Trade Around Zeugma

Following the Euphrates in Antiquity: North-South Routes around Zeugma
Author(s): Anthony Comfort and Rifat Erge

Source: Anatolian Studies, Vol. 51 (2001), pp. 19-49
Published by: British Institute at Ankara
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3643026
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Following
the
Euphrates
in
antiquity:
north-south routes around
Zeugma
Anthony
Comfort and Rifat
Erge
Franco-Turkish Mission to Zeugma
c/o Institut Francais d'Etudes Anatoliennes, Istanbul
Introduction
This second article on ancient roads around
Zeugma
deals mainly
with
navigation along
the river itself and
north-south routes on both banks of the Euphrates.
Like
its
predecessor (Comfort
et al 2000), this one is based on
extensive survey
work in the
years
1996 to 1999
during
the excavations carried out at
Zeugma by
a Franco-
Turkish mission. It discusses sites located in the
region
surrounding
the ancient
city
on both east and west banks
of the river
Euphrates
and seeks to
identify
the
principal
roads of the
region
used in
antiquity. Maps
to
complement
those
prepared
for the
preceding
article are
included.
In Comfort et al 2000, ancient
crossing points
of the
river
Euphrates
in southern Turkey
were discussed in the
light
of
survey
work conducted with the
help
of satellite
photos
in and around the reservoir created
by
the Birecik
dam. This dam was
completed
in summer 2000. The
lake created behind the Birecik dam stretches north about
100km as far as the Atatiirk dam, for the most
part
constrained in a narrow
gorge;
a second lake now also
reaches for about 20km south from Birecik to the
Carchemish dam, itself
approximately
6km north of the
Syrian
border. The
survey
was conducted over six visits
between 1996 and 1999. Given the
shortage
of resources
and the vast area covered
(about 2,500km2)
it can
only
be
considered a
preliminary investigation
and was indeed
originally
undertaken with a view
only
to
proving
the
usefulness of satellite
photographs
as an aid to archaeo-
logical survey
work. Since
completion
of this
project
two technical
developments
have rendered the
potential
value to
archaeology
of satellite
technology
much
greater.
On 1
May
2000 the US
government
removed the
artificial distortions, introduced for civilian users, of
signals
from its series of Global
Positioning System
satellites. This
change
means that individual
readings
can be taken with an
accuracy
of about 20m instead of
100m
anywhere
on the
globe.
Since the end of 1999 the
first
photographs
with Im resolution from the Ikonos
series of
imaging
satellites have become
publicly
available and it is now
possible
to
purchase
more detailed
satellite
photographs
than ever before, as is shown
by
the
photograph
of the Coliseum included with their
publicity
material (http://www.spaceimaging.com/gallery/ioweek/
archive/iowl21399/iowl213.htm).
The
previous
best
commercial satellite
imagery
was the Russian KVR-
1000 series, used for this
project,
which reveals
objects
more than 2m across. The
photos
available dated from
1990 and 1992. Less detailed 'Corona'
photographs,
also from reconnaissance satellites but of US
origin
and
from the 1960s have also been used.
Archaeological survey
work for this
project
was
carried out in the context of excavations
by
the Franco-
Turkish mission to
Zeugma
and- given
the
very
limited
resources available it concentrated on ancient roads,
which were identified with the help
of satellite imagery.
Comfort et al 2000 addressed in
particular
east-west
routes crossing
the
Euphrates
in the
survey
area.
This article is concerned with north-south routes, both
those
passing along
the
Euphrates valley
itself and other
routes in the vicinity linking
the major
centres of
settlement in
antiquity.
It draws on information from the
satellite
photos,
on roads and sites found in and around the
valley,
on discussions with local
people
and on occasional
references in ancient sources or
published
accounts of
early European
travellers. Sites along
the
Euphrates
itself
which are mentioned below have for the most
part previ-
ously gone
unrecorded. The earlier
survey
of the river
valley
conducted from north to south
by
Guillermo
Algaze
in 1989
(Algaze
et al
1994) began only
at Halfeti; but this
town and areas further north were not
investigated by
him.
Standing buildings
of the
region
have
recently
been inves-
tigated
in the context of a
project sponsored by
the
Giineydogu
Anadolu
Projesi (GAP project
for the
development
of southeast Anatolia) (Durukan 1999).
Ancient
place-names
of this
region,
as well as all
Syria,
are
reviewed
by Honigmann (1923/4),
who has also discussed
the
larger
centres of the
region
in a series of articles
published
in
Pauly-Wissowa.
His
major
article on
Syria
in
this
encyclopaedia (Honigman 1932)
also contains in
section 14
(Itinerarien
und
R6merstrassen)
a discussion of
many
of the routes mentioned below.
19
Anatolian Studies 2001
Rifat
Ergec was Director of the
Gaziantep Museum
and co-director of the Franco-Turkish Mission to
Zeugma, but is
currently lecturing
at the
University
of
Gaziantep.
Once
again
the first author
pays tribute to the
assistance of Danis
Baykan, now at the
regional
museum
at
Pergamon,
who
accompanied most of the
survey
expeditions and
ably interpreted,
but also to Irem
Gokcaylh and to the
many villagers
who assisted us
by
providing information. Ntisret Ozdemir, former
guardian
of the site of
Zeugma, was
especially informative in
regard to river traffic
along
the
Euphrates. Information
for sites in
Syria was obtained on a
trip
to the
Euphrates
valley
south of the border in the
company
of Justine
Gaborit.
Apart
from those
published here, a
large
number of other
photographs
of sites mentioned in this
text
may
be seen on the
Project Zeugma
website
(www.ist.lu/zeugma/). Maps
for the routes
along
the
Euphrates valley
are included, but for areas further afield
readers are referred to those included with the
preceding
article.
Trade and communications
along
the river
Euphrates
For
early periods, there is almost no direct evidence for
use of this
part
of the river
Euphrates
as a means of
transport.
But the indirect evidence is substantial. The
Ubaid and Uruk
period
settlements discovered
along
the river to the south of Birecik become less
frequent
to the north but
right up
to Samosata and
beyond
there
are
'hoyuiiks'
which indicate
early settlements. These
very probably
used the river for
transport, especially
if
they
were involved in
exporting
local
products
and
resources back to
Mesopotamia, as is
widely assumed
(for example, Algaze 1993b).
Two of the Chalcolithic
and Bronze
Age
sites concerned have been excavated
only recently-
Horum and Tilbes -but the natural
hill of Hacinebi excavated
by
Stein
(1999),
8km east of
Zeugma,
and the
h6yiik
of Kurban near Samosata
(Wilkinson 1990),
excavated
by Algaze,
had
already
indicated much
activity
in
periods going
back to the
Uruk.
Algaze's survey
of the area in 1989
(Algaze 1994)
located even earlier evidence from the late Ubaid at
nine sites between Halfeti and
Carchemish, including
Horum and Tilbes to the north of
Zeugma,
from the
Middle/Late Halaf at three sites and from the Neolithic
at two. Another
recently
discovered site in the basin of
the Birecik dam reservoir further north at
Irmakboyu
(or Nehriseid see below and
fig 3) now offers
additional evidence of
exchange
of
goods
in the river
valley
as
early
as the Ubaid.
Early
Bronze
Age
cemeteries also existed at Zeugma itself (Sertok, Ergec
1999) and, probably,
at
Kalecik,
1.5km northwest of
Halfeti.
The
goods exchanged
between
Mesopotamia and the
region
of
Zeugma
in the Uruk
period
since contact was
established around 3700 BC are
likely
to have been
primarily
raw materials
exported
to the south in
exchange
for manufactured
goods,
as well as tin from
Afghanistan.
As Stein
(1999: 157) remarks, for the Uruk
colony
at
Hacinebi, upstream
traffic would
normally
have been
limited to
high-value items of low bulk, which, apart
from
textiles, may
have included oils and aromatics, while
downstream traffic would have included
copper, lumber,
gold
and
semi-precious
stones.
Presumably
this is also
true for Halaf and Ubaid
periods,
i.e. from the sixth
millennium BC.
Long-distance exchanges involving
obsidian, shells, semi-precious stones, copper
and
bitumen are known to have been conducted in the area
even earlier, in the Aceramic Neolithic; since the sources
of much of the obsidian found in the Near East
lay
in
eastern Anatolia it would be
unsurprising
to learn that the
Euphrates
had
provided
a corridor for such
exchanges
even then, although evidence is
currently limited to
places
much further south
along
the river such as Abu
Hureyra
and
Bouqras (Roaf 1990:
34).
Unfortunately, good evidence to confirm
hypotheses
as to the nature of trade
along
the
valley
is still
lacking.
Timber from Lebanon and Amanus
is,
of course, known
to have been floated down to
Babylon and
Assyria at
least since the ninth
century BC and
possibly since the
third millennium
(Sargon
of Akkad mentions extension
of his realm to the Cedar Forest around 2300
BC)
(Kuniholm 1997). But this wood seems
likely
to have
been transferred to rafts at a
point below Birecik. In
any
case, timbers were
frequently acquired by military
expeditions
sent for this
purpose and then as tribute,
rather than
through normal commerce. Forests
along the
higher reaches of the
Euphrates valley must
certainly
have existed but it is not known when these were cut
down. Ore from
copper mines
opposite Malatya
and east
of the river was
probably
also
transported
down the
Euphrates but no evidence is
yet available to confirm
this, although
Stein did find evidence of
copper working
at Hacinebi.
Below the Chalcolithic and Bronze
Age mound of
Horum
(fig 1; 5km north of
Zeugma) squared stones
placed
in the river and visible at times of low water for
considerable distances
along
the banks must have been
either
towpaths
or
quays (fig 6). Those at Horum were
originally tied
by metal
cramps for which the holes
were still visible and seem to be of Roman
origin.
The area around the mound of Horum is
thought
to have
been an
important
late Roman town called Urima or
Antiocheia. Excavation reports for the Chalcolithic and
Bronze
Age
mound have been
published
since 1997 in
Anatolia
Antiqua.
20
Comfort
and
Ergeq
(via Uzunburc)
0
Legend
* Village
A Site
* Ancient quarry
t
Confirmed
ancient road
A Bridge footing
Q Crossing
o
0
00 0o Assumed course
of ancient road
To
Birecik Dam
5Km
Fig
1.
Map of Euphrates valley from Zeugma
to
Halfeti
21
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'III
I I
o
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
i
To Germanicsia
(Marash)N
0000
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?
Kayalar
A
Kosk
Legend
*
Village
A Site
/
Ancient
quarry
li?,
Confirmed
ancient road
A Bridge footing
Ql
Crossing
0000o 00 o Assumed course
of ancient road
Fig 2.
Map of Euphrates valley from
Halfeti to
Siipiirgui
22
0
0
0
0
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0
a90g
^ov
*
Comfort
and
Ergeq
On the
right (west) bank these
quays
seemed to
disappear
under the riverbank to the north of the mound
at Horum, possibly
as a result of a
change
in the course
of the river. It was not therefore
possible
to
judge
their
former
length. Nevertheless about 30m were visible in
the river. On the left bank, near the similar mound at
Tilbes and for a considerable distance to the south
(at
least
100m), a
quay
or
towpath
was seen
just below the
surface of the river. Here it
apparently
consisted of
smoothed natural rock with occasional
deep
artificial
holes, possibly
for wooden
mooring posts.
The
interpre-
tation of these artificial 'banks'
depends crucially
on the
river level in
antiquity.
