Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-20T03:07:12.850Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Byzantine Fortifications of Amastris in Paphlagonia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

James Crow  and
Stephen Hill
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This article is chiefly concerned with the chronology of the Byzantine fortifications of Amastris, which are the subject of current research by the authors, but, in order to set the settlement at Amasra and its fortifications into their context in the Black Sea area, the present study must commence with a brief account of some aspects of the monuments and history of the city in the Hellenistic and Classical periods.

The present Turkish town of Amasra on the south coast of the Black Sea (Fig. 1; Pl. XXXVII a) occupies the site of the ancient city of Amastris which has a long history extending as least as far back as the period of Milesian colonisation in the Black Sea zone from the seventh century B.C. Like the more famous city of Sinope to the east, the settlement at Amasra stood on the isthmus of a peninsula projecting into the Black Sea. At Amasra the isthmus leads to the upstanding promontory rock, Zindan Kalesi (Dungeon Castle) on which part of the Byzantine fortification stands, and which protects the east harbour. The whole site is further protected by the closely adjacent island of Boz Tepe which encloses the northern side of the west harbour. The site was doubtless chosen for settlement because of its good natural harbours which, as will be seen, have been of central importance throughout the history of Amasra.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 45 , December 1995 , pp. 251 - 265
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 The authors are pleased to acknowledge the financial support of the British Academy, the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies, and the Universities of Warwick and Newcastle upon Tyne. B. Williams has served as draughtsman at Amasra, and the coins in the Amasra museum were studied by S. Ireland. We would also like to express our personal thanks to Michael Carey. For an earlier preliminary account of the work at Amasra see Crow, J. and Hill, S., “Amasra, a Byzantine and Genoese Fortress on the Black Sea”, Fortress 2 (1990), 3–15Google Scholar.

2 Recent publications on the Classical remains at Amastris are Marek, Ch., “Katalog der Inscriften im Museum von Amasra”, Epigraphica Anatolica 6 (1985), 133–56, plates 13–19Google Scholar; Marek, Ch., “Amastris, Geschichte, Topographie, Archäologische Reste”, Istanbuler Mitteilungen 39 (1989), 373–89, plate 36Google Scholar; Marek, Ch., Stadt Ära, und Territorium in Pontus-Bithynien und Nord-Galatia, Istanbuler Forschungen 39 (Tübingen, 1983)Google Scholar; Kalkan, H., “Eine Inschrift aus Amasra (Amastris): Statuenstiftung des Gaius zu Ehren des Antoninus Pius”, Epigraphica Anatolica 18 (1991), 97–8, plate 1bGoogle Scholar. For general accounts of the history of Amasra and its monuments see Sakaoğlu, N., Amasra'nın Üç Bin Yılı, Zonguldak Valiği Yayınları 2 (Zonguldak, 1987)Google Scholar, and Eyice, S.Küçük Amasra tarihi ve eski eserler kilavuzu (Ankara, 1965)Google Scholar.

3 Ščeglov, A. N., “Les amphores timbrées d'Amastris”, in Empereur, J.-Y. and Garlan, Y., Récherches sur les amphores grecques, Bulletin de correspondence Hellénique. Supplement 13 (1986), 365–73Google Scholar; Doğer, E., Antik Çağda Amphoralar (İzmir, 1990), 119–20)Google Scholar.

4 Robert, L., À travers L'Asie Mineure (Paris, 1980), 417Google Scholar; (or Ireland, S., “Ancient Coins of Amasra Museum”, in Ashton, R., Turkish Coin Hoards 2 (forthcoming)Google Scholar.

5 Hoffman, A., “Zum ‘Bedesten’ in Amastris. Ein römischer Marktbau?”, Istanbuler Mitteilungen 39 (1989), 197–210, plate 21Google Scholar.

6 Bryer, A. A. M. and Winfield, D., The Byzantine Monuments of the Pontos (Washington DC, 1985), 79–88Google Scholar.

7 For the use of opus reticulatum in the eastern provinces see Ward-Perkins, J. B., Roman Architecture (London, 1979), 159Google Scholar.

8 Lucian, , Alexander the False Prophet, 57Google Scholar.

9 Lucian, , Toxaris, 57–60Google Scholar.

10 Williams, W., Pliny the Younger, Correspondence with Trajan from Bithynia (Epistles X) (Warminster, 1990)Google Scholar.

11 Eusebius, , Historia Ecclesiastica, 4, 23, 6Google Scholar; 5, 23, 3.

12 Crow, J. and Hill, S., “Amasra, a Byzantine and Genoese Fortress on the Black Sea”, Fortress 2 (1990), 7Google Scholar.

13 Hasluck, F. W., “Genoese Inscriptions and Heraldry at Amastra”, Annual of the British School at Athens 17 (1910/1911), 132–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dull, S., “Das Wappenbild als Geschichtsquelle. Florentiner Kaufleute in der Genuesenfestung Samastri am Schwarzen Meer”, Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Instituts in Florenz, 33 (1989), 369–77Google Scholar.

14 For a description of the churches see Eyice, S., “Deux anciennes églises byzantines”, Cahiers Archéologiques, 8 (1954), 97–105, plates 37–8Google Scholar.

