Cilicia

Over barely 50 years, at least 9 of the Romans assigned Cilicia requested a triumph and at least 6 received one.  Given that many of them had multi-year assignments, this leads to a state of near constant campaigning in southern Asia Minor during the early first century.  Even factoring in the conflicts with Mithridates (and perhaps especially then), it is puzzling to see Cilicia as such a volatile province.  Clearly, these triumphs did not entail any sort of permanent settlement (see Pittenger 2008).  Relying chiefly on the testimony of Cicero, I argue here that Cilicia, which at the time was one of the largest and richest provinces, was also the ideal low-risk province for the triumph-seeker.
While triumphal motives have been discussed recently (e.g. Beard 2007, Pittenger 2008), I present Cilicia as an exemplar of typical triumphal machinations.  Cicero did not want to be governor of Cilicia.  Nevertheless, in some of his letters (ad fam. 2.10 and 8.5), he alludes to the possibility of provoking a fight and attaining a triumph from Cilicia, despite the fact that he arrived as late as he could and left as early as he could.  While Cicero’s personal motivations here have also been assessed (see Correa 2013, Wistrand 1979), less is said about the ramifications for the province.  Among his other letters, he reveals the activities others, such as Appius Claudius Pulcher, pursued in seeking Cilician triumphs.
Hunting for a triumph was not regarded poorly.  Cicero rather frankly attributes triumph-hunting to Crassus (cos. 97) and Cotta (cos. 75) who both sought Gallic triumphs from the Alpine tribes.  Both men Cicero praises both here (In Pisonem 62) and elsewhere.  Crassus failed to find a triumph there, though later attained one from the Lusitani, while Cotta would have received one had he not died prematurely.  For Cicero, at least, the distinction was to increase the Roman state without breaching treaties with Roman allies.  Within these guidelines, war-mongering was not only permissible but praiseworthy.  Certain authors’ (e.g. Florus, Appian, or Strabo) later accusations of triumph-hunting generally include erstwhile Roman allies as victims.  It was not, however, enough to be an ally of Rome, for the Romans also had to remember the alliance.  Cicero later reminds the proconsul Philippus of an alliance to forestall his actions against Antipater of Derbe north of Cilicia.  There was no Cilician triumph for Philippus.
Cicero’s idiosyncrasies aside, we remain with the question of just what it was about Cilicia that provoked such triumphal desires.  I submit that it was the reputation of Cilicia as the homeland of pirates.  While perhaps less triumph-worthy than Gaul, Parthia, or Pontus, it was also safer.  There were no treaties with pirates.  By attributing brigandage of some sort to the locals, the campaign was easily defensible.  This is by no means the only reason.  The area had long been a source for mercenaries, and it was far from unusual for unemployed mercenaries to take up brigandage.  Cilicia’s borders were never well defined (see Freeman 1986), and after the ‘Balkanization’ of southern Anatolia during the second century, Cilicia contained numerous tiny city-states too small to put up a sustained resistance and too unfamiliar to be recognized in Rome.  This could be disadvantageous as well. In Cicero’s own bid for a triumph, he mourned the unfamiliar name of Pindinessum and played up fears of a Parthian invasion. 
Pompey’s settlement of the east did not stop repeated triumphs and campaigns in Cilicia.  Ostensibly, Pompey had reduced all the pirate strongholds (like Vatia a decade earlier) and resettled the pirates on vacant Cilician farmland.  Still, the Roman governors continued waging wars in Cilicia.  It might be argued that these were largely against the pirates who chose not to take up farming.  That is a convenient defense put forth by the would-be triumphators like Cicero and Appius Claudius Pulcher.
Cilicia, with its large area, numerous unfamiliar states, indeterminate borders, and piratic reputation, provided perfect staging-grounds for ‘small victorious campaigns’.  While the same tactics were employed by governors elsewhere (especially Hispania), through Cicero’s accounts of three governors: Appius Claudius Pulcher, himself, and Phillippus, we have a clear view of the politics of triumph-hunting.