Both at Horum and at Tilbes the
level of the
platforms below the river level
prevailing
from 1996 to 1999
implies that the
Euphrates was about
2m lower in the Roman
period
if
they
were in fact
towpaths
or
quays. Although visible evidence is also
lacking
for commercial
activity along
the
valley
in Greek
and Roman
antiquity, apart
from these
quays
or
towpaths,
there are references to the
valley
in ancient
authors. These sources are reviewed
by Kennedy
(1998b: 139-62),
with
particular reference to
Zeugma.
However, in
regard
to the use of the river for
transport,
references are
very
few. The best concerns a
journey
downstream of the
bishop
of Samosata. Theodoretus
recounts that the
bishop
was ordered into exile
by
the
emperor
Valens around the mid-fifth
century
AD.
[Eusebius]
confided his intentions to one of his
household servants who followed him
carrying
nothing
but a cushion and a book. When he had
reached the bank of the river
(for
the
Euphrates
runs
along
the
very
walls of the
town)
he embarked in a
boat and told the oarsmen to row to
Zeugma.
When
it was
day
the
bishop
had reached
Zeugma,
and
Samosata was full of
weeping
and
wailing.
... Then
all the
congregation
bewailed the removal of their
shepherd,
and the stream was crowded with
voyagers.
When
they
came where he was and saw their
beloved
pastor,
with lamentations and
groanings they
shed floods of tears, and tried to
persuade
him to
remain, and not abandon the
sheep
to the wolves. But
it was all of no avail, and he read them the
apostolic
law which
clearly
bids us be
subjects
to
magistrates
and authorities. When
they
had heard him, some
brought
him
gold,
some silver, some
clothes,
and
others servants, as
though
he were
starting
for some
strange
and distant land. The
bishop
refused to take
anything
but some
slight gifts
from his more intimate
friends, and then
gave
the whole
company
his
instruction and his prayers, and exhorted them to stand
up boldly
for the
apostolic
decrees. Then he set out for
the Danube,
while his friends returned to their own
town. (Hist. Eccl. 4.14.3, 364/378, trans Jackson
1892)
There are, of course, many
references to
crossing the
river at
Zeugma and there is also an
interesting reference
in Ammianus to the
bridge
at
Capersana. These are
reviewed in Comfort et al 2000. The
question of the
valley
as a border is addressed below, but the evidence for
military transport along the
Euphrates quoted by
Dabrowa
(1997) refers to more
southerly
stretches of the river.
In
living memory the river was used for both
downstream and
upstream traffic, although boats were
dragged upstream unloaded. Goods carried included
grain, pistachios and timber. Grain in
particular was trans-
ported downstream from Samsat (ancient Samosata, now
drowned
by
the Atatiirk
dam) to Belkis and Birecik. Pista-
chios are
reported
as
having
been regularly exported early
in the 20th
century from the
large village
of Sanlar
(opposite Ayni/G6zeli) to
Djerablus presumably for
onward
carriage
to
Aleppo
via
Membij. Except
for timber,
which descended the river as rafts of interlocked
logs
('keleks'), the boats used for
transport
were flat-bottomed
and
rectangular (known as 'sahtur'; see
fig
17 in Comfort
et al
2000) and
approximately
6 x 2m. For the
downstream
journey they were often linked in
pairs
abreast, while for the
upstream haulage they
were linked in
lines of four, towed
by teams of
up
to
eight men, with one
man left on board the first boat to
guide
a
steering oar, also
used for
punting.
Arab boats in use on the rivers
Tigris and
Euphrates up
to the
early years
of the last
century
are
discussed
by
Ritter
(1919); although large
masted boats
were then in use around
Baghdad,
it is unclear whether
these have ever been in use around
Zeugma, the common
type
for both
crossing
the river and downstream
navigation having apparently
been the 'sahtur'.
Fishing
was still conducted in 1999 from small boats or
rafts
supported
on inner tubes for
lorry tyres,
the successors
of the round coracles or 'kuffas' mentioned in the sources
as in use into the 20th
century. Some
villages,
such as
Kizilin
opposite Col, had a
reputation
in the area for
living
at least
partly
from fish
caught
on downstream
journeys
and sold to settlements
along
the river.
Evidently,
the
downstream
journey by
boat while
catching
fish would
have been followed
by
a
long
walk home.
Upstream towing
was not
always possible
from both
banks. It was
frequently necessary
to cross the river to
continue on the other bank because of cliffs, which often
made the riverbank
impassable.
The
towpaths
had
largely
disappeared by
1996 when the
survey began, presumably
because of
flooding
and landslides, but in
any
case seasonal
variations in the river level
may
have
precluded
the estab-
lishment of
permanent towpaths.
The satellite
photos
reveal banks above the level of the river at some
points
that
may have been used as towpaths (fig 5), but may also have
been used for caravan traffic
along
the
valley. Freya
Stark
described such a
journey
in a boat towed and
punted up
from Halfeti to Rumkale
(Stark
1966:
110).
23
0
\
f Turus (Kuyulu)
o o/ onument
0 A
0
0 0
0 0
Legend
*
Village
A Site
A
Ancient
quarry
li!?
Confirmed
ancient road
A Bridge footing
D Crossing
o00
o
0
o o Assumed course
of ancient road
Fig
3.
Map of Euphrates valley from
Vahne to
Adilpazar
I I
II
Comfort
and
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Fig
4.
Map of Euphrates valley
below Carchemish
25
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Tell Amama
X
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Fig
5.
Euphrates
at
junction
with Kara Su; showing possible former tow-path
on east bank
(extract from
KVR-I 000
photograph of
22
May 1992)
26
Comfort
and
Erge?
Until modem times this
part of the
Euphrates valley
seems
likely
to have been used in
many periods for both
land routes and fluvial
transport
for downstream traffic.
The use of the river as a means of
transport must have
fluctuated
according
to the
political
and economic
environment. The
complete abandonment of the
valley
as a
thoroughfare, apparent
in the 1990s, resulted
princi-
pally from the arrival of the internal combustion
engine
and construction of
passable roads, which
changed
the
economic balance in favour of road
transport. The
physical barriers
represented by dams
just
confirmed this
abandonment, although the creation of very long
reser-
voirs
navigable
in both directions is
already producing
a
revival of river traffic, at least for tourism.
New sites and finds
along the
valley
The sites mentioned in this section are the most
important new finds
along the
valley
itself.
Many
will
have been affected
by the reservoir, either
directly
or
because access has now been
impeded.
Further sites are
mentioned in the
succeeding
sections as evidence of the
ancient roads of the
region. They
are
presented roughly
in
chronological order; some have
already been
briefly
mentioned in the
preceding sections and in Comfort et al
2000.
The mound Nehriseid (official name:
Irmakboyu; fig
3) was the most
important pre-historic site discovered
during
the
survey.
It is located on the left bank of the
Euphrates (here the south bank) 32km northeast of
Halfeti. This area
along
the south bank was
previously
unexplored
and several other finds are described below.
Although
not
investigated
in detail the mound showed
evidence in the form of
painted potsherds of
occupation
in the Ubaid
period
and seems similar in size to that at
Kurban. There is a track
recently
built
leading
to a house
on the summit and there are some other houses on the
east flank, but most of the small modem
village
has
moved from the riverbank to the
plateau
to the west.
Excavation of the track and on this east flank had
exposed
ceramics at several
points.
The river is about
100m to the northwest
by
a track
leading
to the cave-
church described below. There is a further mound, which
is smaller and seems at least in
part
to be natural, a
further 6km to the northeast, also on the riverbank, at
Ozgeren (formerly Adilpazar).
For the Iron
Age, evidence of travel
along
the
valley
is
particularly patchy:
castles found since 1996 above the
river at
Kaleboyu (near Elif)
and
Bozyazi (fig 2) must
indicate a desire to control traffic but the
period
of
construction and
occupation
is unclear. The former,
mentioned
briefly
in Comfort et al
(2000: 117), lies on
the west bank in a remarkable position on cliffs with
views to the north and to
Ayni,
and close to the route
from the
river-crossing
to the settlements around Elif
(4km northnortheast, on the Roman road from Doliche to
Samosata). Little was found to date the site; the
existing
walls are of small
irregular blocks, with at least one
square tower
projecting
from the north wall, which was
visible for a stretch of 150m, terminating
at the cliffs
which fall almost
vertically
to the
Euphrates, 250m
below.
Footings for
large
cut blocks may be seen as well
as a
grape-press and foundations of internal structures,
but our
investigations were
superficial.
There were two
deep cisterns on the summit, partly plastered, and a third
cistern at least 4m
deep was said to lie below the castle
at a level 40m above the river, but the means of access to
it were unclear. A substantial ruined settlement (Kucuk
Kirkap),
with some
large door-posts
of
roughly shaped
stone and with cisterns and rock-cut tombs, apparently of
the Roman
period, lay
on the
edge
of the limestone
plateau nearby.
An even
larger settlement of the same
type
with about 40
large rectangular houses, with walls
up
to a metre thick, and with enormous cisterns, lies 5km
northnorthwest at
Hasanoglu, and a further one was
reported nearby
on the
cliff-top to the northeast, about
2.5km southwest of Elif.
Hasanoglu,
Elif and another
village nearby called Hisar all still have remarkable, tall
funerary monuments,
which are
comparatively
well-
known (see, for
example, Wagner
1985:
32).
Fig
6.
Towpath
or
quay?
-
below Horum Hyviik
27
^Ton
g|
mill & cros
Falen
slabs Level
approx.
20Or
ve river
Fig Plan f temple at Kelefs, near Kllk
Fig 7. Plan of temple
at
Kelefis,
near Killik
At
Bozyazi, on the east bank some 5km to the north
of
Kaleboyu,
the cliffs fall
away
from the
village
in a
series of remarkable
parallel
natural
collapses. On the
final
ridge
above the river a
long
and thin fortification
exists
(20
x
190m), partly
cut into the natural rock but
with some
walling
still evident. The blocks in
place
are
larger
than at
Kaleboyu but
equally difficult to date.
Several
large standing
stones on the summit
ridge
were
shaped,
there was a substantial circular cistern and, on
the river side
(northwest), an
underground
room with
perfectly smoothed, square walls, a small
rectangular
window and a
gently curving vault. The visible remains,
in
particular a semi-circular bastion carved in the natural
rock at the south end, seem to indicate that this was an
outpost
of some
importance.
A further two natural caves
on the southeast, 'inland', side of the castle had been
enlarged
and fitted out as houses. A track leads down
from the
plateau
to the river at this
point and the east
bank below the castle is
impassable
because of the
very
steep
cliffs. There were
reports
of a
spherical
stone ball
found
nearby
which had been
placed
on a field wall and
then fallen into the river.
An
underground temple
in a cliff-face above the river
was found at Kelefis, near Killik
(fig 3), which
may
on
stylistic grounds
be dated to the Achaemenid or
early
Hellenistic
period;
in
particular,
several bulbous, and one
hexagonal,
column
capitals
remain carved in the natural
rock
ceiling
of the hall, while the columns themselves
had
disappeared (fig 7). What
may be an
underground
garrison
or fortress called Avdules was also found some
5km east, opposite
the
junction
with the G6ksu river
(fig
3). This
astonishing building
on five levels carved into a
cliff above the river was
extremely
difficult to reach on
foot; an
inscription promised by
local
guides
was not
found-
possibly
the
'building'
is Hellenistic in
origin,
but some
pointed
arches in niches
may
indicate a
medieval
period
of
occupation.
At both these sites
passage along
the river downstream will now be
impos-
sible
except,
of course, by
boat.
At the hamlet of Col, between Killik and Nehriseid
(fig
3), evidence was found of a substantial town, probably
dating
from Hellenistic and Roman times, which has
hitherto
gone unreported.
