Amorium

Coordinates: 39°1′21″N 31°17′42″E / 39.02250°N 31.29500°E / 39.02250; 31.29500
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Amorion" redirects here. For the modern village in Greece, see Amorio, Evros.
Amorium
Ἀμόριον (in Greek)
Ruins of Amorium
Amorium is located in Turkey
Amorium
Shown within Turkey
Alternative nameAmorion, ʿAmmūriye, Amūrīn, Hergen Kale
LocationHisarköy, Afyonkarahisar Province, Turkey
RegionPhrygia
Coordinates39°1′21″N 31°17′42″E / 39.02250°N 31.29500°E / 39.02250; 31.29500
History
PeriodsHellenistic to High Middle Ages
Associated withAesop (legendarily), Michael II
EventsSack of Amorium

Amorium, also known as Amorion (

Hisarköy, 13 kilometers east of the district center, Emirdağ, Afyonkarahisar Province, Turkey.[3][4]

Islamic sources refer to the city as ʿAmmūriye. Under Ottoman rule the site, which never regained importance, was called Hergen Kale or Hergen Kaleh.[1]

History

Antiquity

The city minted its own coins beginning between 133 BC to 27 BC until the 3rd century AD, indicating its maturity as a settlement and military importance during the pre-Byzantine period.[5] Amorium then must have been prestigious and prosperous. But early historical records that mention the city are strictly limited to a reference by Strabo, although it is expected that new discoveries will shed light on the city's Roman period and before.

Byzantine period

Gold solidus of Emperor Michael II the Amorian and his son Theophilos.

The city was fortified by the emperor

Amorian dynasty. This began the period of the city's greatest prosperity, when it became the largest city in Asia Minor. Its status however as the native city of the reigning dynasty also spelled its doom: in 838, the Caliph Al-Mu'tasim launched a campaign specifically against the city, which was captured and razed, an episode recounted in a poem of Abu Tammam.[2]

The town was rebuilt, but was burned by

Seljuks and a large proportion of its inhabitants were killed.[8] Emperor Alexios I Komnenos
defeated the Seljuks at Amorium in 1116.

It remained an important place in the 12th–14th centuries according to

al-Idrisi and Hamdallah Mustawfi.[2]

Bishopric

Amorium was a

Photius
sent to Rome about 20 years earlier.

In the

Philomelium, Claneus, Docimium, Polybotus. and Pissia.[9] There is no longer any mention of the see in the 14th-century Notitiae Episcopatuum.[10][11][12]

No longer a residential bishopric, Amorium is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.[13]

42 Martyrs

Main article: 42 Martyrs of Amorium

Following the 838 sack, 42 officers and notables of Amorium were taken as hostages to Samarra (today in Iraq). Refusing to convert to Islam, they were executed there in 845, and became canonized as the "42 Martyrs of Amorium".[14]

Excavations

Amorium's site was long unknown, though its name appears on many maps of the 18th and 19th centuries. It was rediscovered by Richard Pococke in 1739, but the first visit by a western scholar was by the English geologist William Hamilton in 1836; subsequently, maps placed it more accurately.[15]

In 1987, R.M. Harrison of Oxford University conducted a preliminary survey of the site, with excavations being started in 1988. From its inception the Amorium Excavations Project has been principally concerned with investigating post-classical, Byzantine Amorium.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Friends of Amorium.[17][failed verification
]

After more than 20 years of British led excavation at Amorium, fieldwork restarted in 2014 with a new Turkish team under the direction of Doçent Doktor Zeliha Demirel Gökalp of Anadolu University, based at Eskisehir.[18] Amorium Excavations Project retains its character of international collaboration with foreign institutions, like the Institute of Mediterranean Studies of Foundation for Research & Technology – Hellas.[19]

Notable people

  • Aesop (620-560 BC), Greek fable writer, legendarily from Amorion[20]
  • Amorian dynasty
  • Saint Blaise of Amorion
    (died 908), Christian monk and saint

References

  1. ^ a b c Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1907). "Amorios" . Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  2. ^ a b c d M. Canard, "ʿAmmūriya" Archived 2020-07-27 at the Wayback Machine", Encyclopedia of Islam, Second Edition online 2012
  3. ^ Drew Bear, T.; DARMC; R. Talbert; S. Gillies; J. Åhlfeldt; T. Elliott (2018-06-07). "Places: 609302 (Amorion)". Pleiades. Archived from the original on 2020-11-01. Retrieved February 19, 2015.
  4. ^ Ivison, p. 27 Archived 2024-03-06 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ISBN 978-3-05-005828-3. Archived
    from the original on 6 March 2024. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
  6. ISBN 978-975-8293-80-3. Archived
    from the original on 6 March 2024. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
  7. ^ Timothy E. Gregory, A History of Byzantium, p. 228 Archived 2024-03-06 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Speros Vryonis, The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Process of Islamization from the Eleventh through the Fifteenth Century Archived 2017-02-02 at the Wayback Machine (University of California Press, 1971), pp. 21
  9. Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
    , 1901, p. 539, nº 246.
  10. ^ Siméon Vailhé, v. Amorium, in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques Archived 2020-10-07 at the Wayback Machine, vol. II, Paris 1914, coll. 1329–1331
  11. ^ Gaetano Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica, Vol. 2, p. 23
  12. ^ Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus Archived 2024-03-06 at the Wayback Machine, Paris 1740, Vol. I, coll. 853-856
  13. ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1
    ), p. 831
  14. Que sais-je ?
    , 1947
  15. ^ C.S. Lightfoot, "Coins at Amorium" in Constantina Katsari et al., The Amorium Mint and the Coin Finds, Amorium Reports 4, p. 5 Archived 2024-03-06 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ISBN 978-1-84171-538-4. Archived
    from the original on 2024-03-06. Retrieved 2016-09-27.
  17. ^ "The Armorium Excavations Project". Amoriumexcavations.org. Archived from the original on 23 September 2008. Retrieved 2 August 2008.
  18. ^ "Bizans'ın Karanlık Dönemi Aydınlanıyor". Sondakika.com. 2013-11-04. Archived from the original on 2020-10-07. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
  19. ^ "Amorium Urban Archaeology". Amoriumurbarch.blogspot.gr. Archived from the original on 13 February 2016. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
  20. ^ Life of Aesop (10th century manuscript of 1st century text), cited in Tomas Hägg, The Art of Biography in Antiquity, p. 101

Sources

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