A short summary in Turkish of numismatic coinages issued in Anatolia under Persian rule and Alexander the Great. Besides coinages of the satraps (as the Hekatomnids, Pharnabazes) or the karanoi (military generals as Mazaios-Tarkumuwa), civic coinages are likely to have also served the politics of the Great King (as for Amisus or Sinope). The paper argues for a strong relation between coinage and military expenditures.

Strolling through Cilicia -
New Research on Roman and Late Antique CIlicia

This project consists of a workshops series focussing on Roman and Late Antique Cilicia which is going to take place in the Fall and Spring Semesters of 2021-22. The main goal is to digitally bring together scholars from North America, Europe and Turkey, regardless of the career stage (graduate students to professors), and tackle one specific topic during each of these workshops.
The project intends to improve scholarly exchange and become a platform where investigators can get feeback on current research projects, ideally even leading to further collaboration. Each workshop will incorporate three or four papers centered around its main theme, it will take about 2,5 hours. A publication is not planned.

Organized by: Jon C. Cubas Díaz, Serra Durugönül, Philipp Pilhofer

Contact:
jon.cubas.diaz@gmail.com
sdurugonul@gmail.com
philipp.pilhofer@kilikien.de

Located in the central region of the Anatolian mainland, Konya has played an important role in east-west and north-south cultural interactions since prehistoric times. In order to investigate the cultural geography of this region from prehistoric times to the Classical period surveys and museum work have been carried out since 1987 (Bahar 1991; Bahar et al 1996). In the course of this work some observations have been made on the Iron Age, which is a problematic subject for the central Anatolian region as well as for Anatolia as a whole. During the Iron Age the grey pottery known as Phrygian ware occurs over a wide region from the basin of the Meander in the west into central Anatolia (Mellaart 1955: 117; Dupré 1983: 82; Summers 1994: 241-52). We have previously suggested that this ware should be renamed ‘inner-west Anatolian ware’ or ‘Luwian ware’ (Bahar et al 1996: 65-7). It is significant that this pottery is encountered especially around Sarayönü and Kadınhanı where Luwian people...