On the
plateau
above the river,
with remarkable views into the
valley,
lies the
existing
small settlement with
buildings
that include a
large
number of reused blocks, probably
from a
temple
located
nearby
on the
top
of the cliff
overlooking
the town and the
river. Below, ancient
steps
and
pathways
lead down
past
an ancient
press
still in use for
pressing grapes
on the
day
of our visit to a ravine close to the
Euphrates.
A
hundred metres to the west, water
emerged
from a
spring
in a cave
just
above the river that had once been used to
power
a mill, now vanished; but ancient
aqueducts
were
visible in the cliff on both sides of the cave.
28
Comfort
and
Ergec
Fig
9. The mausoleum at Nehriseid
(Irmakboyu)
Fig
8. Col- structures visible on the hillside
opposite
the modern hamlet
Fig
10. The church at Nehriseid
(Irmakboyu)
A
Underground mll
Tombs:
. path to Ciftekoz
+ a ...-
. steps and arch
?
- ".. .. ..a
~
CcCaveas
'
v .. Cave
tombsaves
Euphrates
4
t
CARAVANSERAI ?
<<
A
VA-,.
X S Al
track to Sirataslar (Vahne)
Fig
11. Plan of
t-he S crossin g a t
/ahne rata0
100 m
Fig
11. Plan
of
the
crossing
at Vahne
(Slrataslar)
29
Above and on the side of the ravine
facing away
from
the river, a
large
number of tombs and foundations of
buildings cut into the rock are visible
(fig 8).
The site
was not discovered by
a German
expedition
of 1918 sent
to chart this
portion
of the river
(Noldeke 1920), possibly
because it was invisible from the river itself. This town
must constitute a candidate for the Porsica mentioned
by
Ptolemy
and
previously
identified with locations on the
bank
opposite
Samosata or with the modem
regional
centre of
Yaylak,
a small town with a
large
mound in
open country
to the southeast of Col.
Epiphaneia,
a site
mentioned by Pliny (NH 5.21), would be another
possi-
bility since no other
comparable
town on the east bank of
the
Euphrates
was found over the four
years
of this
survey. However, the latter town is
placed by
Jones
opposite
Horum
(1937: 441, n 3; see
Kennedy
1998:
map
on
5).
A site located here
by Algaze
at 'Colfelek Tarlasl'
and identified as of the Hellenistic and Roman
periods
may
therefore have been
Epiphaneia, although
no tombs
in the cliff-face
nearby
were found on the occasion of our
visit
despite
the existence of natural caves
(Algaze
et al
1994: site 20).
Continuing along
the
valley
in the northern
part
of the
survey area, further evidence of
occupation
in Roman
times came from the next
village
from Col
along
the
south bank towards the east
again
at Nehriseid
(official name:
Irmakboyu).
In addition to the
large
mound described above, this small settlement boasts a
cemetery
on a
neighbouring hilltop
about lkm from the
river which has a remarkable small Roman mausoleum
still
standing, apparently
to its
original height
of 4.20m
(fig 9). Originally circular, only
the northern half is
preserved
with the south side
having fallen to reveal an
altar. The round exterior of the
surviving part
is
decorated with
pilasters.
No
inscription
was found as
such but the letters 'GIII'
may
be read with
difficulty
above the altar and 'III' is
roughly carved at two
points
on the exterior. It seems
possible that these
'graffiti'
were inscribed
by
visitors from
Samosata,
the base of
Legio
III Gallica. This mausoleum has
apparently been
preserved because it was believed
by
local
people
to
constitute a shrine for a Moslem saint, i.e. a 'tiirbe'. It
was last described
by N6oldeke
(1920)
and had
apparently
not been visited since.
One hundred and
twenty
metres west of the mound
and the modem houses around it at Nehriseid, there is a
large
artificial
opening
in the cliff-face
immediately
above the river. A tomb with seven loculi is cut into the
rock some metres to its east but the
principal opening
seems
very probably
to have been a church. About 40
large reddish stone blocks have fallen into the river and
may
have constituted a
platform
and facade for the
church. The excavated chamber is 10.40m
deep and
7.20m wide; the
opening
itself is
approximately 10m
high, forming the
shape
of an
upturned
bucket. The cliff
leans out over the river and a further three small
openings
are
placed left, above and
right of the
principal
room
(fig
10).
Since the dam downstream will have raised the water
only by
a few metres at this
point (Killik is about 65km
upriver
from the Birecik
dam),
the sites described so far
will
probably
be unaffected
although
access will now be
possible only by boat in some cases. Others which are
lower-lying
will however have
already disappeared:
in
the northern section of the
survey
area
they
include a
probable ruined caravanserai below Varne (Sirataslar,
opposite Ciftek6z, figs 3, 11); a mill at Kelefis near some
remarkable
springs
which rise
partly
in the river itself;
and cave
dwellings
at Ina in the
gorge opposite
Hisar.
Traces of mills were found at three
points along
the
river in 1999: Rumkale, Kelefis and Col. N6oldeke found
a further such mill at
Adilpazar (now known also as
Ozgeren)
about 10km to the east and the last
point
inves-
tigated by this
survey
before the Atatiirk dam. His
description
reads as follows.
On the left bank above Adil-Bazar a notable feature
is a cave mill, which like all those observed in this
area must date back to
early Christian times, and it is
still in use [1912]. Recently
it still
belonged
to a
Christian
family
of millers and had
probably
done so
since time immemorial... In the mills there is
usually
a stream of water led
through
a
deep,
narrow channel
hewn in the rock, generally
directed
straight
onto the
horizontal millwheels. To ensure the
supply during
droughts,
water was stored in reservoirs in the
open
among
the bushes a little
way from the river bank.
Mills hereabouts consist of two
large adjacent
rooms and a common
holding area, all cut out of the
cliff. A
single door leads from outside into the
holding area; there are no
openings
for
light. On the
right
of the door inside the
holding
area there is a
chicken house cut into the cliff with a hole to the
outside. The left-hand room serves as a
donkey stall;
in the
right-hand one the millstones lie one behind
another in a
rectangular hollow; below them the
water rushes
past
in a covered conduit. In the
open
near the mill chambers there are two interconnected
containers; one reaches far into the cliff and is
dammed
by
a small
retaining wall, the other has been
dug
out
artificially
and is walled on three sides and
sealed with
plaster
in the Roman manner. The mill
wheels are, as I said, laid
horizontally. They consist
of two concentric iron rings set on their edge,
between which
paddles
have been riveted. The
square,
wooden axle is bedded with an iron
30
Comfort
and
Ergeq
connecting piece
into a hard rock at the bottom of the
channel. At the
top
the axle extends into an iron bar
which is stuck
through
the middle of the fixed, lower
millstone and firmly
connected with an
upper
millstone
by means of a four-edged head and double-
winged,
flat
splint.
The axle hole of the lower stone
is covered
by
a leather cover, to
prevent
the corn
falling through
the hole. The water runs out of the
channel in a
strong
stream onto the
slanting paddles
of the wheel and drives the wheel and the
upper
stone. The problem
of
translating
the vertical
power
of the falling
water into a horizontal, turning
motion
has been solved with a certain amount of
wastage
of
water, but without recourse to
technically
difficult
installations.
Probably
a
very
old solution, handed
down
by
the Christians... (Noldeke
1920: 18, trans
Philippa Seymour).
Metal
parts
of mills were found at Kelefis in the
river and in the Merzumen valley
above Rumkale.
These seem likely
to have been in use until around
1920, but the associated aqueducts
and tunnels are
probably
much earlier in
origin. Large
flat
grinding
stones were also found outside the
valley
itself at
(iftekoz, Haydarahmet
and Haciobasi. In all three
cases these were in
large underground
rooms
apparently
constructed in
antiquity.
Other similar rooms were
found in the
Bahqe
Dere, (a valley containing
a
large
necropolis just
north of
Zeugma)
and at Bumus
(see
below).
Cave
dwellings
were evident at several
points
in cliffs
along
the
valley,
some
apparently
of
great age
but
impos-
sible to date in the absence of
potsherds.
There was a
settlement on three levels,
with some caves for animals
and others
enlarged
for
dwellings,
at an abandoned
settlement
just
above the river at Ina
(fig 2,
northeast of
Bozyazi
and
opposite Hisar)
and another below (iftekoz
for which external staircases in the cliff face were still
visible. This was
probably
the
crossing point
used
by
Humann and Puchstein on their
journey
from Halfeti to
Nemrud
Dag (1890: 180)
since
they
refer also to
many
troglodyte dwellings.
The
crossing
at
Ciftekoz
is
discussed in Comfort et al
(2000: 121).
Roads
along
the
valley
The remains of the Roman
bridge
found in October
1999
(and briefly
discussed in Comfort et al 2000:
117)
on the west bank at
Habe? (fig 2),
some metres north of
the
junction
of the Kara Su and
Euphrates,
are
proof
that there was an ancient north-south route
along
the
river -at least for the section from
Ayni
and Kenk
northwards. Because of landslides and erosion no road
was visible from the east bank, for
example looking
down from the castle at
Bozyazi, but animals and
shepherds
still
passed along
a riverside footpath
below
the enormous cliffs of Elif and Hisar
during
the
period
of our
survey.
It must be assumed that the caravans,
which local people
remember as
using this route,
crossed the river at
Ayni, since to the south of
Ayni the
west bank of the
Euphrates
is
again impassable.
This
valley
route was still called by
local
people
on both
banks
'Top
Yol' or Cannonball Road. The
bridge
at
Habe~
was
only partially preserved,
its northern
pier
having
been
swept away
in a storm in the 1960s. There
was a house built on the
remaining pier
on the occasion
of our visit and we were informed that the road had
formerly
followed the
steep
cliff on the north side on
raised
piers
until it turned the corner into the main
Euphrates valley.
The Kara Su river had to be waded or
crossed
by
boat and the route
along
the river had fallen
into disuse.
The existence of the Roman
bridge
at
Habe~,
constructed
by
the
Legio
IIII
Scythica (as proven by
the
nearby inscription
on the cliffs from which stone had
been
quarried,
Comfort et al 2000:
fig 16), poses
a
conundrum. For if the river was indeed the frontier
between Rome and Parthia from first to third centuries
AD then it is difficult to see how Roman caravans and
military convoys
can have used the road
along
the east
bank of the river
valley.
But both the
bridge
at
Habe?
and
inscription
at Kenk
imply
a
crossing
to the east bank,
presumably
for caravans continuing
either east to
Urfa/Edessa or south
along
the
Euphrates,
as
early
as the
time of
Vespasian.
In his discussion of the
Euphrates crossings, Syme
(1995: 95)
mentions the belief that
Pompey
the Great
assigned
a
portion
of Osrhoene to
Commagene opposite
Samosata. The
crossing
at
Ayni (fig 2, 10km north of
Halfeti)
and the road
along
both sides of the
Euphrates
valley
is
perhaps
an indication that control of the east
bank of the
Euphrates passed
to Rome rather earlier than
thought previously.
It also indicates that both castles of
Kaleboyu
and
Bozyazi may
have Roman rather than
Parthian
origins
even
though
the latter is on the east
bank. The
possibility
of
early
Roman
activity
on the
river's east bank finds
support
from Wheeler
(1989:
507).
To the north of
Ayni,
the east bank becomes
precip-
itous and
impassable
below the small castle near the
village
of
Bozyazi.
Travellers'
reports
of the 19th
century (Ainsworth 1888; Guyer 1916)
indicate that
caravans
coming
from the south and
following
the
valley
climbed to the
plateau
at
Ayni
after
crossing
the river and
could then rejoin the valley to the north
just beyond this
castle,
which was therefore
probably
intended to control
caravan traffic
along
the east bank.
31
Fig 12. The watchtower 2km south
ofAyni (Gozeli) Fig
13. The
fort
above Tilobiir
i., '^ sVy
'
-^ Illli""''
*'' -
.
