flat seabed. Four layers of amphorae are still in their original stowage position and the fact that the wreck lies in the open sea led archaeologists to conclude that the ship did not capsize but that seawater filled the haul after a storm or high waves.

The wreck has also revealed a cargo of lead stocks; at least three anchors; a large number of olive pits; and even some structural timber, although most organic materials have disintegrated after so many centuries.

For now, archaeologists will continue recovering the cargo at this depth. However, without the required conservation infrastructure, bringing up the vessel is not an option. We will have to wait for what else will emerge from beneath the old layers of silt and mud.

Around the theater of Paphos

A team of Australian archaeologists started working at the city’s theater. Their main objective is to place this Hellenistic-Roman theater within the general urban context.

Excavations have exposed a paved road, 8.5 meters wide, immediately south of the theater which served to access the venue. Yet this road also confirmed that the city of Paphos was built according to the typical Hippodamian plan. About 30 granite columns, the tallest of which reached seven meters have been found in the area, confirming the importance of this road. The granite came from the Troad and was widely used by the Romans all around the Mediterranean.

Said theater is considered as being the oldest in Cyprus and was continually used from about 300 BC until it was destroyed by the severe earthquake that occurred in 365 AD. Right next to it a Nymphaeum from the 2^nd century AD has been located as well. 

The Australian project is still on-going, so I do look forward to the next update.

Letoon, sister-city of Xanthos

In every ancient city, the gods are never far away, and sooner or later, we stumble upon their temples and sanctuaries, but I never felt their presence as explicitly as here in Letoon at the southern end of the fertile Xanthos Valley.

Letoon was the most important sanctuary of Lycia, dedicated to its three deities: Leto, who was the family goddess and guardian of the tomb, and her twin children, Apollo and Artemis. The city was administered by nearby Xanthos (only 4 km away), closely linked together and often seen as a kind of double-city, although the term “city” may not really apply to Letoon because no major settlement was ever found. Letoon was a sacred cult center and the spiritual heart of Lycia.

According to the legend mentioned by the Latin poet, Ovid, Zeus fell in love with the nymph Leto, who gave birth to twins, Apollo and Artemis, on the island of Delos. Hera, Zeus’ wife, was very jealous of this relationship and chased Leto and her twins away to Anatolia. That is how they arrived here at Letoon. Leto came to quench her thirst at this spring, but local shepherds tried to prevent her from drinking, which annoyed her immensely; she became so fed up with them that she turned them into frogs (which still are croaking here today).

        

2. The theatre

3. Porticoes

4. Temple of Apollo

5. Temple of Artemis

6. Temple of Leto

7. Nymphaeum

8. Byzantine basilica

Based on an inscription found at Letoon, we know that monthly and annual sacrifices took place and that those who dared offend the goddess were found guilty before Leto, her children, and the Nymphs. This custom may go back to the earlier cult of Eni Mahanahi, a Lycian deity known from the 7th to the 5th century BC. This Lycian cult of the mother goddess was one of the many such influences that originated in Anatolia and spread throughout the ancient world. So it is not surprising to hear that, because of this connection with the matriarchal customs of Anatolia, even a woman was allowed to preside over the annual autumn assembly at Letoon.

What brought me here is a legend about Alexander. The story goes that when he visited the Sacred Spring, a bronze tablet emerged from the water carrying an inscription in ancient writing, which, when translated, announced that the Persian Empire would be destroyed by a Greek. The news obviously pleased Alexander and his entourage, and all rejoiced at the idea that the King’s campaign was favored by the gods.

Since ancient times, the Lycians have used this Nymphaeum for their meetings, during which the Sacred Spring occupied a very special place. During excavations, the well has produced hundreds of terracotta votive statues dating from the early Hellenistic days to the Roman times. It is lovely to see that even today, the area around this well is very marshy and the remains are often submerged. It creates a very lively picture of the Hellenistic Nymphaeum that once stood here and to which the Romans added a semi-circular pool whose outlines are still visible. In those days, the sanctuary was surrounded by large porticoes where pilgrims and believers could stroll around and rest. Unfortunately, a large part of this building has not yet been excavated, although it is known that in Byzantine times a Basilica was erected on the altar’s terrace, which ended up being flooded as well. 

