Additions to Livius.org (very minor)

The entrance of the Hellespont

I visited Turkey and returned with some new photos. You can find them on the pages dedicated Tenedos, Abydus, to Adana (a nice photo of Hadrian), the Hellespont, Alexandria in the Troad, Alexandria near Issus, the river Scamander (I like this page because it combines photos from four places), and the funeral mound of Caracalla’s favorite Festus at Üvecik Tepe (scroll down a bit). It’s mostly from museums I visited, and not really important.

There’s also a photo of the battlefield at Aigospotamoi, but the steep shoreline on the site made me wonder whether the identification was right.

Çanakkale, Archaeological Museum

Phial from Tenedos

Çanakkale is a few kilometers east of the ruins of Troy, but it appears that few visitors of the ancient city also go to the museum. We were the only ones over there, and the guards had to switch on the light for us.

It’s a shame, because the four large rooms of the Çanakkale museum are very much worth a visit, and the collection is larger than you realize when you are standing in the garden. The finds are from several archaeological sites on both sides of the Dardanelles.

Among the highlights are some figurines of musicians from Assos, ceramics from Tenedos (Bozcaada), a sarcophagus from Atikulac with obvious Persian influences, and a late archaic sarcophagus with the killing of Polyxena that ought to be shown in any textbook of art history. You will be surprised to see the finds from the Dardanos tumulus, which reminded me of the rich funeral mounds from fourth-century Macedonia: very nice wreaths made of gold for example, and fine statuettes, including a beautiful Aphrodite, inspired by the Cnidian statue of Praxiteles.

I was surprised that there were so few finds from Abydos, ancient Çanakkale. Nevertheless, they include a splendid archaic Perseus and the lovely tombstone of one Agathe, daughter of Papos, buried by the Boule of Abydos.

So, this is a museum that is certainly worth a visit, and a visit can easily be combined with a trip across the Dardanelles, to Eceabat, ancient Sestus: the ferry is not far from the place that was once bridged by Xerxes. On the European shore are the monuments of the soldiers who fell during the Great War; after a visit to that delightful and nice museum, where you realize which beautiful things humans can make, a visit to the battlefield memorials makes you realize that we’re also capable of doing the worst.

Book Reviews

For those interesting in my opinion about the good, the bad, and the irrelevant, I have added a new page to this blog, with links to my book reviews. Nothing new, in fact, but perhaps useful.

Manzikert

I’ve been to eastern Turkey several times, but never was able to visit Manzikert. But last October, I finally made it. Shortly before sunset, I was on the site where, in August 1071, a famous battle was fought. From Tatvan, it’s a drive of about an hour and a half; the road had been perfect until Ahlat, but had become worse and worse and worse,but in the end, after a chaotic ride through the mountains, the first view of the snow-covered mountain Süphan and the first view of the plain, were unforgettable.

Why did I go there? Because the battle near Manzikert is one of the few really important ones in world history. On the one hand were the Turks, recently converted to Islam and commanded by their sultan Alp Arslan: the most powerful man in the Sunnite world, who wanted to convert the Shi’ites to the right beliefs. His aim was, therefore, the conquest of Egypt, where the Fatimid dynasty claimed the caliphate. For Alp Arslan, it was unacceptable that a heretic could be commander of the faithful.

He was, therefore, on his way from Iran/Iraq to Egypt and had already reached Syria, when he heard that the Byzantine Emperor, Romanus IV Diogenes, was marching to Armenia, with an army of no less than 70,000 men. Had the army been smaller, Alp would not have felt threatened and would have continued to Egypt. He had no quarrel with Byzantium. But an army of this size, in his rear? This was dangerous. The Byzantines might attack his lines of communication.

Romanus had just become emperor. He was a brave and capable ruler, but had to cope with the opposition from Byzantine aristocrats. Therefore, he sought some military success, and Armenia was the perfect target. There are no indications that he wanted to continue his attack to Iraq or Iran, but Alp Arslan decided to return to the north. And so, in August 1071, the armies met at Manzikert.

