Klazomenai

Coordinates: 38°21′29.4″N 26°46′3.3″E / 38.358167°N 26.767583°E / 38.358167; 26.767583
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Klazomenai
Κλαζομεναί (in Ancient Greek)
Coin from Klazomenai depicting a winged boar, 499 BC
Teos is located on the western coast of Turkey.
Teos is located on the western coast of Turkey.
Shown within Turkey
Alternative nameClazomenae
LocationUrla, İzmir Province, Turkey
RegionIonia
Coordinates38°21′29.4″N 26°46′3.3″E / 38.358167°N 26.767583°E / 38.358167; 26.767583
TypeSettlement

Klazomenai (

Ancient Greek
: Κλαζομεναί) or Clazomenae was one of the 12 ancient anatolian ionic cities (the others being Chios, Samos, Phocaea, Erythrae, Teos, Lebedus, Colophon, Ephesus, Priene, Myus, and Miletus). It is located at the south coast of symrna gulf Ionia and a member of the Ionian League. It was one of the first cities to issue silver coinage. Its ruins are now located in the modern town Urla near İzmir in İzmir Province, Turkey.

Location

Klazomenai is located in modern

Persians, it was moved to the Karantina Island just off the coast. Soon after that, the city of Chyton was founded on the mainland the late fifth-century BC. Both cities had conflictual relations but Alexander the Great
eventually connected Karantina island to the mainland with a causeway, the remains of which are still visible.

Mythology

A silver coin minted in Klazomenai shows the head of

Hyperboreans. But Klazomenai was also home to large numbers of swans, and it is thought that the verb klazo was used to describe the call of the wild birds. The swan on the obverse is both an attribute of Apollo and a pun on the name Klazomenai.[1]

Ancient times

Though not in existence before the arrival of the

Persians
, moved to the Karantina island of the bay, and established their city there.

Coinage of Klazomenai, Ionia, circa 386-301 BC
Tiribazos
, 388-380 BC. Klazomenai mint.

Clazomenae was attacked by the

Persia
, but the city continued to issue its own coins.

The philosopher Anaxagoras (c. 510 – 428 BC), often styled "Anaxagoras of Clazomenae", was born in Clazomenae, as was the earlier philosopher Hermotimus of Clazomenae.

Herodotos of Klazomenai was the first Clazomenian Olympic winner, his victory being in the boys foot-race. The Clazomenians dedicated a statue of him at Olympia, Greece.[3]

Scopelian or Skopelianos of Clazomenae (Σκοπελιανός), was an ancient Greek sophist.[4]

Under the

taxation
.

Clazomenae early became a Christian

Council of Constantinople (869), which is seen within the Catholic Church as the eighth ecumenical council.[5][6][7] Although still documented at the end of the 14th century, it is no longer a residential bishopric. Accordingly, Clazomenae is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.[8]

Archaeology

British Museum
Large terracotta sarcophagus with painted scenes from Klazomenai in the British Museum (510-480 BC)
British Museum
Lid from the same sarcophagus

The site of Liman Tepe, which lies near an old harbour contains very important Bronze Age excavations, the most prominent and remarkable of which is the amount of varying archaic burial sites, as well as evidence of the practises associated with them close by. One possible explanation for this is that these sites were used by different social groups within society.

The city was famous for production and exports of olive oil and its painted terracotta Klazomenian sarcophagi, which are the finest monuments of Ionian painting in the 6th century BC.

A large painted terracotta

geometric patterns throughout and is now in the British Museum's collection.[9]

It was also prized for its variety of garum.

Ancient olive press

Olive oil extraction workshop at Klazomenai

Olive oil extraction installation (işlik) dating back to the third quarter of the 6th century BC uncovered in Klazomenai is the only surviving example of a level and weights press from an ancient Greek city and precedes by at least two centuries the next securely datable earliest presses found in Greece.[10][11] It was restored and reconstructed in 2004–2005 through collaboration between Ege University, a Turkish olive-oil exporter and a German natural building components company, as well as by local artisans, on the basis of the clearly visible millstone with a cylindrical roller and three separation pits. The olive oil obtained turned out to be quite a success in business terms as well.[citation needed] The reconstructed olive oil press is located on the original mainland site of Klazomenai, at 38°21′40.4″N 26°46′13.3″E / 38.361222°N 26.770361°E / 38.361222; 26.770361.

Financial pioneers

In an event noted by Aristotle, Klazomenians also appear as financial pioneers in economic history, for having used one commodity (olive oil), in an organized manner and on a city-scale, to purchase another (wheat), with interests refundable on the value of the first. Around 350 B.C., suffering from a shortage of grain and scarcity of funds, the rulers of the city passed a resolution calling on citizens who had stores of olive oil to lend to the city at interest. The loan arranged, they hired vessels and sent them to ports of exportation of grain and bought a consignment on the pledged security of the value of the oil.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ "(34) Klazomenai, Ionia (Turkey)". Catalogue of the Ottilia Buerger Collection of Ancient and Byzantine Coins. Lawrence University.
  2. ISBN 978-0-472-11199-2
    .
  3. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece, 6.17.2
  4. ^ Suda, sigma, 655
  5. ^ Raymond Janin, v. Clazomènes, in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. XII, Paris 1953, col. 1082
  6. ^ Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. I, coll. 729-730
  7. ^ Sophrone Pétridès, v. Clazomenae. Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. IV, New York 1908
  8. ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1
    ), p. 838
  9. ^ British Museum's Collection
  10. ^ Koparal, Elif; İplikçi, Ertan (2004). "Archaic Olive Oil Extraction Plant in Klazomenai". Klazomenai, Teos, and Abdera: Metropoleis and Colony. Proceedings of the International Symposium held at the Archaeological Museum of Abdera, 20–21 October 2001. Thessaloniki. pp. 221–234.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  11. ISBN 978-0-19-815288-0
    .
  12. ISBN 978-0-415-00345-2
    .

Further reading

  • Greaves, A.M., 2010. The Land of Ionia: Society and Economy in the Archaic Period. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Cook, R.M., 1981. Clazomenian sarcophagi. Mainz: Zabern.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Klazomenai.
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