SUMARIO: 1. EL BOLCHEVISMO Y LOS MAHOMETANOS – 2. EL SUFRAGIO UNIVERSAL EN JAPÓN – 3. REPARTO DE LOS BUQUES ALEMANES – 4.DETALLES DE LOS DISTURBIOS EN MILÁN – 5. EL ALMIRANTE HORTY, REGENTE DE HUNGRIA – 6. LA APROBACIÓN DEL TRATADO – 7. LA CUESTIÓN DE TACNA Y ARICA – 8. CONTRA EL DOMINIO MAHOMETANO – 9. LA CUESTIÓN ADRIÁTICA – 10. LA SITUACIÓN EN ANATOLIA – 11. EL SANTO SÍNODO DE CONSTANTINOPLA – 12. LA CONFERENCIA INTERNACIONAL SOBRE PALESTINA – 13. LA ACTITUD DE ENVER BAJÁ – 14. DIMISIÓN DEL GOBIERNO TURCO – 15. LA CUESTIÓN DEL ADRIÁTICO – 16. LA ENCEFALITIS LETÁGICA – 17. EL REPARTO DE BUQUES ALEMANES – 18. LA REALIDAD DE LA POSGUERRA – 19. LA CUESTIÓN TURCA – 20. LAS MATANZAS DE ARMENIOS – 21. TACNA Y ARICA – 22. DECLARACIONES DE TAFT – 23. LA PRENSA INGLESA – 24. LA CUESTIÓN DE EGIPTO – 25. EL INCIDENTE DEL HOTEL ADLON – 26. HINDENBURG CANDIDATO A LA PRESIDENCIA – 27. KOLTCHAK Y LOS CHECOS – 28. LA CUESTIÓN DE TACNA Y ARICA – 29. LOS SUCESOS DE CILICIA – 30. LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS Y LA PAZ – 31. WILSON  Y LA CUESTIÓN ADRIÁTICA – 32. MATANZA DE ARMENIOS – 33. LA ACTITUD DE ITALIA – 34. EL PLAN DE LLOYD GEORGE – 35. LA COOPERACIÓN GRIEGA – 36. WILSON Y EL TRATADO – 37. TACNA Y ARICA – 38. LA NOTA DE WILSON SOBRE LA CUESTIÓN DEL ADRIÁTICO – 39. EL INCIDENTE DEL HOTEL ADLON – 40. UNA CARTA DE WILSON – 41. MÁS RESERVAS APROBADAS – 42. LODGE Y WILSON – 43. LA PRETENSIÓN DE BOLIVIA – 44. CHILE Y BOLIVIA – 45. EN EL SENADO NORTEAMERICANO  - 46. INCIDENTES FRANCO – ALEMANES – 47. LA CANONIZACIÓN DE JUANA DE ARCO – 48. TROPAS FRANCESAS EN CONSTANTINOPLA – 49. UN ARTÍCULO DE TARDIEU – 50. UNA CARTA DE WILSON – 51. LA UNIÓN CENTROAMERICANA – 52. EL PERÚ Y BOLIVIA – 53. LA CUESTIÓN TURCA – 54. LOS ALIADOS Y TURQUÍA – 55. INDEPENDENCIA DEL PONTO – 56. LPAZ CON HUNGRIA -57. PERÚ Y BOLIVIA – 58. GOLPE DE ESTADO EN BERLÍN – 59. EL NUEVO CANCILLER – 60. PROCLAMA DEL GOBIERNO – 61. EN TORNO AL TRATADO DE PAZ – 62. LA REORGANIZACIÓN DEL EJÉRCITO AMERICANO – 63. EL PUERTO DE ARICA – 64. LA SITUACIÓN DEL EX – KÁISER – 65. TACNA Y ARICA – 66. UNA PROCLAMA DE KAPP – 67. LOS ALIADOS A LA EXPECTATIVA – 68. SOBRE LAS PALABRAS DE WILSON – 69. DECLARACIONES DE RENNER – 70. ¿HA DIMITIDO KAPP? – 71. LAS FUERZAS ALIADAS OCUPAN CONSTANTINOPLA – 72. CONTINÚAN LOS DESÓRDENES – 73. EBERT VUELVE A BERLÍN – 74. ELECCIONES PARA EL REICHSTAG – 75. LA DIMISIÓN DE KAPP Y DEL GENERAL LUTTWITZ – 76. LA ENCEFALITIS LETÁRGICA – 77. LA SITUACIÓN ACTUAL EN BERLÍN – 78. SOBRE LA OCUPACIÓN DE CONSTANTINOPLA – 79. EL NUEVO PARTIDO DE LLOYD GEORGE – 80. EL PROGRAMA DE HORTY – 81. EL PUERTO DE ARICA – 82. PROCLAMA