From the very beginning, Romanus’ position was bad. His most important colonel, one of the aristocrats, was absent – perhaps betraying his emperor. Nevertheless, with a weakened army, Romanus marched out of Manzikert, advancing towards the Seljuk Turks, who retreated slowly. They marched for several kilometers on a very hot day. The soldiers, with their heavy panoplies, were already tired when the Seljuks unexpectedly turned back and attacked. A couple of Byzantine aristocrats fled, and the remaining troops panicked, and although there had been no real fight, the battle was already over. Many Byzantine soldiers were killed.

As a battle, the fight at Manzikert was not very important. Romanus was captured, but Alp Arslan almost immediately released him. The sultan wanted Egypt. His peace proposal was comparatively easy to accept. After all, if he asked more, he would be forced to leave garrisons to occupy the newly conquered cities, or soldiers to collect the money. So, it was better to send back the humiliated Romanus, who would be grateful, and would never again be a problem.

However, Romanus was dethroned and killed by the aristocrats, who refused to obey the new treaty. This was a real blunder. Now, Alp Arslan was mad as hell, and he decided to invade Anatolia, which a boy-emperor of twenty-one was supposed to defend. Within a couple of years, the most important provinces of the Byzantine Empire were lost, and became part of what is now called Turkey.

Few battles have had such conseques. In the first place for the world if Islam. In Egypt, the Shi’ite caliph remained on the throne, and the Islam remained divided between Sunnites and Shi’ites. In the second place, for Byzantium. The emperor was forced to hire mercenaries to replace his lost army. It was impossible to stop the advancing Seljuks. After some twenty years, the emperor decided to ask for reinforcements in the West. These reinforcements arrived in great numbers in Constantinople, swore allegiance to the emperor, reconquered part of Anatolia, and captured Antioch. After some diplomatic troubles, they refused to continue the struggle against the Seljuks, and went south, to Jerusalem: the First Crusade.

So, after Manzikert, the Byzantine Empire was in decline. Anatolia, its most important source of manpower and income, was lost. The Crusaders became increasingly hostile, capturing Constantinople in 1204. The Seljuks recovered their positions, and although the Crusaders were eventually expelled from Constantinople, things went from bad to worse.

Without Manzikert, it is likely that Islam would have been united under one, Turkish ruler, without conflict with Byzantium. There would have been no Crusades, western Europe would not have learned much from the Arabs, the Italian Renaissance would have been a satellite of the cultural innovations in the Byzantine Empire. Perhaps Byzantium would have expanded its power after the Mongol campaigns against the Seljuk.

Of course, this is all speculation. But it’s certain that Manzikert changed the world. The modern visitor can, perhaps, feel that if Romanus had not been betrayed, his own life would have been different too. Mea res agitur. This experience, which is sometimes called “the historical sensation”, is what makes history so nice.

I love to travel over badly paved roads to experience the past in this way. Even when there is nothing to be seen. To make you share in it, below is a nice photo: the plain, the mountain Süphan, and a view on a site that changed your life too. That is enough.

The photo (3,5 MB) is here. It is a composite; the photos were taken by Rolof van Hövell tot Westerflier, and were matched by Robert Vermaat. Thanks!

2300 Ancient Sites on Google Earth

Kampyr Tepe (Uzbekistan)

On several occasions I have blogged on the possibilities of Google Earth and its online spin-off, Google Maps. My last blog on this topic was a bit over half a year ago, when I had some 1700 items available. In the meantime, I have added more than 550 ancient sites to my list, from all quarters of the ancient world. The grand total now is 2366.

The online version is here and the masterfile can be downloaded here. If you use the latter, do not forget the directory NEW/OFF-TOPIC, which contains many others, still unqualified markers.