-
|l r.^ 1^ ^ !
wii^ :X;:|
- - *
''
^
,-
... .::
'
. .....
.:.:.:.: . . .......:. ., .":
:
: :? '''
:
-
. ." 7
4 '.. .
:~T
- '
?.
v
:
-
::
:.~
::- .
~ :" -
-. .... ......
*
Fi 'A15. The.~ church. .wita.......:;cornice... . . , '. . ' *'....... . . ';
;
,
,
.
5 .........................
. ......
w..i .....,.
"..
.......
g......n....
Fig 15. The church with a cornice at
Ehne~ (Giimiigiin)
Fig
14. Piers
for
a
bridge
in a ravine 2km northwest
of
Zeugma Fig
16. A
hairpin
bend in the road to Rumkale
32
Comfort
and
Erge?
Until creation of the reservoir in 2000, a
relatively
good,
if
unpaved, modem road followed the east bank of
the
Euphrates all the
way
from Tilmusa
(Apamea) up
the
gorges to
Ayni-
a distance of about 40km- and this
may
of course have been built on
top
of an ancient route.
There was no direct evidence of this, but the
landscape
along
the
valley seemed to have
changed
less than
along
the west bank and an ancient road
may
therefore have
been visible for much of the
valley's
course until
improved by
the bulldozers in recent
years.
Two
kilometres before
Ayni
a substantial watchtower of
rough
stones without mortar was found above the road and on
the
right (fig 12). This was-
surprisingly
-
the
only
visible indication of
military activity along
the
valley
between
Zeugma
and
Ayni
on either bank, but its
construction was
impossible
to date and it
may
well have
been medieval or even more recent.
Traces of 'Achaemenid/Hellenistic
occupation'
are
mentioned
by
Stein (1999: 119)
at Hacinebi, 9km east of
Zeugma
on a
prominent outcrop
above the river at the
point
where it bends south to Birecik
(and previously
the
site of a
large
Uruk
settlement). However, the
only
firm
evidence of a fortification on the east bank around
Zeugma
-
other than the Hellenistic walls of
Apamea
was found in 1996 at the site of the Birecik dam
itself, on a bluff, again overlooking
the river but
just
500m east of the small
village
of
Tilobuir, directly
opposite
Belkis.
This site was
partly eroded, but traces were visible of
about 40 houses, in one case with a smooth column drum
of
apparently
late Roman date, a date confirmed
by
scraps
of surface
potsherds.
On the cliff itself there was
a section of wall with both faces visible but
only
one
course of
masonry
visible. This course was of a double
row of
large rough blocks, with the smoother sides
facing
the outside; about 12m remained
parallel
to the river and
a comer on the southeast end and was followed
by
approximately
4m of similar
walling leading
towards the
cliff
edge (fig 13).
The wall then
disappeared, apparently
because of natural erosion. This
building
was
provi-
sionally interpreted
as a small fort, but access was soon
cut because of the dam construction and the
houses,
if not
the wall, have since been removed
by
bulldozer before
they
could be
properly investigated.
The Roman
frontier
road?
By contrast, the road north of
Zeugma along
the west
bank, attested in the
Peutinger Table, seems
likely
to
have been covered
by
several metres of colluvium for its
course from
Zeugma
as far as Ehne, (modem
name:
Gumufiyguin;
fig 1). This village, 16km north of Zeugma,
is the location of the well-known Roman
quarries,
first
discussed in detail
by
Cumont
(1917: 151-66).
The
only names known from
antiquity
for
places on
this bank are Urima, discussed elsewhere in this article,
and Arulis.
According
to the
Peutinger Table, Arulis was
24 miles from
Zeugma and a further 24 miles from the
bridge
over the
Singas river
(usually identified with the
G6ksu
-
but there are
many inaccuracies in the Table's
indications of
distance). The identification of Arulis has
been contested.
Ehne?,
Rumkale and Elif have all been
selected
by different
specialists. Dussaud and
Wagner
chose
Ehne3 (1927: 450; 1976: Karte 1); French
(map
in
French
forthcoming) chose
Elif; Honigmann (1923:
165(76)) and Miller (1916: 758) chose Rumkale. The
Goksu is about 85km from
Zeugma, following
the routes
seen here as the most
likely course of the Roman road
along
the
Euphrates;
a
point half-way would indicate
Elif.
Fortifications
along the west bank of the
Euphrates
are notable for their absence: Dabrowa
(1997: 109)
comments on the
recently discovered documents
(Feissel, Gascou 1989: document
11),
...which indicate that, at least in the third
century
AD, specially trained and
equipped
soldiers of
Leg
XVI Flavia had
regular military service on the
Euphrates,
at
many posts along
the river.
In fact, the
papyrus document concerned, which was
found near
Dura-Europos,
refers to the sale of a boat in
poor condition, lying
in the river. The boat was sold in
AD 232 for 75 denarii
by Aurelius Corbulo, a
pilot
('gubernator')
of
Legio
XVI Flavia Firma, then based at
Samosata. No mention is made of
'posts along
the river',
although possibly
the castles at
Kaleboyu
and
Bozyazi,
mentioned above, were constructed in this
period.
There
are no other such fortifications to be seen
today
on the
right (west) bank, although
Commandant Marmier
(1890: 535)
stated that he found, apparently
in the 1880s,
... une
plateforme rectangulaire
couronnant un massif
artificiel en
pierre
et terre, ayant
9 metres sur 20
metres, et etablie au bord meme de
l'Euphrate,
au
pied
de la falaise calcaire.
From the indications
given
and a reference to
Chesney's map,
this
platform
seems to have been subse-
quently
the site of a modern villa on a natural
outcrop
south of the
village
of Eren
(see below).
The
surroundings
of this site, indicated
by Wagner (1976:
Karte
1)
as a
h6yuk
called
?eyit,
were
investigated by
us
but there were
only
a few
scraps
of
pottery
to indicate
early occupation.
A
couple
of kilometres to the south, a watchtower
indicated by Wagner (1983: map at fig 8.1) on a hill north
of Horum near Yukan
Cardak was not
found, although
there were
traces, below and near the river, of founda-
33
tions of an ancient building,
which
may
have been a
roadside watchtower (Algaze
1994: 28, site 4, Pinar
Tarlasi). These foundations of walls could be followed
along
the nearby
modem track
leading
over the hill to
Yukan (ardak, but were not mentioned
by Algaze.
Similarly,
4.5km east of
Zeugma,
on Tilhane
Tepe
(Algaze
1994: 42, site 37, opposite
Tilves
Hoyiik;
see
Comfort et al 2000:
fig 8)
traces were found of a
substantial wall on the side of the hill
facing
the river,
which
might
be evidence of a further fort, possibly
in this
case
guarding
the road ascending
to the
plateau.
In the absence of
proven
forts
throughout
the
valley,
it is difficult to
imagine
a defensive
system being
organised by
the Romans on the
right (west)
bank. The
idea of a
permanent
Roman fleet on the
Euphrates,
as on
the Rhine or Danube (Samowski, Trynkowski 1983),
must also be discounted, if
only
because of the
strong
current which
impedes upstream
traffic.
At two
points
north of
Zeugma
in ravines
descending
to the
Euphrates
from the west, bridge piers
were found:
in one case cut blocks still visible as the
footings
of a
bridge
were close to the
existing road, but on a different
alignment (see photograph
in
Gregory
1996:
178);
in a
second, deeper ravine, the
piers
themselves were still
visible in both banks of the ravine 100m east of the
modem road.
They
rose from a
point
about 2m above the
floor of the ravine for a
height
of a further 3m and
up
to
a level about 1m below the modem surface of the fields
(fig 14).
An ancient stone
capital
was seen in front of a
small
agricultural building
50m to the south.
Although
one of these piers
had
apparently
been
recently
reinforced with concrete, they
were not in use for a
bridge
and had been constructed
long
before of
large
rounded
pebbles
and not from cut stone; no date could be
given
for the
period
of construction.
The ancient road to the north would have
passed by
the mound at Horum, thought
to be the site of Antioch-
on-the-Euphrates,
a town mentioned
by Pliny (NH 5.86)
whose coins have been
published (Wroth
1899: 49,
113).
Jones assumes that this was the Greek name of
Urima
(1937: 452, n
30).
Urima itself is mentioned
by
Ptolemy (5.14)
and if indeed the identification with
Horum
Hoyuiik
is correct there is a remarkable conti-
nuity
of names.
Although
occasional
fragments
of cut
stone were seen
by
the excavators in the fields around
the mound of Horum, with remains of the Chalcolithic
era and
subsequent periods,
almost
nothing
was
discovered about the Greek and Roman town. If the cut
stones below water at the
edge
of the
Euphrates
were
indeed a
quay
then
presumably
this town had a
busy
trade. But since arable land is scarce, exports are
unlikely
to have included
grain,
while timber seems
also most
unlikely
to have survived the Bronze
Age
on
the surrounding
hills in
any great quantity.
No mines or
quarries
are known in the
vicinity,
other than the ones
on Fakir
Dag
described below. The
coinage may
indicate a
city
of some wealth and it seems
likely that,
like
'Epiphaneia'
believed to lie
opposite,
it received
the name of Antioch from Antiochus IV
Epiphanes,
ruler of the Seleucid
Empire
from 175 to 164 BC, who,
according
to Rostovtzeff (1941: 703),
transformed
many
'oriental' towns into Greek
poleis bearing
this
dynastic
name. It is nevertheless
surprising
that an
important city
could have
developed
so close to
Zeugma.
Around Horum
irrigation using
the stream
descending
from the
villages
of (ardak had created in
recent
years
a
densely
cultivated series of terraces with
fruit trees, presumably
thus
reproducing
a
landscape
similar to that of earlier cities here. To the north the road
led firstly to the
village
of Eren
(formerly Kahtin, fig 1)
where Cumont
reported
rock tombs and a decorated
fragment
of marble
(1917: 152). No such traces of
antiquity
could be found on the occasion of our visit.
Continuing northwards, the next
place
of
any
size is
the town of
Ehne?,
mentioned above. As
already
indicated this is one candidate for ancient Arulis
(Aroudis
in
Ptolemy),
but there is no
agreement
on this
point. Apart
from some ancient tombs and the
inscrip-
tions in the
quarries,
there are remains of three
churches, some rock-cut tombs and several fine houses,
apparently
from the 19th
century.
The church
by
the
road to Burnus
(and
on to
Gaziantep)
is mentioned in
Algaze's survey
of the
valley
without comment,
although
it is one of the most
interesting
monuments of
the area.
According
to Cumont
(1917: 152) this church
was dedicated to Saint
Sergius.
It contains
inscriptions
in
Syriac
and also some
interesting
architectural
fragments,
which
appear
to have been re-used from an
earlier church or
temple
on this
spot.
A detailed
study
of the church and of most, but not all, of the
inscriptions
has been carried out
by
Palmer (1993a).
A further
publication
is in
preparation by
Alain Desreumaux,
which will
analyse
an additional
inscription discovered
in 1998.
A second church at the north end of the
village,
also
mentioned
by Cumont, still exists, partly
in caves and
with a
large
number of crosses and niches, some of which
give
an
impression
of
great antiquity. Cumont mentions
the
possibility
of a
temple
of Silvanus, but one niche
seemed to have had
carvings
removed and therefore was
possibly
the site of a Mithraeum. A third church in the
centre of the
village, perhaps
that which was still
standing at the time of Cumont's visit, is now recog-
nisable
only through
a
large
arched
opening
carved into
the natural rock, with a decorated cornice
(fig 15).