DE EBERT – 83. LA ASAMBLEA NACIONAL – 84. EL NUEVO MINISTERIO ALEMÁN – 85. ACUERDO ENTRE PARTIDOS – 86. COMENTARIOS DE LA PRENSA FRANCESA – 87. LA DIMISIÓN DE NOSKE – 88. LA SITUACIÓN EN VARIOS PUNTOS – 89. EL MOVIMIENTO ESPARTAQUISTA – 90. BOLIVIA Y EL PERÚ: MANIFESTACIONES HOSTILES – 91. HABLA EL CAPITÁN ERHARDT – 92. SITUACIÓN DE LOS HOHENZOLLERN – 93. EL TRATADO DE PAZ EN AMÉRICA – 94. CONTRA UN ACUERDO – 95. ENTRE BOLIVIA Y EL PERÚ – 96. LA DERROTA DEL TRATADO EN EL SENADO NORTEAMERICANO – 97. WILSON Y LA MAYORÍA DEL SENADO – 98. MÁS SOBRE EL TRATADO DE PAZ – 99. NO HAY ARREGLO – 100. PROYECTO DE PAZ CON ALEMANIA – 101. EL PERÚ Y BOLIVIA – 102. HOSTILIDAD AL PERÚ – 103. LA SITUACIÓN EN WESTFALIA – 104. LOS OBREROS DEL RUHR – 105. OPINIÓN DE LLOYD GEORGE – 106. NOTA DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS – 107. MANIFESTACIÓN CONTRA EL PERÚ – 108. BOLIVIA Y EL PERÚ – 109. TACNA Y ARICA – 110. WILSON Y EL TRATADO – 111. EL EJÉRCITO ROJO ALEMÁN – 112. LA ORGANIZACIÓN DEL GABINETE ALEMÁN – 113. CONTRA LOS AUTORES DE LA INTENTONA – 114. LA DEFENSA DEL RUHR – 115. LA AUTORIZACIÓN QUE PIDE ALEMANIA – 116. EN BERLÍN Y EN EL RUHR – 117. LA PAZ GERMANO – YANKEE – 118. BOLIVIA Y EL PERÚ – 119. EL NUEVO GABINETE – 120. LOS COMBATES DE WESSEL – 121.BARTHOU CONTRA MILLERAND – 122. DEL DISCURSO DE BARTHOU – 123.  LA CUESTIÓN DEL TONELAJE – 124. WILSON Y LA CUESTIÓN TURCA – 125. EL PERÚ Y BOLIVIA – 126. EN ANATOLIA – 127. EN LA CUENCA DEL RUHR – 128. ATAQUES CONTRA NOSKE – 129. EL EJÉRCITO COMUNISTA – 130. LA PRENSA INGLESA – 131.LA PRENSA FRANCESA – 132. ASQUITH CONTRA LLOYD GEORGE – 133.DECLARACIONES DE LLOYD GEORGE – 134. EL PLEITO DE TACNA Y ARICA – 135.POLITICA NORTEAMERICANA – 136. LA SITUACIÓN EN EL RUHR – 137. UN INCIDENTE – 138. LA SITUACIÓN POLITICA – 139. MÁS SOBRE EL TRATADO DE VERSALLES – 140. INGLATERRA Y FRANCIA – 141. COMENTARIOS AL DISCURSO MILLERANDO – 142. BOLIVIA Y EL PERÚ – 143. POR LA PAZ EN AMÉRICA – 144. NUEVO GOBIERNO ALEMÁN – 145. COMENTARIOS FRANCESES – 146. HABÍA UN PACTO CON TURQUÍA – 147. SE COMPLICA LA SITUACIÓN EN ALEMANIA – 148. LOS OBREROS DEL RUHR – 149. LA SITUACIÓN POLÍTICA EN ALEMANIA – 150. LA SITUACIÓN EN EL RUHR – 151.DICTADURA ECONÓMICA – 152. MILLERAND Y LA PRENSA – 153. LA SITUACIÓN EN EL RUHR – 154.LA ACTITUD AMERICANA – 155. LA REACCIÓN NO ESTÁ VENCIDA – 156. EL LLAMADO EJÉRCITO ROJO – 157. MANEJOS COMUNISTAS – 158. LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS Y LA CUESTIÓN TURCA – 159. MEDIDAS ANTIBOLCHEVIQUES – 160. INGLATERRA Y FRANCIA – 161. BOLIVIA Y EL PERÚ – 162. LAS TROPAS GUBERNAMENTALES ATACAN – 163. SOBRE LA SITUACIÓN HÚNGARA