The main features at Letoon are, of course, the three temples standing on a podium, which is customary for Lycia. The most obvious one is the Temple of Leto from the 5th century BC, which is basically Ionic and has been partially restored. Its particularity is that the inside Corinthian columns were integrated into the wall. It does not show at first glance, but this temple is said to be one of the best preserved Greek temples and a most exceptional example of Greek architecture. Secondly, there is the Temple of Apollo from the 4th century BC in Doric style, where a marvelous mosaic was retrieved showing a rose motive in its center and Apollo’s bow and arrows on one side and his lyre on the other – the god’s personal symbols. A copy now replaces the original that has been moved to the Museum of Fethiye. Thirdly, we find an Ionic Temple between the two previous ones. This one, the smallest one and showing only its foundations, is dedicated to Artemis and also dates from the 4th century BC. Nothing much remains of the last two temples since over the centuries their limestone has fueled the then-popular lime-kilns.

The pilgrims must have been awed by the spectacular view of these temples as they approached from the Sacred Road. With a little imagination, one can almost grasp that feeling when walking over these ancient marble slabs.

Near the Temple of Apollo, an important stela was found bearing an inscription in three languages: Greek, Lycian, and Aramaic. This decree authorizes the cult of the deities and establishes the provisions for its officers. They are not verbatim translations, but each version contains some information that is not mentioned in the other two. The Aramaic inscription with its 27 lines contains the most condensed text, as opposed to the Lycian language needing 41 lines and the Greek 35. Useless to point out that this stela helped to decipher the peculiar Lycian language. This unique document can be seen at the Fethiye Museum.

Another most attractive building at Letoon is the theater with imposing vaulted entrances on either side. Above the south vault, we find a series of masks separated by triglyphs. It definitely is a Greek theater that has been transformed by the Romans in the 2nd century BC. What makes it so special is that it was carved from the natural bedrock except for the aisles. It stood at the end of the road coming from Xanthos and is said to be one of the finest in Turkey!

[Click here to see all the pictures of Letoon]

Sicily and the Sea, temporary exhibition in Amsterdam

The exhibition Sicily and the Sea is a real treat! It is presently running at the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam and can be visited till 17 April 2016.

It has, in fact, a collection of finds from several Greek and Roman ships that sank, generally during a storm, around the island of Sicily. The names of most of these places are not well-known, but there are plenty of maps to clarify the locations.

The objects retrieved from shipwrecks come from a wide area around the Mediterranean island: the Gela shipwreck is a Greek merchant ship of 17x6m, with a crew of 3 or 4, dating from 500-480BC, that sailed from mainland Greece to the Sicilian colonies; the Capistello shipwreck is an Italian merchant ship of 20m long, with a crew of 3 or 4, dating from 300-280 BC, that sailed from Campania to North Africa; the Levanzo shipwreck is Roman, with a crew of 3 or 4, dating from 275-300 AD, that sailed from North Africa to Rome; and the Scauri shipwreck is Sicilian,  with a crew of 2 or 3 crew, dating from about 450AD.

Exhibited are, for instance, a cargo of red colored vessels retrieved from the Panarea shipwreck, dated to 400-350BC; copper ingots found off Pantelleria dating from around 1500 BC; a bronze Phoenician statuette from around 1000 BC found off the coast of Sciacca; a Corinthian helmet found off Camarina and dated to between 600 and 500BC; a lovely Pyxis with a painted marriage ceremony from Centuripe and dated 3^rd century BC. There is more, of course, like this Greek bowl with stamped decoration found near the Lipari Islands and dated to the 3^rd century BC; a quite unusual Greek terracotta altar or incense burner recovered from a ship off the Panarea Islands and dated to the 3^rd century BC together with some votive anchors; a marble male torso that could be either Greek or Roman, and might represent one of the Dioscuri found off Marsala and dated to 200–1 BC; a Sicilian-Greek Hercules found off Catania from the 2^nd century BC; and a rare Carthaginian hoard of bronze coins found off Pantelleria, dated 264-241 BC. The list is simply too long, for there are also some ship’s anchors and a choice of amphorae of all sizes and shapes, not forgetting the cute Phoenician or Egyptian glass beads with a human face.