34
Comfort
and
Ergec
After
Ehne?
it was
possible to continue
by jeep along
the river as far as
Kalemeydan, the
village opposite
Halfeti, and there was evidence of ancient
occupation in
the form of tombs and substantial rock-cut houses at
Kami?li,
an attractive
village perched
above the river
(fig
1). But the
difficulty and
poor condition of the modem
track, which had to mount
very steeply
the full
height of
the cliffs above
Kami?li,
indicate that this route was
unlikely
to have been followed
by
the Roman frontier
road. This
probably crossed the
plateau
further
'inland',
a course which would also have cut across a substantial
bend in the river. The shorter distance would
presumably
have been considered
by caravans and
military convoys
as
ample compensation for the
fairly gentle climb of
300m from river to
plateau
and then back down into the
depression of the river Merzumen towards Rumkale.
Two alternative routes which led north from
Ehne?
to
K6seler, the
village
on the
top
of the
plateau, were inves-
tigated with the
help
of the KVR-1000 satellite
photo-
graph.
The first left
Ehne? along
the modem road to the
west and
passes the first of the churches mentioned above,
a remarkable
free-standing building
about lkm from the
village
and
high enough
not to have been affected
by
the
reservoir.
Although ruined, it was used as a
place of
worship
until
approximately 1980. Soon
after,
the ancient
road would have left the modem one and continued
northwest to the small
village
of Bumus
(fig 1). A
large
underground
hall
opposite
the
village
and in a ruinous
state
may
also have been a mill, although
small
pits in the
floor of an
adjacent room, together with a niche and
'trough' could have had some
religious significance. A
powerful spring emerges here that constituted the main
water
supply
of
Ehne?,
to which it was carried
by
an
apparently
ancient
underground pipe (as revealed
by
the
masonry around the
point of its arrival below the
village).
Up
the small
valley
from Bumus a route
along
the
limestone
valley bottom would have been
passable for
carts and arrives after 600m at a
point where there is
evidence of substantial ancient
quarrying. There are a
few tombs and cave houses in the hillside above the
stream
and, on the
top
of the
escarpment
to the north,
there is a
large abandoned settlement known to local
people only
as 'Harabe'
(ruins). Remains of about 40
houses of basalt blocks were found but there was no
indication in the form of
potsherds to date the settlement.
Although
the route
up
the
escarpment was not investi-
gated,
there was a substantial modem track
visible; over
the
plateau
itself from 'Harabe' and
heading
north to the
modem
village
of
K6seler, 2km distant, villagers showed
us an ancient
roadway,
which was still referred to here as
'Top Yol', indicating that the southern terminus for this
route
may
have been
Zeugma.
The
paving
stones had
been removed but some were still visible in field-walls.
The second route to Rumkale would have started
heading
north from
Ehne?
before
turning
west
up
a
long
valley
known as Serkiz Dere.
Beyond
the
quarries
to
the north of the
village
and about 50m above the river
several rock-cut tombs were found.
Although
much
overgrown,
Serkiz Dere also showed evidence of
occupation,
in the form of abandoned houses cut into
the rock
-
probably
in
antiquity.
After lkm a small
side-valley
to the southwest
provided
an
ample
flow of
water even in
summer; there was evidence of ancient
occupation
in the form of several
presses,
a tomb
and,
possibly,
libation
pits,
all situated above a small flat
greensward
near the
point
where the
valleys joined. A
narrow, ancient track led
steeply up
from this
point
to
the
plateau above, but this was not
investigated. From
the
junction
of
valleys,
the main route continued
up
the
Serkiz Dere to the northwest
along
a
gently sloping path
towards
K6seler, still in
places well-preserved and wide
enough
for carts. At a
point
about two thirds of the
way
to the
top, underground cisterns had been carved into
the natural stone wall next to the
path,
fed
apparently by
artificial runnels to attract rainwater. Local
people
stated that this road had been in use in
living memory
as a
long-distance route from K6seler to
Nizip
(presumably passing near
Belkis).
On the
plateau the route
leading west towards
Doliche and
Gaziantep passes
a
large number of
abandoned
villages
made of basalt
boulders, which are
described
briefly
in Comfort et al
(2000: 121). Koseler
itself seems
likely
to have ancient
origins since, like
other similar settlements now
abandoned, it is built
largely
of basalt and has a
pond excavated into the
layer
of basalt boulders which
provides water well into the
summer.
Continuing
north from K6seler and down into the
Merzumen
valley (at whose
junction with the
Euphrates
lies
Rumkale, figs 1-2), much more
evidence was found of an
important ancient route
(mentioned in Comfort et al 2000:
115). Several
cisterns
-
now filled in
-
were found on the outskirts
of the
village
to the north and there were
alignments of
stones, similar to those mentioned above on the cliff
opposite Belkis,
that
may indicate a former fortifi-
cation. The route to the
escarpment and
continuing on
towards Rumkale is
clearly visible on the satellite
photograph (fig 17). From the
lip
of the
escarpment
the road itself had
evidently not been used for a
very
long
time but was
massively
built
up
on the down-hill
side and included two
sharp bends. The width of the
road at the first turn was 3.10m with the
height of the
embankment about 2m both below and above the turn.
The
built-up
stretches were visible on the
ground
for
approximately 350m
(fig 16).
35
EUPHRATES
Merzumen val
Fig
17. The road to Rumkale
(extractfrom
KVR-1000
photo of
22
May 1992)
36
Comfort
and
Erge?
Although
the track is less clear as it
approaches
the
river Merzumen, we were informed that there had
previ-
ously been two
bridges. Crossing
at the time of our visit
was
by stepping stones, apparently
created from the
rubble of one such
bridge.
The south and west bank of
the Merzumen is
precipitous
and
impassable
as it
approaches
the castle of Rumkale. Two
aqueducts
have
been carved into this bank, respectively
2 and 8m above
the Merzumen, and a third follows the north bank around
to the former settlement of Kasaba, opposite
the castle
and near the
piers
of a Roman
bridge
and the
junction
with the
Euphrates.
This
village
was abandoned earlier
this
century
and two new villages
constructed above.
Below the castle and at the
point
where the
Merzumen turns north before
joining
the Euphrates,
a
large underground
house was
investigated
on the south
side of the river. A room with a
pointed
arch and an
inscription- apparently
in
Armenian, possibly
a shrine
-was found
just
above the
upper
of the two
aqueducts.
An
opening nearby
led
up
a staircase to several
decorated rooms cut into the rock. One of these
contained
finely-carved inscriptions
in Arabic
script
and
a
rectangular
window with a fine view of the castle. In
the same room local
people
showed us
graffiti,
which
apparently represented
the river
Euphrates,
with several
animals and at least one masted
ship (a
'muhele'?
-
see
Ritter 1919: 122).
A
copy
of one of these
graffiti
is
shown in
fig
18.
Evidently,
this
drawing
could be of
significance
for the
history
of
navigation
on the river, but
it seems
probable, given
the fact that the Arabic
inscription
would almost certainly
have
preceded
the
graffiti,
that the
drawing
was made
fairly recently
and
possibly reproduced
from an
image
seen elsewhere,
perhaps
in a schoolbook. On the wall
opposite, graffiti
of
a minaret could be discerned with
difficulty.
The Roman
bridge,
whose remains were discovered
by
Jorg Wagner (1977a)
across the Merzumen at a
point
150m from its
junction
with the
Euphrates, may
have
served
only
an earlier fortification on the site of the
medieval castle, of which there is now no trace. It seems
unlikely
that a Roman road
passed along
the
Euphrates
to
the south of Rumkale, because the
path
is narrow and
subject
to
flooding. However, immediately
below the
castle, a stretch of about 30m had been excavated from the
rock at a level used
by
the modem
footpath
and
just
below
the
aqueduct (fig 19).
The latter
emerges
near this
point
through
a tunnel
dug through
the neck of the mountain
before
turning
south and
continuing along
the river
(origi-
nally
about 15m below)
to
Kalemeydan, opposite
Halfeti
and 3km to the south
(fig 1; Algaze
et al 1994: site
1).
The
aqueduct is partly covered; underground sections have
regular
access
points,
which indicate Roman construction.
It was in
operation
until 1997
(Comfort
et al 2000:
115).
Despite
the
aqueduct
and excavated section under the
castle itself, large
boulders
partly
cut
away (in antiquity?)
for a mule-track
(fig 20) at a
point
about 50m south of the
castle and the narrowness of the
passage
between cliffs
and river seemed to rule out a Roman road
along
the river
itself. At one
point
about 1.5km north of
Kalemeydan
a
tunnel had been
begun
but not
completed
at a level about
10m above the river. It seems
possible therefore that
Roman engineers began
to construct a river road but
abandoned it as
being
too difficult or too
subject
to
flooding.
North of Rumkale remains of ancient roads were
found at three different
points,
as indicated on the
map
(fig 2). One, below the village of
Begendik,
was a short
stretch of narrow, paved track, about 1.50m wide. In the
other two cases ruts and some embankment on the
downhill side were the
only evidence. Although
one
route seems to have
initially followed the
Euphrates,
this
one too
appears
to have steadily climbed and
eventually
to have left the
valley, crossing
towards the ancient
abandoned settlement of
Giimriikkiiyu,
2km west of the
modem village
of Sanlar
(fig 2). Tombs, quarries,
houses and some decorated, carved stones, apparently
from a
temple pediment,
indicate that this
point
was of
substantial
importance.
It
lay
near the road from Doliche
to Samosata, clearly
visible on satellite
photographs,
and
was also close to the
temple
above on the bare mountain
ridge
at K6sk
(see Comfort et al 2000: 117).
A road, possibly
of ancient origin,
leads from Sanlar
to the river bank
opposite Ayni, but north-south
passage
along
this stretch of river seems
impossible along
the
west bank because of the cliffs, in
particular
that
associated with the 'cable-car'
suggested by
Comfort et
al
(2000: 116).
It is for this reason that the
crossing point
of
Ayni
seems to have been
especially important.
The
traffic
heading
north
along
the west bank would therefore
have left Rumkale
by
one of several
possible
routes
converging
on
Guimriikkuyu
and then have followed the
Doliche-Samosata road over the eastern extension of the
bare limestone
range today
called Kara
Dag.
At the
highest point
of this road a
large
area of arable land was
the site of at least five
important villages
in
antiquity.
Three of these still exist and have substantial Roman
mausoleums to
prove
their former status:
Hasanoglu,
Elif
and Hisar. For details of other finds in this area, see
Comfort et al 2000.
From Kara
Dag,
the Roman road to the north crossed
the next river
flowing
into the
Euphrates
from the west
-
the Kara Su (or
Araban
Cay)- by
the Roman
bridge
near
Siipiirgiic (Akbudak)
and then linked
up
with the
west-east road from Germaniceia (Maran) and with the
road
rising
from the other Roman
bridge
at the
junction
of the Kara Su with the
Euphrates (at Habe~).
37
Fig
18.
Graffiti
in a cave house beneath Rumkale (right-
hand end
of longer picture apparently representing the
river
Euphrates;
now under water; boat is 19cm long
and 17.5cm tall)
Fig
19. The track beneath Rumkale; the 'excavated'
passage
Fig
20. The track between Rumkale and
Kalemeydan, Fig
21. Tomb at Turus
(Kuyulu), showing
the decorative
showing
narrow
path
rim around the doorway
38
Comfort and Erge9
'~
. ? .
:? : : '!i.:;
.. -.. ...
__l:
'
-
-
_ >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~',
39
9-
T %mi .

. .
rIl
i ..... r \l
to
EZI
After 20km
heading east towards Samosata this road
in turn crosses another
important tributary
of the
Euphrates,
the G6ksu. Arches of a fifth
impressive
Roman
bridge
are still
standing
here at a
point
3km
north of the
Euphrates, although
it is no
longer possible
to cross the
bridge.