The Byzantine Empire

The eagle of the Byzantine Empire

Some pages ought to have been added to the Livius website long, long time ago, but were never written, usually because I didn’t have sufficient time. I am glad that Mrs. Karin de Leeuw wrote a nice page on the Byzantine Empire, the successor state of the Roman Empire.

I also added a little page on the river Elbe. Not terribly important, to be honest. Read the page on Byzantium first, because it’s more interesting.

Review: Sie bauten die ersten Tempel

Cover

I already blogged about my visits to Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey. It’s an important site from the Early (preceramic) Neolithicum. What it is, we don’t really know, although Klaus Schmidt, the excavator, is pretty sure that the site is religious in nature. In his nice, well-illustrated book, Sie bauten die ersten Tempel (“They built the first sanctuary”), he offers lots of information.

The book is very well-structured. In the first chapter, Schmidt explains how the site was identified. It had already been discovered, but the discoverer had not understood that the big stones on the surface were from the Stone Age. Misidentifying them as Islamic tombstones, he had not realized the site’s significance. Schmidt, who had the benefit of knowing the finds from sites like Çatal Höyük, Çayönü, Nevali Çori, and Gürcütepe, was the first to realize the importance of Göbekli Tepe (“belly hill”).

The second chapter is about the discovery of the Stone Age, from the very moment that archaeologists realized that there had been an age in which people made stone objects, until the present day. It is a very useful and interesting chapter, because Schmidt can introduce important questions and technical expressions.

The third, and longest, chapter consists of a meticulous description of what has actually been found. The five enclosures are mentioned and every pylon receives is dealth with. Those pylons, which represent human figures (ancestors?), were decorated with all kinds of animal figures. Perhaps this chapter was a bit too detailed, but Schmidt did well to separate the description from the identification.

Enclosure C; photo Kees Tol

The fourth chapter deals with the interpretations. Schmidt compares Göbekli Tepe to several other places, without making very strong statements. Nevertheless, I was impressed by his argument that at least one picture does not represent ostriches, but people dancing like ostriches. I also liked the idea that the pictures of animals might in fact be some kind of sign language, although Schmidt does not say that this is the only possible interpretation of the finds. His conclusion is essentially negative: he is certain that these animals were not representation of the hunter’s prey. No one hopes to catch spiders or snakes.

A predator from Enclosure C; Museum Sanli Urfa; photo Marco Prins

In the fifth chapter, we read about the way this monument was built. A great many hunters and gatherers must have been involved, and the size of the monument proves that they were well-organized. The 2007 edition of the book, which was first published in 2005, concludes with an additional chapter with new finds and further thoughts.

What I like about Sie bauten die ersten Tempel is that it presents scholarship as a puzzle and allows readers to understand the process of acquiring knowledge. There is much room for doubt and cul-de-sacs are not ignored. For example, many animals look as if they are about to attack – but what are they defending? Schmidt admits that he does not know. He calls the building a temple, but immediately stresses that in fact, we cannot really know. This is the way a true scholar must proceed. I like this excellent book and can sincerely recommend it.

Trapezus (Trabzon)

The Hagia Sophia

I was in Trabzon when its football team, Trabzonspor, beat Inter Milan. I have never seen a city that went so completely out of its mind: people honking their cars and even the ships in the port sounding their horns.

It’s an ancient city, originally called Trapezus. It became famous in the Middle Ages, when the Comnenian dynasty of Byzantine emperors settled in “Trebizonde” (as it was known back then) and made it the capital of a mini-empire, after Constantinople itself had been captured by the knights of the Fourth Crusade. In all aspects, Trebizonde had to resemble the real capital of the Byzantine world, which meant that there was also a lovely Hagia Sophia: smaller but more refined than its namesake in Constantinople. You can still visit the place.

There’s nothing left from the Greek and Roman age, but the city has an interesting history. You can read more about it on my new page: here.

