Life and Death in Asia Minor in Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Times

Studies in Archaeology and Bioarchaeology

J. Rasmus Brandt, Erika Hagelberg, Gro Bjørnstad, Sven Ahrens

• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781785703607
• Topic: Storia
• Subtopic: Storia antica

Life and Death in Asia Minor combines contributions in both archaeology and bioarchaeology in Asia Minor in the period ca. 200 BC – AD 1300 for the first time. The archaeology topics are wide-ranging including death and territory, death and landscape perception, death and urban transformations from pagan to Christian topography, changing tomb typologies, funerary costs, family organization, funerary rights, rituals and practices among pagans, Jews, and Christians, inhumation and Early Byzantine cremations and use and reuse of tombs. The bioarchaeology chapters use DNA, isotope and osteological analyses to discuss, both among children and adults, questions such as demography and death rates, pathology and nutrition, body actions, genetics, osteobiography, and mobility patterns and diet. The areas covered in Asia Minor include the sites of Hierapolis, Laodikeia, Aphrodisias, Tlos, Ephesos, Priene, Kyme, Pergamon, Amorion, Gordion, Bo?azkale, and Arslantepe.The theoretical and methodological approaches used make it highly relevant for people working in other geographical areas and time periods. Many of the articles could be used as case studies in teaching at schools and universities. An important objective of the publication has been to see how the different types of results emerging from archaeological and natural science studies respectively could be integrated with each other and pose new questions on ancient societies, which were far more complex than historical and social studies of the past often manage to transmit.

Part I

From life to death: Death and the social and funerary setting

1

The Sanctuary of St Philip in Hierapolis and the tombs of saints in Anatolian cities

Francesco D’Andria

Abstract

The age of Constantine, when Christian worship began to be freely practised, saw the start of a process that would cause a radical transformation of the cities of the Empire. The construction of churches, which became the new centres of social aggregation, had a profound impact on the ancient cityscapes. In this context the cities of Anatolia provide some very significant examples. Many necropoleis, whose main function during the Imperial period had been the social visualization of family groups, now took on new functions connected to the veneration of the tombs of the saints. Large sanctuaries grew up around these tombs, and within the urban layout, new lines of communication were opened up. In Anatolia the examples of Hierapolis (the tomb and sanctuary of St Philip), Ephesus (the Seven Sleepers and St John) and Meriamlik (the tomb of St Thecla) demonstrate these dynamics in an exemplary way.

Keywords: Anatolia, Ephesus, Hierapolis in Phrygia, St John, St Philip, St Thecla, Seven Sleepers, Silifke, tombs of saints, urban landscapes.

Introduction

A recent book by Ann Marie Yasin (2009), dedicated to saints and church spaces, tackles a theme of great interest for understanding the development of cities in late Antiquity. The author investigates the role that the cult of the saints – including the building of churches in their honour and the veneration of their tombs – played in the construction of those spaces where the new social and political order of cities was manifested in the 4th to 6th centuries AD. From the reign of Constantine onwards, with Christians now enjoying freedom of worship, churches became the new centres of aggregation. They replaced the pagan sanctuaries, which (especially in Asia Minor) were completely destroyed and erased from urban and suburban landscapes, as in the case of the famous temple of Artemis in Ephesus.

In this framework the necropoleis, particularly those where the remains of saints and martyrs were venerated, took on new functions. There was a shift away from the self-representation of family groups by means of reliefs on burial monuments and complex messages, sometimes of a juridical nature, expressed in inscriptions, to a more ‘public’ function, particularly in those parts of the ancient necropoleis that were linked to the presence of sancta corpora. The tombs attributed to saints thus became the central point of complex and dynamic urban development, with a shift in the fulcrum of the city’s layout, modifying the road network and creating new concentrations of monuments in areas outside the main settlements, even those with only minor necropoleis.

Exemplary in this regard is the case of Rome and the Old St Peter’s Basilica, built by Constantine over the tomb of St Peter. However, recent excavations in Milan, conducted in the courtyards of the Università Cattolica, in a suburban area dated to the Republican and Imperial eras, have revealed new data regarding the urban transformations associated with the cult of other martyrs’ burial sites.¹ As well as gardens and peasants’ houses, there are necropoleis with tombs belonging to figures of not particularly high social rank, except for the sarcophagus with the deposition of a woman accompanied by a rich set of grave goods. It was in this area – following a dream – that Bishop Ambrose decided to conduct excavations in order to find the bodies of the Milanese martyrs Gervasius and Protasius. Those ‘archaeological’ investigations led to the discovery of the saints’ bodies, which were transferred to the basilica ‘ad martyres’, built by order of the bishop in this area outside the walls beyond the Imperial circus (Cagiano de Azevedo 1968; Lusuardi Siena 1990, 124). A monumental complex, corresponding to the current Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio, was thus created that transformed a suburban necropolis area into one of the most extraordinary religious centres in northern Italy.

In late Roman cities the public role of the necropoleis where the tombs of the saints are located is amply attested elsewhere in the territories of the Empire and is cited in an extensive corpus of literature. Around these locations, dynamics of self-representation were activated, in which the saint took on the identifying characteristics of the city; an emblematic case of the role played by the venerated tombs is that of St Demetrius of Thessaloniki (Fig. 1.1) (Yasin 2009, 171–5). The large five-aisle basilica built over his tomb is characterized by a complex functional articulation of spaces, starting with the tomb itself, positioned on the left-hand side of the building’s entrance (Fig. 1.2). In the middle of the central nave is the ciborium, a hexagonal structure like an ancient mausoleum, inside which the saint manifests himself and dialogues with the faithful. Lastly, in the apse, an underground chamber is used for the miracle of the myron, the perfumed oil emitted by the bones of the Saint; a similar miracle is attributed to St Nicholas of Myra, both in his tomb in Lycia and after the transfer of his relics to Bari in Italy.