The road continues north from here
to the Roman tower at
Burq,
discussed in
Blaylock
et al
(1990: 122). Shortly after, the road reaches Turus or
Tarsa, mentioned below and about 30km from
Samosata. The latter town, winter
capital
of the
kingdom
of
Commagene and later base of
Legio
III
Gallica, is of course beneath the waters of the Atatiirk
dam.
Quarry
roads
Kennedy (1998b: 57)
discusses a road to the
quarries
found
by Christopher Lightfoot
in 1992 on Kalazan
Dag,
a table mountain on the east bank 5km north of
Tilmusa
(Apamea),
whose
highest point
is 696m
(fig 1).
These
quarries
are one of the few ancient features of the
landscape
around
Zeugma, other than mounds and
roads, which
appear clearly
on the satellite
photographs
(fig 22). The ruts of the
approach
road are
evenly
spaced
at a distance of 120-5cm and there are
frequent
cross channels
dug
into the stone for
braking
the
heavily
laden vehicles in their descent from the
quarry.
At the
sharpest turn, very
close to the
point
from which the
photograph
of this road
published by Kennedy (1998b:
fig 3.33) was taken, there is a relief statue of Hercules
holding
a club
(fig 23).
This relief seems not to have
been seen
by
either
Lightfoot
or
Kennedy
and is more
visible at certain times of
day
when the
light
is
coming
from the west.
The
question
of the direction taken
by
this road after
it descends the southern
slope of the mountain was
investigated;
it
appears to cross the
plateau
towards
Apamea
and not to take the shortest, but
steep,
route
straight
down to the river, opposite
Horum. However,
once it leaves the limestone of the mountainside, the
road's course is soon lost in the rich
agricultural
land of
the Hobab Ovasi.
Other features of the limestone
plateau
at the
top
of
the table mountain of Kalazan
Dag
include the 'recti-
linear
outpost'
mentioned
by Kennedy (1998b: 57-9),
whose size is 7.30 x 23.50m, with a maximum
height
of
wall still
standing
at 1.40m. Its
position
on the
top
of the
steep
hill
opposite
Horum
might
indicate a
hermitage
or
shrine from the late Roman
period,
but the
shape
of this
building
does indeed seem more reminiscent of a
barracks or other
military
structure. There is a small
round cistern
nearby,
a
square
one 100m east, a
large
round one at the quarry and at least two more on this
plateau.
On top
of Belkis
Tepe,
about 8km
away
to the south
and assumed to be the
acropolis
of
Zeugma,
three of the
cisterns visible are also round and one is
square; square
cisterns are
usually
shallow and left
open,
while round
ones in this area sometimes have
steps
cut into the rock
from one side, leading
down into the cistern which
may
be as much a 5m
deep,
for
example,
that at the roadside
between Elif and Sanlar. It is
possible
that round cisterns
were constructed in the Hellenistic
period
or before,
while rectangular and
square cisterns are Roman or
Byzantine, but this is not
yet possible to prove.
In some
cases ancient cisterns have been intentionally
filled in,
presumably to
stop
livestock
falling
in.
Opposite
Kalazan
Dag,
5km to the west and
slightly
higher (747m),
lies Fakir
Dag,
another table mountain
whose neolithic remains are discussed
by Bourguignon
and
Kuzucuoglu (1999).
Just behind the
highest point,
visible from
Zeugma,
and
along
the
top
of a limestone
escarpment,
a series of
eight quarry 'workshops'
or
separate
small
quarries,
each
approximately
30m
square,
were found. There was no road
leading
to these
quarries
and a wooden chute down the mountainside towards
Zeugma
is therefore
hypothesised.
These
quarries
seemed of earlier date than those on Kalazan
Dag
and
may therefore
represent
the source of stone for
Hellenistic structures at
Zeugma
and
possibly
of
Apamea
too.
Fig
23. The Hercules
relief
on the
quarry
road
descending from
Kalazan
Dag
40
Comfort
and
Ergeq
Other routes above the east bank
Caravans
passing
from south to north were not confined
to the
valley itself. Some routes were
investigated which
passed over the
plateau and above the
valley
on either
bank. A Roman road from
Zeugma
to Samosata, which
cut across the northwest comer of Osrhoene, is also
known to have existed
(Wagner 1983) and its
possible
course was studied on the available
photographs
from the
US Corona series.
Wagner
identified stretches of Roman
road near Ank (now
Ye?ilozen)
and at Eski Hisar. This
substantial fort, on a
hilltop
22km east of Halfeti, was
also identified on the satellite
photographs
and the
nearby village
of
Giirkuyu (formerly Nuhrut) is said to
contain substantial remains of an ancient church. Ten
kilometres eastnortheast of
Guirkuyu
lies Uzunburc, a
village
with
many
ancient cut stones, particularly
around
three well-heads still in use, and with some
fragments
of
floral decoration, apparently
from a substantial Roman
building. Unfortunately
the tower after which the
village
is named was destroyed
a few
years ago
to
provide
building
material for a
mosque.
It seems
probable
from
the satellite
photographs
that the Roman road
passed
from Ank to Nuhrut and Uzunburc and then either to the
small town of
Yaylak,
where there is a
large
ancient
mound now covered
by
modem
buildings
and then to a
point opposite
Samosata or else direct to the
Euphrates
crossings
at Nehriseid or
Adilpazar,
before
proceeding
along
the north bank of the
Euphrates
via Turns.
The existence of other north-south routes across
Osrhoene from Suiruc (ancient Batnae)
to Samosata
may
perhaps
be deduced from the
large
caravanserai at
Charmelik
(now Biiyiikhan,
see Durukan 1999:
318-27),
which is situated on one of the main east-west routes
from
Zeugma
to Edessa, as well as from the enormous
ancient
quarries
2km northeast of Kural
(near
the
regional
centre of
Kanliav?ar).
The remains of another
ancient church and
underground
dovecote at Uckilise and
of a Roman
temple
and fortification at Uzunburc are
further evidence of substantial
occupation
of this
region
of Osrhoene in
antiquity, apparently part
of the diocese of
Suiiric in the Christian era. However, much work remains
to be done on
surveying
what is still a
comparatively
unknown
part
of
$anliurfa province.
The
large
Roman or
Hellenistic
granary
at Kantarma
(Comfort
et al 2000:
fig
12)
has also been studied in Durukan
(1999: 268-9).
This
building may
indicate that the northwestern area of
Osrhoene, apparently
known as 'the White
Region'
in
late
antiquity (Palmer
1993b:
78, 267),
was of substantial
agricultural importance
and that its
population
and
wealth were
correspondingly large.
Since the
Euphrates
as it descends the reaches above
Ayni
curves from a
westerly
to a
southerly direction,
caravans
following
south-north routes on the
plateau
above the east bank were
obliged to cross the
Euphrates.
Crossing points for east-west routes were covered in
Comfort et al 2000, but at least three other
points along
this northern stretch of the river were also
investigated
because of the
impact
of the Birecik dam
(fig 3). The
level of the water will of course have risen much less at
these
points than at Belkis but still
sufficiently
in some
cases to have removed
any trace of the
crossing point and
associated remains.
That near Killik at Kelefis was in use until
quite
recently
and was said
by
local
people
to have been the
crossing used
by the Ottoman
army retreating from
Yemen in 1918. We were shown a former cistern south
of the
crossing point
on a caravan route; caravans
presumably
came from Halfeti and the south via Yukan
Goklii or the
important centre of
Kayalar (formerly
called Keferhan or
Kefren). They
would have continued
on the northern side of the
Euphrates through
the
gap
in
the mountain chain
(Kizil Dag) opposite
the
village
of
Dikilita?.
On the summit of the mountain
nearby
is the
important
tumulus of Sesonk ('Three stones' in Kurdish,
fig 3), a
royal
burial
place
for the
dynasty
of
Commagene,
discussed
briefly
in
Wagner (2000: 23).
This tumulus is not accessible
by road; a
very rough jeep
track was followed from a
point
to the northwest for
about 2km and thereafter a difficult walk of 40 minutes
is necessary to reach the tumulus.
Some of the
sculptures
on
pillars
illustrated
by
Humann and Puchstein
(1890: 212-7)
had fallen, but a
chamber underneath the mound was
investigated
on the
north side, which had been blocked on the occasion of
this earlier visit. A first chamber, 4m
square
with a
simple
carved linear decoration, gave
access to a
passage
15m
long.
At the end there was a substantial
pit,
on a
slightly
different
alignment
from the tunnel and about
1.50m
deep, apparently
intended for a coffin. A
deep
vertical and
rectangular pit
on the east side of the mound,
also mentioned
by Humann, could not be
explored
without
ropes,
but there were
signs
of handholds carved
into the side of the
pit.
To the northwest there is a
fairly easy
route from the
low
pass
in the Kizil
Dag,
west of Sesonk, to the former
monastery
and medieval castle of
Keysun
and to the
town of Besni, an
important
centre in the
Seljuk period
and believed to have
formerly
been the Roman
waystation
of Octacuscum. French's
map
shows this
route as a Roman road which leaves the Doliche-
Samosata road at a
junction
near
Dikilita?.
To the
northeast, across the G6ksu, it would have been
possible
to reach Perre and
Malatya.
Crossings
were also evident at Nehriseid and at
Adilpazar.
The former would
appear
to have been used
by
caravans or
military convoys taking
a 'short-cut' from
41
Zeugma
to Samosata
by
a route across Osrhoene via the
fort at Eski Hisar
(discovered by Guyer 1939)
and the
settlement of
Uzunbur? (see above). Thereafter cliffs
along the south bank of the
Euphrates
that fall
vertically
into the river make
passage along
the bank
impossible
for
several kilometres. Caravans
crossing
at Nehriseid or
Adilpazar would
probably
have continued on the north
bank via Turns or Tarsa, a town mentioned in the
Peutinger Table as
lying
19 miles before Samosata.
More than 40 rock-cut tombs were counted in a
necropolis, probably that of Tarsa, 5km after the modem
bridge over the
Euphrates
and
then, not far from the
village of
Kuyulu (fig 3), to the left of the modem road
leading from the Atatiirk dam northnorthwest towards
Adiyaman. Many
of these tombs have a curious
decorative rim around the entrance
(fig 21), which
distinguishes them from similar tombs in the
neigh-
bourhood of
Zeugma. The site is
signposted on the main
road as a
point
of interest for tourists
('Turns Kaya
Mezalari').
Other routes above the west bank
South
of Zeugma
If the road
along
the
Euphrates leading
north from
Zeugma
was of
military significance,
this is
probably
also true of the route south
along
the
Euphrates,
even if
commercial caravans
normally travelled east from
Zeugma
to Edessa
(Urfa) or Harran before
turning
south.
The
Peutinger
Table does indeed indicate such a road
along
the river as far as the
Euphrates bend at
Barbalissus, 120km south of
Zeugma, although no such
route is mentioned in the Antonine
Itinerary.
A road
south from
Zeugma
would have reached the Hellenistic
foundation of
Europus, probably
at Carchemish which is
28km southsoutheast of Belkis, via the large h6yiik
of
Guinalti or
Tilmiyan (in turn, 6.5km southeast of
Belkis).
Such mounds are
clearly
visible on the KVR-1000
satellite
photographs.
In contrast to the
region north of
Zeugma,
the
Euphrates passes through relatively flat or
undulating countryside, although
the settlements
along
the west bank are often located on cliffs or hills 50m or
more above the river. Arable
crops
are
grown between
Aleppo
and the
Euphrates today
but rainfall is unreliable
and the harvest is
presumably
uncertain.