The most remarkable pieces, however, are the three ships' rams, one Carthaginian and two Roman. The Carthaginian ram is unique, the only one ever recovered from the bottom of the sea. They all belong to the fierce battle that ended the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage in 241 BC near the Egadi Islands, south of Sicily. Here, underwater archaeologists have recently recovered ten Roman battering rams and one Carthaginian. This means that the three battering rams that are shown at this exhibition are by themselves reason enough to go to Amsterdam. There is no way to distinguish the Carthaginian battering ram from the Roman ones; it seems to come down to their respective inscriptions. How unique to see this!

A full set of my pictures is available in my album Sicily and the Sea (please click).

Alexander de Grote. De ondergang van het Perzische Rijk by Jona Lendering

Under the original title “Alexander de Grote. De ondergang van het Perzische rijk” (ISBN 9025331440) Jona Lendering is about the only author to have written a book about Alexander in Dutch. There are less than a handful of books available in Dutch translation and even less written by Dutch authors, so it is evident that his book is a valuable contribution for those who do not read in another language.

The great merit of this book is that the author also includes information that has been made available from Babylonian and Persian clay tablets, contributing to a more complete historical picture.

He sketches the situation in Greece and Macedonia during the reign of King Philip II, Alexander’s father, down to the events leading to his murder and Alexander’s accession to the throne. He then takes the reader step by step through the foreign lands as Alexander marches east clarifying many cultural backgrounds of the people he conquered on the way. The book ends obviously with the death of Alexander in Babylon and the ensuing civil war over his succession.

The book contains good local maps of the king’s campaigns, which are a great help to better understanding the vast complexity of each battlefield and the demands of each and every siege of the key cities and sites.

It is written in a simple style which greatly helps the novice to follow Alexander’s path and to assimilate the huge amount of information that inevitably is involved.

Water management in antiquity

Water management is a modern word for something that exists since early antiquity.

We tend to think of the Romans as being the first to bring water where it was needed thanks to the ingenuity and the skills of their architects since they left us a great number of aqueducts and fountains, but they certainly were not the first to “manage” water.

Other civilizations in other climates had to rely on other techniques and other resources. One such system is known as the kareez or qanats, which were first mentioned to me in Libya. There the ancient people of Garamantes, a Berber population that prospered from about 500 BC to 700 AD, used this technique locally known as “foggaras”. It consists of a network of underground tunnels with shafts by which fossil water is led to the desert surface creating sudden magic fertile lands and oasis.

The idea sounded rather abstract till I came across a similar system near the city of Nurata, roughly north between Bukhara and Samarkand in Uzbekistan. At the foot of the Nurata fort (Nur in antiquity) is a holy mosque that boasts about its sacred waters that come from the distant hills through a system of qanats. Here, the qanat is an underground tunnel that slopes gently and transports water from a spot under a distant hill to the lower lands; it is punctuated with a series of vertical access shafts at set intervals through which the channel could be cleaned. (See: The qanats, one of the greatest inventions of mankind)

More recently, I was told that it was, in fact, an ancient Persian invention or maybe even older, since similar waterworks were mentioned in Sumerian and Assyrian documents, i.e., at least one thousand years earlier. Yet the invention is generally attributed to the Iranians at some time during the first millennium BC, who heavily relied on the qanats until the middle of the 20^th century. When I was recently in Iran, I was shown a succession of heaps of stones which were the shaft’s entries into the underground channel. Unfortunately, all I saw were these mounds, merely oversized anthills, not a real illustration of this ingenious system.

Striking, however, were the so-called yakhchal or ice pits, which are clearly visible above ground in Iran, like this one on the road between Shiraz and Yazd. The system, said to have been mastered around 400 BC (just before Alexander’s arrival!), is quite sophisticated, as clearly explained in Wikipedia: “they built a wall in the east–west direction near the yakhchal (ice pit). In winter, the qanat water would be channelled to the north side of the wall, whose shade made the water freeze more quickly, increasing the ice formed per winter day. Then the ice was stored in yakhchals — specially designed, naturally cooled refrigerators. A large underground space with thick insulated walls was connected to a qanat, and a system of windcatchers or wind towers was used to draw cool subterranean air up from the qanat to maintain temperatures inside the space at low levels, even during hot summer days. As a result, the ice melted slowly and was available year-round”.

