Day 7: Pergamum- Acropolis and Asclepion, by Anna Kihlberg

 We began our tour of the ancient city of Pergamum, (or Pergamon) located in modern day Bergama, by riding up a gondola to the peak point of the town. This area is also known as the Acropolis, or “high city” for the elite class, also serving as an ancient religious and cultural hub. 

The kingdom of Pergamum was coincidentally discovered by German engineer, Carl Humann, in 1875 when looking for stones while building a road for the Ottoman Empire. As a result, some of the ancient ruins were moved to Germany and are now located in the Berlin Museum, such as the preservations of the Zeus Temple and other marble reliefs.

We then walked through the mounds of ruins to an overlook of the steepest ancient theater, with a stunning view of the mountainous landscape in the distance. The theater of Pergamum is also unique in that the Dionysius (Bacchus), god of wine and pleasure, Temple is located right next to the theater, illustrating the confluences of religious traditions on daily life and the multiple functions of a single site.

We were then granted special permission by a local guide to walk with us down the mountain to the Roman baths and Gymnasium area. Dr. Huber’s research in her article, “Making Men in Rev 2-3: Reading the Seven Messages in the Bath-Gymnasiums of Asia Minor,” highlights the importance of gymnasiums for both athletic training and education, but also in the formation of gender identities and social construction of an “ideal man”. Gymnasium training was often the primary step in achieving “manhood” in Pergamum as well as other kingdoms in Asia Minor. 

In the gymnasium, there was a wide open area (previously surrounded by enormous pillars) where wrestling, running, and other athletic pursuits were performed. Additionally, there were small lecture halls surrounding the courtyard and most likely a library space for education.

Close by to the expansive gymnasium, we walked through an ancient home with preserved mosaics across the floor space. It was especially interesting to examine one particular mosaic with masked faces and exotic animals, presumably for the owner of the house to show off their collections as a patron or for other large gatherings.

After stopping for lunch at a local Kurd-Turkish restaurant, we rode to Asclepion, or the medical center and healing palace/temple of Pergamum. Once we walked through an ancient road previously lined by shops or pharmacies for patients, we entered the infamous Asclepion. The temple was dedicated to the Greek God Asclepius of healing, represented by a snake. This was due to snakes' antivenom against poison and their ability to shed and “regenerate” their outer layer of scales. The imagery of a snake can still be seen today in the intertwined snakes and rod of Asclepius on the medical emblem. 

Upon paying money or gold to the temple, a person was allowed to enter the medical complex of Asclepion. Patients were then diagnosed through dream analysis which took place in two vital steps. First, the patients were placed into sleeping chambers with calm, running water to put them in a relaxed state of slumber. Next, patients were again placed in the sleeping chamber, but this time they were surrounded by hissing snakes to put them in an anxious mental state. 

Once the doctors made their diagnoses through dream analysis, the patients then went through several different methods of treatment. This included the use of soothing herbal baths, entertaining comedy performances, an educational library, and even an underground tunnel with positive messages accompanied by the sound of running water for relaxation.

Additionally, present day medical workshops use the Acropolis theater for meetings with other doctors from Türkiye and around the world!

Some elements of Hellenistic rituals and Humoral medicine still have lasting impacts today. Although we have moved past the idea of balancing the four liquids in the body (blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm), we still use similar language such as comparing one with “hot blood” to the emotion of anger and high levels of phlegm to a “cold”. All in all, the Asclepion illustrates the confluences of religion on medicine and healing in the ancient world and its impacts on medical practices and society today.

Prof pics #3

We approach the Roman Theatre of Laodicea

Mike likes to be meta as he photographs Lynn 

doing a group pic

Nancy doesn't know where the "cotton castle" is. And 

Molly is just letting it happen.

Obligatory group shot # 1 million

Students amble through the Pamukkale pools

Their feet and ankles rejuvenated from the calcium rich warm waters 

They really like their rejuvenated ankle-skin

Annika apparently floating above the whole thing; she still managed to get her pants wet.

Sarah and Claire say farewell to Hierapolis at the monumental gate.

 

 

Day Six: Aphrodisias- Sarah Hanchey

 Today we experienced the ancient city of Aphrodisias, paying homage to the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite. This city generally had a small population, but was widely known for its Temple of Aphrodite, and it became a pilgrimage site. 

The city was founded in the 2nd century BC, and was continuously inhabited until the late 1950s. In 1958, a Turkish journalist Ara Güler got lost in the areas and stayed the night in the local mountain town of Geyre. Here, he noticed men playing card games on the tops of what looked to be ancient roman pillars. Upon further exploration, Güler saw many more ancient ruins being used in everyday life. Güler contacted Turkish professor Kenan T. Erim who took the lead in excavating the city. Erin is buried on site. 

Aphrodite, the city’s namesake, was worshipped by all, regardless of gender. Other notable gods important in the city were Zeus and Aphrodite’s son, Cupid. 

 

Depictions on Aphrodite in the Aphrodisias Museum. 

When we first entered the city, we were met with a wall of capitols that once topped columns throughout the city. During excavation, Erim chose to place these capitals in a wall to highlight the varied expressions and emotions displayed on each face.

The top face stood out to me with its wild hair and furrowed expression. 

Next, we walked through the monumental gates of the city. These gates, named the Tetrapilon after its 4 columns, was originally built in 280 ad. During excavation, 80% of the original stone was rediscovered, and the gates were reconstructed. The gates face the Temple of Aphrodite, and are the main entrance into the city. Aphrodite’s son, Cupid is depicted in the carvings of the gate. 