Göbekli Tepe

Göbekli Tepe; two oval enclosures visible

If someone would have asked me which excavations I would have liked to visit, I would have answered, without a monent´s thought, that my favorites would be Jiroft en Göbekli Tepe. Jiroft I will visit, inch’Allah, within a couple of months, but I no longer have to wait for Göbekli Tepe.

It is, to exaggerate a bit, the place where we can see the rise of mankind as a civilized being. Some 12,000 years ago, when the latest Ice Age was over, a process started that is known as the Neolithic Revolution: the rise of agriculture.

Göbekli Tepe proves that, when this process had only just started and mankind still consisted mainly of hunters and gatherers, monumental architecture was already possible. Hundreds of people must have been working on this site, so there must have been some kind of efficient leadership. We can even speak, very tentatively of course, about their beliefs, because Göbekli Tepe is a sanctuary and some of the statues may represent deities or ancestors. We will never be completely sure, of course, but it remains a fascinating thought.

Pylon 12

The first thing we saw was a couple of dromedaries and the caravan in which the German excavator, professor Klaus Schmidt, has his office. We saw Enclosure E (“the rock temple”, but essentially a wide, rocky plain) and Enclosures A, B, C, and D, where tall, T-shaped pylons used to stand in a circle or oval. The satellite photo above shows two of these ovals. They date back to the age that archaeologists call “Preceramic Neolithic A”, or the period between 9500 and 8300 BC.

Several pylons are decorated with arms and must resemble humans. The sides often show animals, like snakes, foxes, and ostriches. These statues are very primitive, but radiate a kind of power that I find hard to describe. This is art, and these pylons show that humans are cultural beings. To quote Schmidt: it is like a theater, and although we can no longer see the play itself and can only see the set, we know that the actors have put on the scene a truly grand play.

The visitor of the world’s oldest known sanctuary will be accompanied by a guard, who will, at the end of the tour, sell a book, Sie bauten die ersten Tempel, written by professor Schmidt. I have now read about half of it and am very enthusiastic about the way he explains everything: very seriously and without unnecessary hypotheses. The guard offered me to ask Schmidt’s autograph; the scholar made it clear that he was actually a bit too busy, which I liked. Academics who waste time giving autographs, are to be treated with some distrust.

Getting there

From Sanli Urfa, where some of the beautiful finds are shown in the museum, it is easy to reach the excavation. Leaving the city center, you take the road in the direction of the suburb of Kara Köprü. At the great roundabout on the city’s northern edge, you take road D400 to the east, to Mardin. You will already have seen the brown signs to Göbekli Tepe. After 13 kilometers, you turn to the left and continue, even when the road is, for a short distance, unpaved. If this doesn’t work, ask directions for Örencik.

Zeugma Mosaic Museum, Gazi Antep

Theonoe

Zeugma, “bridge”, was the Greek name of a Hellenistic town on the banks of the Euphrates. When a dam was built in the river, about 30% of the archaeological site was submerged. There were excavations, and the archaeologists found beautiful mosaics, which were brought to the museum of Gazi Antep.

Now, they have a museum of their own, which was opened last week. You can still smell the paint.

The Zeugma Mosaic Museum is splendid. It consists of two wings; the left one is finished, the right one still has to be completed, although we found the door open and were able to admire the collection as well.

A visit to the left wing starts with a little movie in which Zeugma is explained. The voice-over is a bit overenthusiastic and the music is at times bombastic, but it’s nicely done. Unfortunately, there’s similar music in the museum itself; not too loud, but still sufficiently annoying to distract.

You can see the mosaics from two levels: on ground level, you can see them as they must have been experienced by the people of Zeugma themselves, from the first floor, you have a better view. On this floor, you can also see some other mosaics, including a 20 meter wide one from a church near Zeugma.

One of the finest displays is a mosaic of which a part was stolen. In the old museum, there was a large question mark; now, they project a slide of the missing part.