On another front, the water supply system of Petra in Jordan is at present under close scrutiny. The attentive visitor walking through the narrow canyon (Siq) to the heart of the city will automatically notice the water channels at the elbow’s height following the contours of the side walls, interrupted by shallow holes meant to filter the water. Yet the entire landscape around Petra is littered with smaller and larger cisterns using the natural slope of the rock walls and the cracks in the cliffs. I was taken to such a cistern from Nabataean times on the road to Little Petra, nothing more than a square door in a huge rock wall. A narrow staircase led me down into the dark water reservoir, and I could only guess its depth. In its glory days, it is said to hold as much as 1.2 million liters – how can I size that up? Today’s water level is much lower, but the precious water is still being used to irrigate the Bedouin crops in the surrounding fields and to water the animals.

It is rather unusual to encounter a water problem high up the El Deir Temple at Petra, also known as the Monastery. (see: Hellenistic Petra, indirect heritage of Alexander). Where it stands, El Deir always takes the full brunt of any storm that rolls in from across the desert. Besides, this monument is not cut deep enough into the soft sandstone wall and leaves the façade very exposed.

In front of  El Deir, there used to be a catch pool designed to collect the water from occasional downpours, but at present, the very entrance to this pool is obstructed by rubble and soil that accumulated over the centuries. Storms, when they occur, are rather violent and turn into torrents of fast-moving water that create puddles at the base of the façade. Today, the flash floods hit the monument from all sides, and water stagnates at the base of El Deir, whose walls absorb salt and other minerals from the soil, leaving a crystallized crust on the stone's surface. This crust weakens the stone and eventually will lead to its destruction. The Nabataeans clearly were aware of the problem and built that wall with the catch pool. Archaeologists now realize that the reconstruction of this wall is a priority.

Evidently, water is not always where we need it and is not always available in the appropriate amount. Another part of the archaeological project at El Deir aims to clear out dozens of water channels and cisterns in order to restore the Nabataeans’ efficient water management. At the same time, the current inhabitants could profit from the precious water, and this efficient system could eventually serve other desert communities.

Water management is nothing new, and it is quite amazing that in our advanced 21^st century, we can still learn so much from our forefathers! 

The sanctuary of Asclepius on the Acropolis resuscitated at last.

 The presence of a sanctuary of Asclepius on the slopes of Athens’ Acropolis has been a subject of discussion for many years. Scholars knew there was such a building but till now it could not be located.

The first temple dates from 420-419 BC and a second one was built right on top of it at some time during the first century BC, probably after 86 BC.

It has been a painstaking business of shifting through piles of stones till it was established that they somehow belonged together. After handling and taking inventory for five years or so, it was only in 2011 that the first hints were found among 450 pertinent blocks. Two stones from a corner were matching the foundations. After that is what relatively easy to determine that all remaining blocks belonged to the sanctuary since they were made of the same type of marble and had the same design. Unfortunately, over the centuries, many stones have been re-used in other constructions and it is not easy to identify them.

The temple which archaeologists are aiming to restore is the second sanctuary that will, however, include later repairs and expansions from the third century AD, i.e. after the thorough destruction of Athens by the Herulians in 267 AD. In a first stage, they hope to reconstruct the base of the walls of the sanctuary by the end of 2016.

It will be a huge challenge to puzzle together the many buildings that crowded the foot of the Acropolis over eons past.

[Picture from the Greek Reporter]

Selinunte died tragically not unlike Pompeii

It is common knowledge that Pompeii was razed from the earth's surface following the volcanic eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. Still, the sudden end of Selinunte in Sicily is no less spectacular, yet unknown till now.

Selinunte initially was allied with Carthage, but after the battle of Himera (see: The Battle of Himera, a significant confrontation) in 480 BC, they sought the protection of Syracuse. Yet the situation in Sicily was never stable, and like Selinunte, other cities kept changing sides, at times with the Carthaginians and against them. One such case developed in the late 5^th century BC. After a nine-day siege, Hannibal utterly destroyed Selinunte, slaughtering 16,000 inhabitants and soldiers and enslaving the 5,000 male survivors and thousands of women and children. From one day to the next, the thriving city was entirely deserted.