Introduction:
“Man’s activities are very plainly moulded by the environment” – so argued Mark in his doctoral thesis in 1987, and yet when analysing the reign of the twelfth century Byzantine emperor John II Komnenos, these landscape related factors have been often been missing from previous studies, studies that have tended to debate the key issues based almost entirely upon often contradictory textual sources.  This paper today will focus on the most ambitious of the emperor’s campaigns, that to Cilicia and Syria in 1137, which has been the subject of a hugely diverse range of interpretations in past studies. 
This paper will argue that the divided political landscape of Cilicia in 1137, combined with the physical landscape of the country itself, explains the events of the campaign just as much, if not more than, any other ideological or personal factors involved. The research for this paper builds upon my original doctoral thesis and my more literature-based paper on Cilicia in this period that came out in the recent Dreams, Memory and Imagination in Byzantium, but significantly the research I am presenting today is based on a two week survey of sites between Konya and Antakya that I carried out in March of this year.  This trip was very much in the Whittownian tradition, drawing on Mark’s own research in the 1990s as part of the Oxford/BIAA Survey of Medieval Anatolian Castles project, and then the surveys he encouraged me to do as part of my doctorate in Serbia, Kosovo and western Turkey.  This research demonstrates that beyond their architectural specifics, these surviving castles, monasteries, churches and other structures demonstrate the intersection of human interaction with the landscape around them: the siting of a particular settlement within a specific theo-geo-political space (and I could probably add more prefixes if necessary here) has a great deal to tell us about the cultural, religious, economic, ideological and political history of the society that built it, and its interaction with those around it. This is not to be wholly geographically determinist about history, but as Mark said, history is certainly shaped by it, and so adding in these landscape factors to our analysis of John’s great eastern campaign is certainly required, in addition to the fieldwork itself being what I hope is a fitting tribute to Mark’s own work. Thus, in methodology, though I will mention architectural features when it comes to dating in particular, this paper will mainly be examining the relationship between these sites and the landscapes they inhabit, and the events they shaped. When constructing this paper for today, I had two choices: either I could cover every site, and thus my argument, in brief detail, or I could deep dive into a few sites to fully explore some of the more interesting possibilities this research involved, and in the end I decided for the latter, as there were some deeply intriguing possibilities this trip suggested that I thought would be fascinating to share with you today, though I look forward to questions on other sites as well, as the full chapter of my book this will be contributing towards now runs into the 25,000 word mark (I had fun cutting this paper down).
As an overview, this paper will therefore first introduce the condition of Cilicia in 1137 in our textual sources, before outlining select elements of John’s own campaign in the region, with particular focuses on where he launched the campaign from near Seleukeia, and then how expansive the campaign may have been to the north, demonstrating how the more contemporary texts in particular work with the landscape to potentially explain what has previously been so hotly debated, as well as raising new questions for further research.