(The Hippodrome Arena) 

 After entering the gates of Aphrodisias, we walked to the Hippodrome, one of the best preserved stadiums from the ancient world. This stadium held 30,000 people and hosted sporting events including running races, disc throwing, javelin, boxing, and wrestling. Later on, it was remodeled to included a small arena, used for gladiator fights. The hosting of gladiator fights brought a roman sport into an arena used for greek sports that had historically been used for greek sporting events. This is an important example of the people of Aphrodisias embracing roman culture and creating new identities. Religious festivals

 and ceremonies were also held in this space.

The arena sports its original marble seats, which were once inscribed with names of cities and social classes, indicating where different people sat. This was a way of reinforcing the social hierarchies found in the community. 

(Temple of Aphrodite)

After leaving the arena, we visited the Temple of Aphrodite, which had largely been lost to time. Construction of the temple started in the 1st century BC but alterations continued to the 2nd century AD. 

The story of the temple helps explain the affects of synchronism in the ancient world. 

Greek culture only became common in the areas during the reign of Alexander the Great. Before that, the Hittite people inhabited the area. The Hittites had a matriarchal form of religion, in which they worshiped the Mother Goddess of Earth. When the Greeks came, instead of wiping away all signs of past religions, the accepted the Mother Goddess as a form of their own Aphrodite. However, this mixing of cultures often created new versions of Gods and Goddesses. The version of Aphrodite worshipped in Aphrodisias is far from a true greek Aphrodite. Here, she has Hittite, Mesopotamian and Syrian influence. 

(The New Sacristy)

In the 6th century, Aphrodite’s Temple was converted in a Christian church. A new sacristy and atrium were built, as the building began to welcome worshippers, rather that just the priests who used the space in pagan worship practices. 

However, the converting of the temple to a church did not subdue the practice of worshipping Aphrodite. In fact, in the 7th century, the Byzantine empire renamed the city Stauropolis, meaning City of the Cross, to reinforce the practice of Christianity. 

This is the Bouleuterion, or city council house. It would’ve been double the height of what is standing today and seated over 1,000 people.This building also has originally marble seatings which also had inscriptions marking where certain people sat. 

A freed slave of Julius Caesar was the benefactor of The Bouleuterion, Aphrodite’s Temple, snd the city’s theater.

Later, we visited the Sebasteion, cult temple used to worship  Emperors and the Imperial Family, as well as Aphrodite. This space was dedicated to Emperor Tiberius in the first century, but was finished during the rule of Emperor Nero. 

The temple and public area was funded by 2 Aphrodisian families, and it was seen as a local site. 

The Sebasteion is best know for its reliefs; artwork carvings of people that lined the area.  

TW: Sexual Assault

These reliefs are now housed in the Aphrodisias Museum. While some of the reliefs simply displayed scenes of emperors or gods and goddesses in their everyday lives, many problamatically displayed Rome’s conquering of foreign peoples. In these reliefs, the foreign peoples were almost always personified as women to characterize them as weak and submissive. Many of these reliefs are rape scenes of a man, repressing the empire or a specific emperor, attacking an unclothed woman, representing another culture.

These statues are the personifications of Balkan and Romanian peoples, respectively, who were defeated by the Romans.

This relief represents Rome’s victory over the Armenian people.

We finished our morning saying goodbye to our dog friends and eating lunch at an authentic restaurant in the nearby town with a parrot, peacocks, and puppies! 

Day 5: Pamukkale and the Meander Valley — Molly Hunt

The Pamukkale area is famous for its geological rarities. It has a series of hot springs, which, over time, led to the formation of a layer of white rock, called travertine, on the side of a mountain. Pamukkale means “cotton palace,” in reference to the color of this landmark.

The white mountain.

This valley has been an important point of human settlement for millennia, drawing civilizations with its fertile soil, marble deposits, and healing waters, as well as its strategic location as a crossroads between various ancient trade routes. Many important ancient cities were build here, and we toured two of them today. 

First, we went to Laodicea, a wealthy trading city that often draws Christian tour groups today, because of its shoutout in the Book of Revelation in the Bible. Much of the city has only recently been excavated by archeologists, and we were able to see the progress they have made on the site recently, as well as piles of recent things they had excavated.

It was a little rainy as we walked down 

the center street of the city.

The archeologists at Laodicea are reconstructing the city as they excavated it, which is controversial in the field. We had a discussion about this as we walked, considering the reasons why this might be so. Rebuilding the city might be good for education and tourism purposes, but not necessarily benefit scholarship. These kind of hidden motivations are also present when thinking about what gets excavated first. For example, possibly because of the Christian tour groups that visit the reading, much effort has been put into the reconstruction of the church, which is one of the earliest known churches, built after the Milan edict in the 4th century A.D..

The mosaic tile on the floor of the church,

which archeologists pieced back together.

The Greek theater was also newly 

excavated. It was huge.

Our next stop was Hierapolis, another Greek city, known for its hot springs. We took a brief break from academics to walk down the Pamukkale terraces, dipping our feet in geothermally heated pools.

Hierapolis was a large city, and so there were tons of ruins  to explore. We walked through the city, stopping to talk about the city’s relationship to death, in what we call “deathscapes”. We saw this literally, in how the dead were buried outside the city walls, either in mounds, sarcophagi, or family rooms with inscriptions, depending on a person’s social status.

Tombs just outside the city.

We also saw this with the city’s special feature, the Plutonium, one of the ancient “gates to the underworld,” where people would bring sacrifices to Pluto, the god of death. The Plutonium was an important part of the city, showing how attitudes towards death influence daily life in a civilization.

The Plutonium, featuring a hot spring, a gate, 

and a reconstructed statue of Pluto.

Pictures from Pamukkale