Fig. 1.1. Thessaloniki. Basilica of St Demetrius; plan: 1. Ciborium; 2. Tomb of St Demetrius (adapted from Bakirtzis 2002, fig. 1; by courtesy of the author).

That a strategy for representing the city’s identity was activated around the tomb of St Demetrius is clear from the large corpus of literary texts dedicated to the miracles of the martyr (Lemerle 1979–1981, 2–110). Inscribed in the famous church dedicated to the saint, next to the mosaic representing a distinguished cleric of Thessaloniki to whom St Demetrius frequently appeared, is a prayer that clearly links the saint to the city: ‘Most happy martyr of Christ, you who love the city

take care of both citizens and strangers

’.² Indeed, one of the miracles tells of the apparition of the saint to a pilgrim. The same connection with the city is also seen inside the ciborium, where there was a gold throne with St Demetrius sitting on it and a silver throne on which sat the Lady Eutaxia, the personification of the Tyche of Thessaloniki (Pallas 1979; Bakirtzis 2002, 179).

Fig. 1.2. Thessaloniki. Basilica of St Demetrius, Tomb of the Saint (after Bakirtzis 2002, fig. 9; by courtesy of the author).

Fig. 1.3. Ephesus. Plan of the city: 1. Cemetery of Seven Sleepers; 2. Basilica and tomb of St John (adapted from Zimmermann 2011; by courtesy of the author).

Ephesus and Saint Thecla in Seleucia

This civic aspect of the saints’ tombs is indispensable for an understanding of the new urban landscapes that characterized the cities of proto-Byzantine Anatolia, and the case of Ephesus encapsulates many of the issues linked to these themes (Fig. 1.3). Recent investigations conducted by Norbert Zimmermann at the Cemetery of the Seven Sleepers (Zimmermann 2011) have clarified many aspects of its chronology and provided original data for understanding the role of the necropoleis within the urban system (Fig. 1.4). The new stratigraphic and stylistic interpretation of the paintings in the houses of Ephesus has enabled the decorations to be dated to the 2nd or 3rd centuries AD, rather than the 4th to 5th centuries posited by previous authoritative studies. This late dating had also been attributed to the paintings of the arcosolia of the Cemetery of the Seven Sleepers, which had also therefore been considered to be proto-Byzantine, whereas the new research dates the origins of the complex to no later than the 3rd century. This makes it possible to consider in a new light the marble epigraphs, described by Miltner in 1937 (Miltner 1937, 201–11; Zimmermann 2011, 393–402), in which the names of the deceased are accompanied by the formula

, clearly indicating a Christian context (Fig. 1.5). The Imperial-era cemetery was situated outside the city on the road that leads to the hill of St John after running alongside the Sanctuary of Artemis. It was a collective burial site, comparable to the Roman catacombs in Rome, and represents a highly distinctive example for Asia, belonging to the Christian community of Ephesus, managed directly by the bishop. In the reign of Theodosius, this led to the development of the legend, linked to the complex, of the reawakening-resurrection of the seven boys who had fallen asleep during the persecution of Decius (Fig. 1.6). The site was expanded with the construction of churches, chapels and new burials, and began to attract pilgrims, not only Christians but also Muslims, since the miracle of the Seven Sleepers is cited in one of the suras of the Koran. The pattern of settlement of Ephesus was transformed in the proto-Byzantine period and the necropolis began to play an essential role in relation to the hill of Ayasoluk, where another burial was at the origin of a new settlement. Around the tomb of the Apostle John a sacellum was built, followed in the reign of Justinian by the majestic basilica that houses, in the area of the presbytery, the cavity where the saint started to breathe again on the day of his panegyris (Fig. 1.7). With the emergence of the two cemeteries, the topography of the ancient provincial capital changed radically, giving way to a new settlement that still lies in the shadow of the hill of Ayasoluk, whose name conserves the memory of the miraculous tomb (in Turkish it means ‘holy breath’).

Fig. 1.4. Ephesus. Cemetery of Seven Sleepers, plan (after Zimmermann 2011, 368 fig. 3; by courtesy of the author).

Another important example is found in Seleucia (Silifke) in Isauria in eastern Anatolia, which was the centre of the cult of the thalamos (tomb) of St Thecla. The tomb became the site of a large pilgrimage complex that was also visited, between 381 and 383, by Egeria, on her way to the Holy Land. Unfortunately the complex, known as Meriamlik, has not yet been the object of systematic research and our main sources of information are the Byzantine texts recounting the saint’s miracles (logoi). This sanctuary also lies outside the city and the miracles refer to a path through the fields and an uphill stretch of road that the pilgrims had to follow. As in other Christian shrines, healing took place by means of incubation, lamp oil, and water from a spring

(Fig. 1.8).³

Fig. 1.5. Ephesus. Cemetery of Seven Sleepers, marble epigraphs (Roman period) (after Zimmermann 2011, 394, 396, 398; figs. 33, 37, 39, 40; by courtesy of the author).

The cult of the tombs of saints continues today in the Muslim world (Chambert-Loir and Guillot 1995), which displays certain interesting forms of interaction with the Byzantine world. The sanctuary of Haci Bektaş Veli in central Anatolia developed around the türbe (mausoleum) built in 1367 in the village of Sulucukara Höyük. The site is the focus of worship by the Alevi community, but it is also frequente...