Explanations are Turkish and English, and very interesting. The catalog costs no less than 245 lira, or 110 euro, which was more than I was willing to pay.

The comparison with Athens’ Acropolis Museum was inevitable. In the museum in Gazi Antep, some improvements are possible – the music and an affordable catalog for instance. Yet, photography is allowed, which makes the Zeugma Mosaic Museum, from the point of view of the student who wants to recall what he has seen and share it with others, a better museum.

Boğazkale Museum

Boğazkale is the village just north of the ruins of ancient Hattusa, the capital of the Hittites. There is a small museum, but it is usually not considered to be very important. After all, the really interesting are now in Istanbul or Ankara. However, it has recently been renovated; I could still smell the new paint.

There are three large rooms, and except for some finds, you will see photos, a doll, and models. Among the artifacts are royal seals, fine beak-spouted vessels, some sculpture, scale armor, and a particularly fine helmet. There are also finds form post-Hittite periods, like Phrygian pottery, Roman coins and inscriptions, and some Byzantine finds.

The cuneiform tablets are really nice, and include a fragment of the Old Babylonian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh, the source of the classical version. There’s also a land donation, the description of an accession ritual, and an omen on a liver. The Hittites really come to life.

Photography is not allowed. This is a serious matter, because there is no better way to attract people to a museum than a visitor who shows photos and makes other people curious. In spite of this, the renovated museum of Boğazkale is a success, and worth a visit.

1700 Ancient Sites on Google Earth

Hakemi Use (Turkey)

What you are looking for, is here.

1600 Ancient Sites on Google Earth

The center of Alexandria

What you are looking for, is here.

SMS from Turkey

Tarkasnawa of Mira

In 2003, Marco and I rented a car and made a trip through Turkey. As always, we didn’t have time to visit the most important sites (I still haven’t been in Perge or Pergamon), because we lost way too much time on silly trivialities like finding the rock relief of king Tarkasnawa of the Hittite vassal kingdom Mira. It is not terribly important, but it’s mentioned by Herodotus, who believed it to be an Egyptian relief (more…). I think we spent about two hours, searching in vain, before we decided to give up. At that very moment, we spotted the small stairs along the road that indicated the place where we ought to climb to the rock. I will never forget the shout of Marco, who was the first to go up, that he saw the object of our quest.

I most have told this story several times, not ignoring our futile attempt to ask a Turkish woodcutter, who spoke only Turkish, whether he knew the relief. Apparently, my stories must have made some friends curious, because the other day, I received an SMS from two friends who were, at that moment, standing next to Tarkasnawa, and knew they would cause me great joy by letting me know where they were standing.

More here; satellite photo here.

Paris, Louvre

Persian soldier from Susa

It is hard to write a review of the Louvre in Paris, because it is one of the world’s largest museums. There are many departments, and each one of them might, in its field, have been a museum of the first order. For example, it is hard to find another Egyptological museum in Europa that equals the Louvre.

The museum also has a reputation for interesting expositions – one on Meroe and one on the archaeology of Saudi Arabia during my latest visit – and one ought to visit the Louvre twice a year to keep in touch. The people of Paris are unusually blessed.

Echnaton

If you visit the museum for the first time, you will be surprised by the pyramid-shaped entrance. Use the time you lose to pass the bomb check and buy a ticket to look at it, because it is a monument of the first order.

I already mentioned the Egyptian department, where you can easily spend a full day. There are portraits of the Egyptian kings and objects from daily life, and what is even better: the full history is dealth with, so you will also find objects from the first millennium BCE. The Greek, Roman, and Coptic age are not ignored either, although you need to go to Greek department for the royal portraits of the Ptolemies.