Recent excavations have shed some light on Selinunte's sudden disappearance. Archaeologists have found half-eaten remains of meals abandoned by the people, as bowls with food residues were unearthed. Besides, they discovered dozens of unfired ceramic tiles and pots abandoned by the terrified workers before they could put them in the kilns. Whereas the city of Pompeii disappeared nearly overnight under a thick layer of volcanic ash, Selinunte was gradually covered beneath a thick coat of dust and earth.

Thanks to the wonders of modern geophysical techniques, it was possible to investigate the terrain. So far, 2,500 of Selinunte's houses have been identified, lining up alongside its streets, around its harbor, and even inside its busy industrial zone. What's more, we are able, for the first time, to have a detailed, comprehensive plan of a Greek city from the classical era, where until now, we only had scant and fragmentary impressions. Thanks to this study, scholars have counted the number of houses in the city, which has led to determining its population. Since even the industrial zone has been preserved, deciding on its interaction with the residential area is now possible.

So far, fewer than eighty kilns have been located, including huge ones with thousands of roof tiles and large ceramic amphorae. Another dozen kilns were dedicated to producing giant ceramic food vessels and ceramic coffins. The smaller kilns were used to make smaller pieces like tableware, loom weights, and statuettes of the gods. Among some of the pottery-making tools, traces of paint were also identified. It has been established that the potters had a place of worship for their own gods like Athena, who protected the workers, Artemis, who assisted in childbirth, Demeter as the goddess of fertility and harvest, and even mighty Zeus.

It is hard to imagine the hustle and bustle of Selinunte's harbor and industrial zone. Special attention will now be turned toward exposing the foundations of the large warehouses that once stood there. Excavations of the shops and the houses around the agora revealed that ships and goods from all over the Mediterranean moored here. So far, pottery, glass, and bronze ware from Egypt, Turkey, southern France, and northern Italy have been found. For instance, Selinunte's production in 409 BC is estimated to have reached 300,000 ceramic artifacts annually. It has been calculated that the citizens used less than 20% of these vessels. The remainder was destined to ship their rich harvests of agricultural produce, like wheat and olives.

In my earlier blog about Selinunte (see: More temples in Sicily to be proud of), I only spoke about the temples, which, since they had not been closely identified, were simply referred to by a letter. These temples were mainly disturbed by successive earthquakes or partially plundered as their building stones were reused for other structures over the centuries. There was indeed a lot of rubble lying around, although a first effort was made to clear the layout of the city and its main street, now revealing several shops (in 2014).

Basically, 15% of the city surface is being exposed, i.e., primarily temples and Selinunte's acropolis. All the rest is still hidden from view. Selinunte has become Europe's most important archaeological park despite this meager percentage!  

The oldest lighthouse in the world at Patara

In an earlier blog, I spoke about this most ancient lighthouse, which I saw from a distance during my walking tour of Lycia (see: Wonderful Patara!). At that time, new excavations were underway, and it seems that by now they have been finalized, and the lighthouse is being exposed in all its glory.

For many years, it was thought that the lighthouse at La Coruna in Spain was the oldest in the world, but this record has been broken by this one in Patara by sixty years.

A large chunk of Patara was buried under the ever-moving sand dunes, and recently, with great efforts, major buildings like the theater and the Lycian Council (see: The World’s First Parliament Building) have been cleared, both looking brand-new. The latest work was carried out at the site of the lighthouse that must have stood 16-20 meters tall right at the entrance of the water channel leading to the harbor of Patara. It actually has Hellenistic features, and an inscription around the base of the lighthouse, once carved in bronze, has been exposed. Also, the entrance and a spiral staircase are now visible to the brave visitor.

Archaeologists presently claim that this lighthouse was destroyed by a tsunami at some time in antiquity, based on the human skeleton found among the ruins. This skeleton could be that of the lighthouse keeper who was crushed under the crumbling stones.

Further excavations are still ongoing at the Basilica, the Lima Hamam, the Palaestra, the city’s Acropolis, and the Ancient Lycian waterway (see: A new Season of Excavations at Patara).

[Pictures from Turkey's for Life]