The lake created
by
the Carchemish dam, now also
completed,
will not affect this route that is some distance
away
from the river. There
may, however, also have been
ancient roads
along
both banks of the
Euphrates, despite
the marshes
along
the west bank, since there are
many
mounds on the river banks. On the west bank that at
Seraga
is particularly notable, but there are several which
will have been
partly
or
wholly
inundated
along
the east
bank. Most of the latter have been excavated to some
extent since 1997 in the course of a
project
directed
by
Professor Numan Tuna of Middle East Technical
University (Tuna,
Ozturk
2000/2001).
The site at
Zeytin
Bahseli,
6km south of
Birecik, has been excavated
by
Dr
Frangipane;
it has a
high
conical mound, apparently
an
Iron
Age monument, built on
top
of the earlier Bronze
Age hoyuk
and commands fine views over the flood-
plain
of the
Euphrates.
But these mounds, listed in
Algaze's survey
of 1989
(Algaze
et al
1994),
which were
active centres of commerce from the
Chalcolithic, may
have been linked more
by
the river than
by
roads.
Identifications of modem settlements with sites
along
the west bank mentioned in the
Peutinger Table are made
by
its
editor, Miller
(1916); the Table does not mention
Europus/Carchemish but shows a
wayside stop
with a
villa
symbol
at a
point supposedly
24 miles from
Zeugma.
Unfortunately the KVR- 1000
photographs -the most
detailed of the satellite
imagery available for the
project
did not cover the
region
to the south much
beyond the
mound of
Giinalti,
but the course of the Roman road is
clear. It headed southeast towards the riverbank, which it
joined
near the
h6yiik of
Elifoglu (10km south of the
Birecik
bridge); thereafter it is assumed to have followed
the modem track
along low hills west of the river to
Carchemish on the current border with
Syria. (Prelim-
inary investigations were made of the first
part of this
route also south of the
Syrian border
-
without the
help
of detailed
maps
or satellite
photos.) Ptolemy, writing
at
Alexandria in the second
century AD, lists the sites south
of
Zeugma as
Europos, Caeciliana, Bethamaria, Serre,
Arimara and
Eragiza (Geographia V.15, ed Nobbe 1966:
61). An
early discussion of the route from here to the
south, as well as the routes to Antioch and Edessa, is
contained in
Regling (1901: 469-76). This article
concerns
only
the
right (west)
bank below Birecik. For a
description
of the route
along
the east bank from the
Sajur/Euphrates junction see Bell
(1910).
The next
point south of
Europus mentioned in the
Peutinger Table is
Caeciliana, supposedly
16 miles
distant. This is
probably correctly assumed
by Dussaud
(1927: 450) to lie near the former
Euphrates crossing at
the mouth of the river
Sajur. Sresat
(fig 4), believed to
be Caeciliana
by
Ainsworth
(1888: 224), is a
village
on
cliffs 3km north of the
junction of the two rivers and
would therefore be a more likely site for Caeciliana than
a
point
further to the south as was
thought,
for
example,
by Miller (1916: 758) and others
(see below). Traces of
ancient
buildings
and some tombs were visible at Sresat,
but the modern
village
lies
only about 14km from
Carchemish
(Gaborit: forthcoming). Mounds between
Carchemish and Sresat include Tell Alariyeh (or Tell
Djerablous Tahtani)
and Tell
Amara;
excavations
by
the
University
of
Edinburgh led
by
Prof E
Peltenburg
at Tell
42
Comfort
and
Ergeq
Djerablous
Tahtani and
by
a
Belgian
team at Tell Amama
the latter will shortly be
re-opened
-
have revealed
important
Hellenistic and Roman levels. Trenches for
irrigation pipes
had also uncovered substantial ancient
walls built of
large
limestone blocks at the time of our
visit. The
village
2km south of Sresat at Mokar Mazar
had at least five column capitals lying
in the
yards
of
village houses,
as well as a fine hexagonal
Roman tomb
cut into the rock. This village may
therefore be
considered another possible
site for Caeciliana.
From Caeciliana the Peutinger
Table shows a route to
Hierapolis,
now Membij (fig 4)
and also known in the
ancient world as Bambyke;
this route seems to run
parallel
to that between Zeugma
and Hierapolis, although
the latter lies beyond
Sresat. Possibly,
there was a
confusion here. For both routes a distance of 24 miles is
indicated, although
the direct distances are 60km from
Zeugma
to Membij
and 25km from Sresat to Membij.
The good
modem road from Jerablus (Carchemish)
to
Membij
leaves the route heading
south to Sresat and the
mouth of the Sajur
after mounting
some low hills above
the
river,
near the mound of Amama. Membij today
boasts a number of sculptured
stones in a small
park:
two
reliefs with eagles (figs 24-5),
a
ceiling
coffer relief with
a
mythological
scene (fig 26), a statue of a lion
(fig 27)
and three seated statues (figs 28-30).
Their source is
unknown and there are no other traces of its
early impor-
tance. The
city
walls and the relief of two sirens with a
naked woman, mentioned by
Sachau (1883: 147-9)
as
almost the only
traces of
antiquity
in his
day,
have also
disappeared. (The
site is also described by Hogarth,
who
visited it in 1908.)
Continuing south,
the
Sajur valley joins
the
Euphrates
from the northwest at a
point nearly opposite
Tell Ahmar on the east bank. The area was first
described by Hogarth
in 1909 and was
surveyed by
Moore in 1977 (Sanlaville
1985: 41-66).
The reservoir
created by
the Teshrin dam,
now
completed
and located
some 25km southeast of
Membij,
reaches this
point
and
was rapidly filling
on the occasion of our visit in
August
1999. Although
Tell Ahmar or Til
Barsip,
the site of an
Assyrian palace
and river
port (Thureau-Mangin 1936;
Mallowan 1937),
will
certainly
have been drowned,
the
west bank of the
Euphrates
is
higher along
this stretch
and ancient settlements along
the cliffs will be
unaffected, although
some rock tombs in these cliffs
may
now be under water. The mound of Tell al'Abr, an Ubaid
site on the east bank about 2km north of the
Sajur/Euphrates confluence,
will now also have
disap-
peared (Hammadi,
Koike 1992), although
the
very large
mound at Tell
Badaye,
6km north of Tel
Ahmar,
should
have been
preserved, together
with those further north at
Shiukh Tahtani and Shiukh Fogani (fig 4).
The next
point
mentioned in the Peutinger
Table on
the west bank is Bettamali (presumably Ptolemy's
'Bethammaria') at a distance of 14 miles from
Caeciliana. The site of Tell Shiukh Fogani (or
Faouqani), recently
excavated by
a team from Syria,
France and Italy (Bachelot 1996) is called Burmarina in
Aramaic. But this cannot be connected with Bettamali
because it lies on the east bank only 5km south of
Carchemish. Miller (1916: 758) identifies Bettamali
with ruins south of Qalat
an-Najm
(fig 4), but these were
not found by
us. Bachelot (1996: 35)
includes a
map
of
rescue excavations in connection with the Teshrin dam,
which shows that a site has been excavated near Qalat
an-Najm
at Tell
Djurun
el-Kebir. The castle at Qalat
an-
Najm
is said to be originally Umayyad (Ball
1994: 160)
and built to
guard
a bridge, of which some remnants may
be visible on the west bank. The
present
castle ruins are
not earlier than the 11th century,
but were nevertheless
identified by Chapot
with Caeciliana (1907: 281).
Serre and
Apammari,
the following stops
on the
Peutinger
Table at distances indicated as 13 and 8 miles,
were not found by
us either, although
Miller (1916: 758)
believed that Serre may
have been Ptolemy's
'Gerre' and
gives
the modem equivalent
as Kara Bamb6dsch
(Membij/Bambyke)
-
an identification accepted
as
probably
correct
by
Dussaud (1927: 451).
This is the old
name of a location currently occupied by
the Teshrin dam
itself. A site northeast of 'Scheich Arad bei
Djerram'
was
identified by
Miller
(1916: 758)
with
Apammari.
The
latter is probably
the same as the Arimara of Ptolemy
(placed by
him between Serre and
Eragiza)
and
thought by
Dussaud to be the modem village
of 'Khirbet es-Soude'
(marked
on modem maps
as Kheurbet al Sauda,
5km from
the
Euphrates
and 8km northwest of
Qalat-an-Najm).
The riverbank is hard to follow and is now in
parts
inaccessible because of the new reservoir. Just south of the
Teshrin dam and 17km southsouthwest of Qalat an-Najm
lies the Hellenistic fortified site of Jebel Khalid
(Connor,
Clarke 1997).
The identification of this site with one of the
places
mentioned in the Table is
unlikely
because it does
not
appear
to have been
occupied
after 100 BC. The
importance
of this area
during
the Hellenistic and Roman
periods
remains difficult to
assess,
but the
many
ruins
found
by Sachau, described in his account of a
journey
from
Aleppo
to Urfa (1883: 110-210),
and in Poidebard's
aerial surveys
in the 1930s
(1934; especially
the
map
of
1943 in Mouterde, Poidebard 1945)
seem to indicate a
moister climate and cultivation in areas which are now
wholly
abandoned. Early
excavations in the area
gave
little
attention to layers
of Hellenistic and Roman
occupation,
but these were clearly important at many sites and the
military importance
of the area seems to have
provided
a
boost to its economic development (Clarke 1999).
43
Fig
24. Stele with
eagle from
the
park in
Membij
Fig
26.
Ceiling coffer
(?) with
mytho-
logical relieffrom
the
park
in
Membij
Fig
25. Stele with two
eagles from
the
park
in
Membij
Fig
27. Statue
of
lion
from
the
park
in
Membij
Figs
28-30. Seated
figures from
the
park
in
Membij
44
Comfort
and
Ergeq
Eragiza,
the next stop
on the Peutinger Table, is a site
identified by
Sachau (1883: 133-7) and Chapot (1907:
282)
with 'Abu Hanaya', apparently
8km from the
Euphrates.
Here Chapot found, '...des debris de grandes
dimensions; de formidables tambours de colonnes
rappelant
celles de Baalbeck'.
Dussaud (1927: 452), however, believed Eragiza
to be
a
separate
site called 'Aroude' nearer the river (now
under
the water of Lake Assad created by
the Tabqa
dam and
probably
Tell el
Hajj).
He
preferred
to identify
Abu
Hanaya
with Neocaesarea, another place
mentioned by
Procopius (De Aedificiis 2, 9).
This latter town is
however placed by
modem specialists
about 50km to the
southeast, beyond
Barbalissus (e.g. Wagner
1985: 13,
map
'Die Ostgrenze
des r6mischen Reiches von
Augustus
bis lustinian').
Dussaud's identification of
Eragiza
with
Aroude is supported
in
reports
of excavations at Tell el
Hajj (Stucky 1973),
but Stucky
relied largely
on the
Peutinger
Table distances to
support
this thesis and these
distances would be about the same for Abu Hanaya.
Poidebard's map
of the
region (Mouterde,
Poidebard
1945), prepared
on the basis of his aerial survey,
shows
Abu Hanaya only
as a Roman 'locality'
at
Eragiza,
but
indicates Roman ruins, with a cistern and castrum, some
7km southsouthwest near a mound at 'Tell Mahdofim'.
Although
Abu Hanaya
is not identified on modem maps
and was not visited by us, there is an Al Mahdum on the
modem main road to
Raqqa
63km east of Aleppo,
while
on Kiepert's map
of Sachau's journey
in
Syria (published
with the latter's account)
Abu
Hanaja
is shown about
25km southwest from what is now the north end of Lake
Assad (and
thus from the Teshrin dam and the nearby
Jebel Khalid).