An Arabian warrior

The Egyptian department is deservedly famous, and attracts many visitors, who are usually exhausted when they are half-way their tour. Usually, they will take the shortest route to the exit, which brings them through the departments of Cypriote, Arabian, Palmyrene, and Phoenician art – which are, as a consequence, full of people who are not interested in the objects. That is pity, because these rooms alone justify a trip to Paris. Still, if you manage to ignore the crowd of tired visitors to the Egyptian department, you will certainly enjoy coffins from Sidon, Byblus, and Carthage, Nabataean inscriptions, and statues from Cyprus. One of my favorites is a relief of one of the divine triad of Palmyra. You will need half a day to study it well.

The Code of Hammurabi

Next to it is the Oriental department. The most famous object is, of course, the Code of Hammurabi. Don’t concentrate on the diorite monolith only, but also look in the small display in the same room, because there you will see cuneiform tablets with the same text – one of them written more than a millennium later and proving that these laws had become some kind of Mesopotamian classic, and it is probably no coincidence that the division of these Old Babylonian laws returns in the Ten Commandments.

Early Sumerian mask

The Code of Hammurabi was found in Susa, which is a prominent part of the oriental collection. You will also see a wall decorated with Achaemenid soldiers and cuneiform tablets from this Iranian town. Other important excavations are Mari and Khorsabad, but there is a lot more to see. There are also rooms devoted to Jordan and western Syria; they are not adjacent to the eastern Syria and the other Levantine rooms, which is a bit impractical – but the Mesha stela is worth the detour. You need a full day to study the entire oriental department.

Pompey

The Roman department is surprisingly small. Yet, there is a lot of fine sculpture, including a nice series of portraits of Roman rulers – including the emperor Inconnus about whom I already blogged. Next to it is a comparatively small Etruscan department. A galery of rather mediocre statues brings you to the room devoted to Roman art that was later restored, which is great fun: usually, you can immediately see which part is ancient and which is an addition. (Here, you will also find Canova’s famous Amor and Psyche.) You need about half a day to see it all, read the explanatory signs, and take your photos.

Alexander: the Azara herm

The Greek department is larger – you again need a full day to study it all. The two most famous pieces are the expressive Nike of Samothrake and the famous Venus of Milo. The latter is more or less the museum’s raison d’être. Napoleon had looted the Italian museums, but after he had found his Waterloo, all those works of art had to be returned. In an age in which it was believed that inspiration by great art created great minds, and that Greek art was the most inspirational, the emptying of the Louvre was believed to be a national disaster, but fortunately, the Venus of Milo was found. Now, France could compete again with the British, who had the Elgin Marbles. That the armless deity was a Hellenistic and not a Classical statue, was ignored – the inscription which proves it, is now conveniently lost.

Croesus

The Greek department also has some fine temple remains (from a/o Assos), the Tanagra statuettes that I increasingly love, and lots of pottery. Unfortunately, the rooms with Greek ceramics have rcently been closed. I haven’t seen the Croesus to the left for quite some time: last time, the room was closed to install better protection; before that, it was on loan to another museum.

The crowds are very large, and you may count yourself lucky that I did not bring you to the paintings. This makes a visit to the Louvre a bit difficult, and you must prepare yourself well; fortunately, the museum’s website is excellent. Four days is the minimum for the ancient departments.

Demetrius Poliorcetes

Finally, I must mention one little gem that is often ignored and where you can, consequently, quietly look at the objects: the room with metal objects. There is some fine silver work, but you will also see the helmet of a gladiator, a nice statuette of the Tyche of Antioch, the head of Demetrius Poliorcetes, a hoplite’s panoply, a curse tablet from the Crimea, Roman military diploma’s, and so on.

But unfortunately, that’s the only part of the museum where you will not meet many other people. In fact, the museum is too big, and I think that it would be wiser to split it into smaller museums.

Berlin, Pergamonmuseum

The Pergamon Altar, when it’s not too crowded

The Pergamonmuseum is probably Berlin’s most famous cultural institution. It contains three major collections which, each in itself, might have been fine museums: a classical department, a department of ancient Near Eastern art, and a department of Islamic art. What they have in common is their connection to the former Ottoman Empire. In each of these departments, you will see splendid works of art.

