Bronze Age höyüks, Iron Age hilltop forts, Roman poleis and Byzantine pilgrimage in Germia and its vicinity. ‘Connectivity’ and a lack of ‘definite places’ on the central Anatolian high plateau

Bibliographic Data

ID22835864
AuthorsPhilipp Niewöhner (0009-0004-4564-8318, University of Oxford, corresponding author), Gülseren Dikilitaş, Ercan Erkul (0000-0003-3396-807X, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel), Stefan Giese (Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg), Joachim Gorecki (Goethe University Frankfurt), Walter Prochaska (0000-0003-3047-2976, Montanuniversität Leoben), Deniz Sarı (0000-0002-2779-0757, Bilecik University), Harald Stümpel (Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel), Ali VARDAR (0000-0002-0100-2548), Alice Waldner (Austrian Academy of Sciences), Andreas Victor Walser (0000-0003-2804-3216), Heiko Woith (0000-0001-7662-7780, GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences)
Year2013
Volume63
Pages97-136
Publication date2013-12-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnatolian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0066-1546 • E-ISSN: 2048-0849
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0066154613000069
OpenAlexW2040309561
LanguageEN
Citations received6

Germia was a well-connected Byzantine polis in western-central Anatolia, famous for its healing waters and a church of St Michael. After three years of survey the site can now be reconstructed: it included several other churches and monasteries, but little space for ordinary residential buildings. This comes as a surprise, but can be explained by the discovery of two older Roman cities within walking-distance of Germia, where the ordinary people seem to have lived. One of these cities, Mantalos, was home to a local cult of the pagan god Men. This may explain why the Christian healing centre was established at Germia. Later, Mantalos shed its pagan legacy and was apparently renamed Eudoxias after a homonymous member of the Theodosian dynasty. No Roman or Byzantine settlement of the region has a history extending back beyond the Iron Age, when the population retreated to fortified hilltop settlements and many sizable Bronze Age höyüks were deserted. Settlement locations changed often and grew little in central Anatolia, and this may be blamed on the uniform landscape of the high plateau; it lacks the Mediterranean's diverse geography of ‘definite places’ that would favour one site above others and ensure its continuity and growth.

Ancient history · Archaeology · Bronze Age · Byzantine architecture · Cult · Geography · Human settlement · Iron Age · Pilgrimage · Plateau (mathematics) · Settlement (finance) · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Byzantine Studies and History · History

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