* Olba kentindeki kaya anıtlarının cephe tasarımları, bölgedeki anıtsal-kamusal yapıların bir yansıması olarak karşımıza çıkmıştır. Korinth düzeninin anıtsal mimaride ön modelleri mevcutken Ion düzeninde inşa edilmiş bir kamu yapısı bilinmemektedir. Ancak tapınak mezar mimarisinde Ion düzeninin bazı unsurlarının kullanıldığı az sayıda örnek, Imbriogon Kome' den bilinmektedir. Dolayısıyla Ion düzeninin kaya mimarisinde kullanımı için ön modelleri bu tapınak mezarlar olabilir. Bunun da ötesinde sayısal üstünlüğü, ön modelini mezar stellerinin oluşturduğu stel benzeri cephe tasarımlı kaya anıtları oluşturmaktadır.
* The facade designs of the rock monuments in the city of Olba are the refl ections of the monumental and public buildings in the region. While the Corinthian order is pre-existed in monumental architecture, a public structure built in the Ionic order is not known. However, few examples of some elements of the Ionic order in the temple tomb architecture are

In 1981, Robert W. Edwards had discovered a six-line Armenian inscription in the previously unreported castle of Tamrut of the Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia. Unfortunately, picture-taking conditions made it difficult to obtain a photograph that would allow for a full reading of the inscription. A high-resolution scan and digital image processing have now allowed the author to interpret the important parts of the inscription. These include the medieval name of the castle, T'ambrowt – thus establishing a link with the modern name of the castle, the year of construction of 1253 AD, and references to King Het'um I and his father Kostandin, Lord of Papeṙōn, in whose memory the castle was built. This information allows us to conclude that despite agreements with the military Crusader orders to protect the southern flanks of the kingdom, and the treaty of vassalage to the Mongols, Het'um I was in a position to build new fortifications to protect his kingdom, and exercised an autonomous policy of military activity. Evidence of construction – or renovation – preserved in other castles of the kingdom may be dated to Het'um I’s reign, in which case it would support these conclusions, even though much of the military construction of Cilician Armenia is traditionally ascribed to King Lewon I or the baronial period which preceded his coronation.

The ar- ticle focuses on four historically interesting inscriptions attributed to Messina. I first dis- cuss two fairly similar dedications to Asclepios and Hygieia. One of them, now lost, also contained a dedicatory inscription to Antoninus Pius (ig xiv 402). The other, with no im- perial dedication, has been known to local scholars since the 18th century, but only became known to epigraphists in the late 20th century (seg 42, 870 = I.Messina 38). Their origin has been disputed since Louis Robert argued that ig xiv 402, the only one of the two in- scriptions known to him, had been brought from Aegeae (now Ayas) in Cilicia during the middle ages. In the article I try to demonstrate that it is indeed likely that the two inscrip- tions come from Cilicia. In the second part, I show that an inscription in the Civic City Museum of Catania, listed as authentic in IMC Catania, no. 236, is an 18th-century forgery.

2e Congrès du GIS Moyen-Orient et monde arabe, Atelier « Matérialiser la frontière » Eva Collet et Jean-David Richaud :
La construction d'une ceinture de forts par les sultans du Deccan au cours du XVIème siècle permettant de verrouiller leur frontière Sud face à l'empire Vijayanagara reprend le tracé d'une frontière déjà importante militairement à la période pré islamique des Calukyas. la frontière arabo-byzantine de Cilicie marque elle aussi une constance dans son tracé et son organisation depuis le début de l'expansion musulmane jusqu'à la fin du royaume de Petite-Arménie. Nous étudierons la pérennité des frontières militaires du Dar-el-Islam à travers les exemples du Deccan et de la Cilicie.

This essay explores the role of political marriages with Cilician Armenians during the settlement of crusaders in the Latin East. Marriage was a dangerous game, in which the players were not above sacrificing the occasional dynastic ‘pawn’ when it suited them. There is little doubt that initial dynastic alliances benefitted crusaders in their early attempts to settle northern Syria and allowed Armenian lords to secure their position in the face of threats from the Byzantium and Seljuk Turks, but only with varying degrees of success. As tensions between settler groups became more pronounced in the later twelfth and early thirteenth centuries marital alliances with the increasingly powerful Armenians were insufficient to the task of providing political stability to society in northern Syria. During this period the rulers of Armenian Cilicia experienced a degree of political unity and successfully maintained their protected mountain fortresses, but were unable to extend that power. This article explores how marriage policies could be beneficial but in the worst circumstances risked Latin and Armenian survival in the Levant, and stimulated further discord amongst the divergent Christian groups struggling to co-exist in the Holy Land during the thirteenth century.

This is the seventh volume of the Lexicon of Greek Personal Names to be published, a work which offers comprehensive documentation of named individuals in the Greek-speaking world in the period from c. 700 BC to 600 AD, drawn from all sources (predominantly written in Greek and to a lesser extent in Latin). It is the second of three volumes that comprise the personal names attested in Asia Minor. This particular volume is concerned with its southern coast, incorporating the ancient regions of Caria, Lycia, Pamphylia, and Cilicia, and thus completes coverage of the coastal regions.