Ishtar Gate

The museum is named after the city of Pergamon, where German archaeologists found the famous altar that now stands in the central room of the museum. (In fact, the museum was built around the altar.) The north wing is devoted to Greek and Roman art, and you will find archaic sphinxes, classical reliefs, and so on.

The south wing contains the department of ancient Near Eastern art, which includes the famous Ištar Gate from Babylon and the ancient procession road, which appears to date back to the Seleucid age. Among the other objects are orthostats from Tell Halaf, prehistoric finds from Uruk, the royal tombs of Assur, bronzes from Luristan, objects from Nineveh, and of course lots of cuneiform tablets. Among the most fascinating documents is a tablet that mentions the Judaean king Jehoiachin.

A late-Sasanian/early Islamic boar from Ctesiphon

If you go upstairs, you will find yourself in the department of Islamic art. Again, a complete building has been moved from its original location to the German capital: this time, a substantial part of the wall of the early Islamic Mshatta, one of Jordan’s desert castles. But there’s a lot more to see. I must have been gazing at a splendid manuscript of Saadi‘s Rose Garden for at least half an hour.

It is easy to spend a day in the Pergamonmuseum, and that is also a problem: it can be extremely crowded. When I was there last June, I could easily enter the building, but last week, early August, there was a long queue. When I entered the museum, it felt muggy, and I wondered whether the humidity wasn’t dangerous for the objects.

Nemrud Daǧi

A lion guarding the main altar

Nemrud daǧi is one of the most spectacular ruins from Antiquity. On the top of a mountain, a large tumulus covers and protects the tomb itself; in the southwest and northeast, there are two terraces, dominated by statues of the great gods and king Antiochus I Theos of Commagene.

Did I say “spectacular”? Yes, it certainly is. During our first visit, we were really impressed by the almost magical atmosphere at sunset. It was easy to forget that there were other people. On the other hand, when we arrived on the mountain for a second time, the magic was gone and we found it hard to remember how impressed we once had been.

I reorganized my old pages, put online in 2003, and added photos we took in 2008. There will be additions later, but from now on, the page is here.

Tušpa (Van)

The citadel

Tušpa was an ancient Urartian fortress on the eastern shore of Lake Van. It is situated on a high and steep rock, several kilometers west of the modern city of Van. Up there, you can see several tombs of Urartian kings, a couple of inscriptions (including an Achaemenian royal inscription), and many buildings from the Ottoman age.

I put some photos online, with a couple of notes. Unfortunately, when we visited the city, the museum was being renovated. The new webpage is here.

Midas: Fiction and Fact

The so-called Tomb of Midas in Gordium

King Midas of Phrygia is best known from Greek legend: the story about the drunken Silenus, the story about “the Midas touch”, the story about the donkey ears, and several others, including a nice parallel to the Roman story about the Lacus Curtius.

Yet, the Greeks also remembered him as a real king, the first to send presents to Delphi. This Midas had fought against the Cimmerians, had been defeated, and had committed suicide. He is almost certainly identical to the Mit-ta-a of Muški mentioned in the Annals of the Assyrian king Sargon II.

I’ve made a new page, which you can find here.

Gordium

A man and a bul on an ivory inlay

I am still moving all kinds of pages that are in the wrong directories if I want to migrate Livius.org to a CMS, and this time, it’s Gordium‘s turn. We’ve visited the capital of Phrygia twice, in 2003 and 2008, and it remains one of the most impressive sites I know. Imagine a vast plain, with dozens of funeral mounds. The largest of these is called “tomb of Midas“.

Opposite this tumulus is a museum, where you can also see the mosaics from the Phrygian citadel and a Galatian tomb; other objects can be seen in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara – like the finds from the Tomb of Midas. I’ve put it all together on this page, and I added a note on the river Sangarius.

Only thirty pages to go…