Part of the
excavated mosaic floor of a late antique building (Peter Jülich)
(November 2, 2015) Classical
scholars from Münster are excavating one of the few sites of ancient Roman
Syria in Turkey that are currently accessible as a result of the political
situation in the Middle East
Münster classical scholars discovered invaluable ancient
Syrian mosaics and buildings and are excavating one of the few sites that are
currently accessible for studies on ancient Roman Syria despite the tense
political situation in the Middle East. “The ancient city of Doliche, which was
part of the province of Syria in Roman times, lies at the fringes of the
Turkish metropolis of Gaziantep today”, explains Prof. Dr. Engelbert Winter
from University of Münster’s Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics”.
“The city is one of the few places where Syrian urban culture from the
Hellenistic-Roman era can currently still be studied.” Urban centres of this
kind have thus far barely been explored. Famous sites in today’s Syria that
would qualify for such research, such as Apamea or Cyrrhus, have either been
destroyed or are inaccessible because of the war.
View from Dülük
Baba Tepesi of the urban area of Doliche,
situated on the
mound at the centre of the picture
Foto:
Forschungsstelle Asia Minor"
Prof. Winter spoke towards the end of the first excavation
season of the new excavation project on urban development in ancient Syria,
which the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) is
funding with a total of 600,000 euros starting this year. At the same time, the
researchers are continuing their excavations in the sanctuary of Iuppiter
Dolichenus, in which the Cluster of Excellence is involved.
View of the newly
excavated parts of the abbey of St. Solomon at Dülük Baba Tepesi
Foto: Peter Jülich
“The situation today at the site of Apamea, one of the most
important ancient cities of Syria, is particularly bad”, according to Prof.
Winter. “Illicit excavations, clearly visible in satellite imagery, have
destroyed the entire urban area. It remains doubtful if research there will
ever be possible again. The excavations in Cyrrhus, which had recently been
resumed, also had to be stopped due to the current situation.” On the other
hand, the ancient city of Antioch on the Orontes, formerly the capital of the
Roman province of Syria and today the Turkish metropolis of Antakya, is largely
inaccessible as a result of modern construction. “For the time being,
therefore, our excavations in the city of Doliche, which is situated on Turkish
territory and which can, in addition, well developed through extensive
preliminary work and accessible to archaeological research, can provide new
information about the urban culture in the ancient Northern Syrian midland”,
says excavation director Prof. Winter of the University of Münster’s Asia Minor
Research Centre.
Bronze figurine of
a stag from the early 1st millennium BC
Foto: Peter Jülich
Outstanding mosaic
with filigran pattern
“The most outstanding discovery of our excavations is a
high-quality mosaic floor in a splendid complex of buildings with a court
enclosed by columns that originally covered more than 100 square metres”,
explains archaeologist Dr. Michael Blömer. “Because of its size and the strict,
well-composed sequence of filigran geometric patterns, the mosaic is one of the
most beautiful examples of late antique mosaic art in the region.” Even if the
building’s function is as yet unclear, it has to be a wealthy urban villa.
“These first findings already reveal the potential that the site has for
further research into the environment of the urban elites and for questions as
to the luxurious furnishing in urban area.”