Poidebard shows a Roman road
heading
due north direct from Abu
Hanaya
to
Hierapolis/Membij,
as well as the road
hugging
the river bank. It is assumed
here that the
Peutinger
Table route followed the river
along
a road in the hills above to a
point
close to Jebel
Khalid, turned inland for a few kilometres to
Eragiza
at
Abu Hanaya
and then continued southeast to
Barbalissos/Meskene, formerly
Emar and a site which is
now beneath Lake Assad. This
large
artificial lake was
created in 1973
by
the
Tabqa
dam 40km west of
Raqqa.
Southwest of Zeugma
North-south routes on the west bank, further
away
from
the river Euphrates,
were also
investigated.
In
particular, attempts
were made to
identify
the routes
from Zeugma
to
Aleppo and, even further west,
to
Cyrrhus
and Antioch. David French's
map
of Roman
roads (French: forthcoming)
was invaluable and use was
also made of a
survey
of mounds in the late 1960s
(Archi
et al
1971).
For this section
please
consult
map
at
fig 8 in Comfort et al
(2000: 109).
Aleppo
lies 110km southsouthwest of Zeugma;
although
as Beroea in the Hellenistic and Roman
period
it seems to have been relatively unimportant,
it
was of major significance
in the Bronze Age.
A trade
route must have passed
this way
from early
times if
Zeugma
was a major crossing
in the
pre-Hellenistic
period,
as
argued by
Gawlikowski (1996)
and
provi-
sionally accepted
in Comfort et al
(2000), although
Carchemish must have also had an
important crossing.
The Roman archives found near Dura-Europos
(Feissel,
Gascou 1989: document 16) contain a letter
concerning purchase
of camels for a caravan travelling
between Beroea and Zeugma
at some time in the third
century
AD. After the
Byzantine
defeat at the Yarmouk
in AD 636 Aleppo again
became one of the most
important trading
centres of the region;
the Umayyad
Great Mosque
was built between 715 and 717, soon
after that of Damascus. Aleppo
was later the adminis-
trative centre of the Ottoman empire
for the region up
to the Taurus, as well as to the
Euphrates crossing
at
Birecik. Caravans coming
from the east since the
Middle Ages
therefore had
Aleppo
as their
prime
desti-
nation.
Possible routes were examined on the satellite
photos
and field boundaries indicated that a long-
distance route left the col of the tombs above Zeugma
and headed southsouthwest via a number of mounds,
including
one at Yolcati where the ancient road crosses
the railway.
This route was
investigated
at several
points, although
it
passes through
a small reservoir
called
Hancagiz
and so could not be followed in its
entirety.
The
village
of Kale on the south bank of this
reservoir has no castle to show- despite
its name
but there were rock-tombs and ruins of at least one
ancient
building.
The mound, or
h6yiik,
of Sariko9 is
still the site of a
village,
whose inhabitants claimed that
the last caravans passed
this
way
in 1960. Roman
pottery
on this and several other mounds of the area was
still visible. It was believed
by
Miller to
correspond
to
the
stop
on the
Peutinger
Table called 'ad Zociandem'
(Miller
1916:
768).
An ancient well had been
recently
cleared in
part
and a coin with Arabic
inscription
found
then is dated AD 1837
(AH 1255).
The remainder of
the route to
Aleppo
was off the available satellite
photos
but it would
appear
to have crossed the modern
frontier near Elmali.
The old road to Antioch was still in use in the 19th
century.
The
plates
and boilers for the two small
steamships
used
by
the
Chesney expedition
down the
Euphrates
in 1835 were
brought by
oxen
along
this road,
but the course today
is difficult to ascertain, even though
Chapot
found clear traces in the first
years
of the 20th
century (1907: 339).
45
La voie
principale
de l'extreme-nord
syrien
etait 'a
peu pres rectiligne d'Antioche a
Zeugma.
Entre Killis
et Nisib, j'en
ai observe les
vestiges
sur un
parcours
de
plusieurs
kilometres : elle etait
large
de 4 a 5
metres ; aucun pavage,
mais une accumulation de
gros
cailloux et sur chaque
rebord des
pierres plus
volumineuses....
Leaving
from
Zeugma,
this road may
either initially
have followed the route towards Aleppo
indicated above
or else have
passed
via
large
mounds at
Nizip
and Hamius
(near a settlement called today Bahcede) and then via the
modem village of Uluyatir (formerly Mizar).
Fifteen
kilometres southwest of this
village
there is the
large
Bronze
Age
site and later Crusader castle of Tilbesar,
clearly
visible on a Corona satellite
image (for reports
of
recent excavations, Kepinski-Lecomte
et al 1996 and
1998; for its role as a crusader castle, Hellenkemper
1976). French's map
indicates the Roman road as
passing
this
way
and identifies the 'ad Zociandem'
mentioned above with
Uluyatir
and another
way-station
on the
Peutinger Table, 'ad Secta', with Tilbesar.
However, on the occasion of our visit no direct route was
found on the
ground, although
a route is visible on the
Corona
photograph
of 1968. The
Peutinger
Table
indicates a distance of 12 miles between the two stations
and a further 12 miles between ad Zociandem and
Zeugma,
which would match either Uluyatir
or Sankoc.
On the
railway
line that is the current border between
Turkey
and
Syria,
near the
point
where it crosses the
valley
of the river
Sajur,
lies the Achaemenid site of Dere
Hiiyiik (Moorey 1980).
This site could not be visited but
must also be close to this route from
Zeugma
to
Aleppo.
The Hellenistic province
in which
Zeugma lay was
called
'Cyrrhestike'
after the
city
of
Cyrrhus,
now 63km
northnortheast of
Aleppo
and
just
on the
Syrian
side of
the border. The
origins
of this
city
remain obscure
although
the site has been
investigated
and
partially
excavated
by
Frezouls (1954/5).
It was visited
by
us in
summer 1999. Both the direct roads from Antioch to
Doliche and to
Zeugma
would have left
Cyrrhus
off to
the left, although
the
Peutinger
Table does include
Cyrrhus
between Gindarus
(now Jindairis)
and
'Channuma', placed by
David French
(forthcoming)
15km northeast of Kilis
(formerly Ciliza). This would
have involved a detour of some 20km but
Cyrrhus
was
clearly
an
important place
for much of
antiquity
and
there must indeed have been
heavy
traffic between it and
both
Zeugma
and Doliche/Samosata. Roman
bridges
on
the routes
heading
east from
Cyrrhus
are still extant and
in use at two places; they are also mentioned in
Maundrell's account of his
journey
in 1699
(Maundrell
1817;
he refers to Cyrrhus as 'Corus').
Northwest of Zeugma
The map
in French (forthcoming)
shows the course of the
Roman road from Doliche to Arulis (identified by
him
with Elif)
as
proven
for the
segment
east of Yavuzeli.
Apart
from the Roman bridge
and watchtower at Yanmca
(discussed
in Comfort et al 2000:
117),
there are
long
stretches of an older road
alongside
the modem road
from
Gaziantep
to
Adiyaman;
southwest of the
village
of
Buiyiikkarakuyu,
this road, partly
tarred but now
replaced
by
a wider road in
parallel,
follows the
supposed
alignment
of the Roman road and crosses at one
point
an
old culvert which is
possibly
Roman (fig 31).
The
existence of
large
Roman
bridges
on the Karasu and
G6ksu makes it clear that there was indeed an
important
route to Samosata from Doliche. The
upper part
of this
route was first discussed in an
interesting
article
by
the
Commandant Marmier (1890).
Comfort et al 2000 drew attention to the
large
number of remains from
antiquity
in the area of Elif and
Hasanoglu,
the plateau
at the eastern end of the Kara
Dag
which is situated on
steep
cliffs above the
Euphrates.
Some of these remains are also discussed
above. The Roman road to Samosata passes
over this
plateau
before
descending
to the Roman bridge
on the
Karasu, near the Hittite(?) relief and settlement of
Suiipiirgfic. Immediately
to the north of the
village
of
Hasanoglu
there is another road which crosses the
Karasu south of the
village
of Karababa at a
point
6km
westsouthwest of the Roman
bridge.
This
may
have
also been an
important
old road at some time since there
are faint but clear ruins of a former
bridge
evident also
here
(fig 32).
There must
certainly
have been another ancient route
heading
due north from Yavuzeli (formerly Cingife
and
also site of a Crusader castle),
which lies in one of
several rich
valleys aligned
east-west between arid
plateaux
or mountain
ranges.
The modem road north to
Araban
(formerly Altintas) climbs
steeply
from Yavuzeli
to a
pass
at about 1000m on the
top
of the Kara
Dag
range,
near a
group
of
large
dolmens one of which is
well-preserved (fig 22). On the far side two older routes
descend to the
right
of the modem road and the section
beyond, heading
east to Araban
along
the
valley bottom,
has been
straightened, showing
an older road at several
points.
Araban has a
large
mound that was also used as
a Crusader castle, the third in this area (Hellenkemper
1976); some
fragments
of defensive wall are still visible
and at the
village
of Fakill, 5km to the southeast, a
very
large quarry
was discovered with a short Arabic
inscription.
But Araban itself has little now to show in
terms of ancient buildings which would have justified
such a
large quarry.
The
neighbouring village
of
Eskialtintas has no
antiquities
at all.
46
Comfort
and
Ergeq
Fig
31. A culvert 2km south
of
Biiyiikkarakuyu
on the old
road
from
Doliche to Samosata
There was
presumably
an ancient road
along
the
course of the modem road
heading
north from Araban to
Besni (Octacuscum), which
again passes through
mountains and
gorges
that limit the
possible
alternative
routes. The
Seljuk
remains of Besni are
sadly neglected
and little is known of this
region's early history, except
that it was a
stronghold
of Armenian
princes
in the
Middle
Ages (Dedeyan 1996).
Discussion
The routes and sites discussed here further attest to the
wealth and
high
level of
development
of the area on both
banks of the
Euphrates
around
Zeugma, especially
in the
Roman
period.
The GAP
(Project
for Southeast
Anatolia)
and the construction of the Birecik dam have
provided
the occasion for the first examinations of the
riches of this area in terms of ancient
buildings
and
history (see
also Durukan
1999).
Much more remains to
be done for the
region's archaeology.
It should be noted
that in the course of this
survey
it became
apparent
that
the remains of some ancient
buildings
had been
destroyed comparatively recently.
In
particular,
churches
Fig
32. Remains
of
a
bridge
in the bed
of
the Kara
Su,
north
of Hasanoglu (photo:
Danl;
Baykan)
at
Kayalar
and
Bozyazi,
as well as a Roman tower at
Uzunburc, have
disappeared
within the last ten
years.
More intensive and mechanised
agricultural techniques
are also
contributing
to the
disappearance
of archaeo-
logical sites. It is
imperative that, in addition to the work
already published,
a full
inventory
of all sites, ruins,
reliefs and other artefacts still
remaining
from
antiquity
be carried out soon and that the sites mentioned here be
more
fully documented, where they have not
already
been
destroyed by
the waters of the dam.
There are
good prospects
that a new
emphasis
on
cultural tourism will increase awareness of the
impor-
tance of some of these sites, but dam construction is
only
one
aspect
of the
process
of modernisation which
is
threatening
the survival of the
region's
cultural
heritage.
It is
hoped that, together
with the remarkable mosaics
discovered at
Zeugma itself, this article and its
predecessor
(Comfort
et al
2000)
will contribute to
drawing
attention
to the
archaeological
wealth of those
parts
of
Gaziantep
and Urfa
provinces adjoining
the
Euphrates
and that more
will now be done to
study
and
preserve
them.
47
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Trade Around Zeugma

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Following the Euphrates in Antiquity: North-South Routes around Zeugma

Author(s): Anthony Comfort and Rifat Erge

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