The volume documents more than 44,500 individuals who between them bore in excess of 8,400 different names. In contrast to those parts of Asia Minor facing the Aegean, Propontis, and Black Sea, there was little Greek settlement along the southern coast. So, in this volume particular interest attaches to the very large number of non-Greek names originating in the languages of the indigenous peoples of these regions - Carian, Lycian, Sidetic, and Pisidian - all of them descended from the Hittite-Luwian languages spoken in Anatolia in the second and early first millennia BC.

The volume provides the raw material that allows us to see how indigenous names gave way first to Greek and later to Latin names, and how the pace of these changes varies from one region to another as one aspect of those processes of acculturation labelled as 'hellenization' and 'Romanization'. It contains a detailed introduction which addresses the definition of each of the regions and their cultural identity in terms both of geography and language and onomastics. It also guides the user through some of the problems of topography, dialect, and the treatment of non-Greek names, as well as providing some detailed statistics that point to interesting regional patterns.
Readership: Scholars and students interested in the Classical and Ancient world, in particular history, linguistics, epigraphy, numismatics, papyrology, and archaeology.

Alexander the Great (Alexander III. 336–323 B.C.) became king of Macedonia after the death of his father Philip II. (359–336 B.C.) in 336 B.C. The empire which was formed by Alexander the Great divided into pieces by his generals and had been spread to wide geographies. During The Hellenistic Period, the communities which were settled in Anatolia ruled by the empire of Alexander the Great were using their own language and had their own taste and pottery traditions. The urbanization of those communities affected pottery techniques and decoration of ceramics production during The Times of Diadoch’ in Cilicia.
After the death of Alexander the Great, the empire was divided into three parts: Ptolemies in Egypt, Libya and Levant regions; Seleucids in Syria and Southern Anatolia; Antigonoids in Macedonia, but Hellas had resumed their control and power.
The reflections of urbanization on the pottery techniques and ceramics schools of the region in The Hellenistic Period were very similar to the rest of The Ancient World. Especially in The Early Hellenistic Period (300–240/30 B.C.) the region was under the influence of The Near East and Cyprus pottery traditions. The interaction between the regions could be considered as the inevitable result of urbanization activities of Hellenistic kingdoms and the importance of the trade between the sites.
By the Department of Archaeology Çukurova University surveys in Ceyhan Ovası constitute the second stage of our surveys in Adana and Kayseri. Our primary goal was to revisit the settlements that had previously been surveyed by other researchers and published in the archaeological literature and to identify the prehistoric, proto-historic and 1st millennium B.C. settlements.
Within the borders of the Ceyhan and Kozan various village settlements that developed from the Pottery Neolithic period have been identified. We have also obtained new data from the Ceyhan and Kozan mounds located between the Çukurova and Amik plains that connect northern and western Anatolia with southeast Anatolia as also with the Middle East. Some mounds are located on the Mersin-Adana-Ceyhan line indicating the presence of a road network. This road is on the extension of the Cilician coastal road that was constructed over a nine years’ period when Vespasian (69-79 A.D.) in Rome ordered the construction of numerous across the empire.
Large amount of pottery of the Hellenistic Period that had been found in the region after the surveys in Yukarı Ova (Ceyhan Ovası) showed that there were small settlements that were supplying the needs of the major cities as Tarsos, Aigeai, Hierapolis/Kastabala, Mopsuhestia-Misis and were acting bases.
In terms of their pastes, glazes, forms and decorations, there is much variation in the Yukarı Ova bowls. The objects were not unearthed in the course of regular excavations; analogy is based rather more on comparisons with those with known dates. In making such assessments, I have naturally refrained from citing definite dates or workshop names in all but a few cases and have instead suggested what the possible manufacturing place might have been. For classification, I have made use of a system based on decoration that was first introduced by F. Courby and was later developed and elaborated upon by A. Laumonier and is widely accepted by researchers in this field. As previous researchers on this subject have noted, features such as clay, glaze or form are only of limited value in classifying these wares.