15 SirRamsay, W. M. and Bell, G. M. L., The Thousand and One Churches (London, 1909), 176–8Google Scholar.

16 Mijatev, K., Angelov, D., Georgieva, S., Gerrassimov, T., Carevgrad Tarnov, le palais des rois Bulgars pendant le deuxième royaume Bulgare (Sophia, 1973), vol. I, 50–1Google Scholar, plate VI shows glazed examples with saucers, also fig. 66, p. 122. The authors have seen similar terracotta rosettes in the Varna museum and at Amasya and Tokat.

17 de Clavijo, Ruy Gonzales, Embassy to Tamerlane (1403–1406), translated by Le Strange, G. (London, 1928), 105Google Scholar.

18 Ahrweiler, H., Byzance et la Mer (Pariss, 1966), 110–11Google Scholar.

19 Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De Adminstrando Imperii, edited and translated by Moravcsik, G. and Jenkins, R. J. H. (Washington DC, 1967), 42Google Scholar.

20 Ahrweiler, H., Byzance et la Mer, (Paris, 1966), 111Google Scholar; Schlumberger, G., La sigillographie de l'Empire byzantin (Paris, 1884), 297Google Scholar: see also the detailed account of the history of Byzantine Amastris in K. Belke, Tabula Imperii Byzantini (Paphlagonia) (forthcoming).

21 Vita Georgii ep. Amastridos, ed. Vasil'evskij, V. G., Russko-Vizantiiskie Issledovanija (St. Petersburg, 1893), 1–93Google Scholar. On dating see Sevcenko, I., “Hagiography of the Iconoclast Period”, in Bryer, A. A. M. and Herrin, J. (editors), Iconoclasm (Birmingham, 1977), 113–31Google Scholar, especially 121–7. See also Ruggieri, V., Byzantine Religious Architecture (582–867): its History and Structural Elements, Orientalia Christiana Analecta 237 (Rome, 1991), 91–2Google Scholar.

22 Da Costa-Louillet, G., “Saints de Constantinople au VIIIe, IXe et Xe siècles”, Byzantion 24 (1954), 230–40, 479–92Google Scholar. Kazdhan, A. et al. , Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford, 1991, II 837Google Scholar.

23 Vita Georgii ep. Amastridos, ed. Vasil'evskij, V. G., Russko-Vizantiiskie Issledovanija (St. Petersburg, 1893), 23–5Google Scholar.

24 Brandes, W., Die Städte Kleinasiens im 7. und 8. Jahrhundert (Amsterdam, 1989), 69Google Scholar.

25 Nicetae Paphlagonis Oratio XIX in Laudem S. Hyacinthi Amastreni, Patrologia Graeca, 105, 417–40Google Scholar.

26 Vita Georgii ep. Amastridos, ed. Vasil'evskij, V. G., Russko-Vizantiiskie Issledovanija (St. Petersburg, 1893), 64Google Scholar; Sevcenko, I. “Hagiography of the Iconoclast Period”, in Bryer, A. A. M. and Herrin, J. (editors), Iconoclasm (Birmingham, 1977), 122Google Scholar.

27 Foss, C., Survey of Medieval Castles of Anatolia, I Kütahya, British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara Monograph 7 (Oxford, 1985), 80–1, plan 2, fig. AGoogle Scholar.

28 Hill, S., “A Preliminary Report on the Monuments at Dağ Pazarı”, Yayla 2 (1978), 8–14Google Scholar.

29 Bryer, A. A. M. and Winfield, D., 1985, The Byzantine Monuments of the Pontos (Washington DC, 1985), 77–9Google Scholar. The date suggested for the towers at Sinop is probably too early.

30 Foss, C., “Byzantine Malagina and the lower Sangarius”, Anatolian Studies 40 (1990), 161–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially 171, plate XXIV b, c.

31 Foss, C. and Winfield, D., Byzantine Fortifications: an Introduction (Pretoria, 1986), 132Google Scholar.

32 Cresswell, K. A. C., “Fortification in Islam before A.D. 1250”, Proceedings of the British Academy 38 (1952), 99–108Google Scholar.

33 Crow, J., “Alexios Komnenos and Kastamonu: castles and settlements in middle Byzantine Paphlagonia”, in Mullet, M. E. (ed.), Alexios Komnenos, Belfast Byzantine Colloquia (1995), 11–33Google Scholar.

34 Foss, C., and Winfield, D., Byzantine Fortifications: an Introduction (Pretoria, 1986), 133–5Google Scholar.

35 For photographs of the theatre and the Karanlık Kapı see Marek, Ch., Stadt, Ära, und Territorium in Pontus-Bithynien und Nord-Galatia, Instanbuler Forschungen 39 (Tübingen, 1993), plates 20, 4 and 23, 1Google Scholar.

36 Meyer-Platt, B. and Schneider, A. M., Die Landmauer von Konstantinopel II (Berlin, 1943), plates 27, 28iGoogle Scholar.

37 Schneider, A. M., Die Stadtmauer von Iznik (Nicaea), Istanbuler Forschungen 9 (Berlin, 1938), plate 35Google Scholar.

38 Robert, L., Études Anatoliennes (Paris, 1937), plate XIV 3Google Scholar.

39 See also comparative plans in Müller-Wiener, W., “Von der Polis zum Kastron”, Gymnasium 93 (1986), 435–75Google Scholar.