Priene

Coordinates: 37°39′35″N 27°17′52″E / 37.65972°N 27.29778°E / 37.65972; 27.29778
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Priene
Πριήνη (in Ancient Greek)
Prien (in Turkish)
The Temple of Athena, funded by Alexander the Great, at the foot of an escarpment of Mycale. The five columns were erected in 1965–66 from rubble and are 3 metres (9.8 ft) shorter of the calculated original column height.
Priene is located in Turkey
Priene
Shown within Turkey
Alternative nameSampson
LocationGüllübahçe, Söke, Aydın Province, Turkey
RegionIonia
Coordinates37°39′35″N 27°17′52″E / 37.65972°N 27.29778°E / 37.65972; 27.29778
TypeSettlement
Area37 ha (91 acres)
History
BuilderTheban colonists
FoundedApproximately 1000 BCE
Associated withBias, Pythius

Priene (

Latmian Gulf of the Aegean. It was developed on steep slopes and terraces extending from sea level to a height of 380 metres (1,250 ft) above sea level at the top of the escarpment.[1] Because of siltation from the river filling the bay over several centuries, the city is now an inland site. It is located at a short distance west of the modern village Güllübahçe Turun in the Söke district of Aydın Province, Turkey
.

Priene is known to have been the site of high-quality Hellenistic art and architecture. The city's original position on Mount Mycale has never been discovered; however, it is believed that it was on a peninsula with two harbours. Priene never held a great deal of political importance due to the city's relatively limited size, as it is believed around four to five thousand inhabitants occupied the region. The city was arranged into four districts, firstly the political district, which consisted of the bouleuterion and the prytaneion; the cultural district containing the theatre; the commercial, where the agora was located; and finally the religious district, which contained sanctuaries dedicated to Zeus, Demeter and, most importantly, the Temple of Athena.

Geography

Earliest cities

The cliff side of the acropolis, with the Temple of Athena in the foreground

The city visible on the slopes and escarpment of Mycale was constructed according to plan entirely during the 4th century BCE. The original Priene had been a port city situated at the then mouth of the Maeander River. This location caused insuperable environmental difficulties, due to slow aggradation of the riverbed and progradation in the direction of the Aegean Sea. Typically the harbour would silt over, so that residents were living in pest-ridden swamps and marshes.

The Maeander flows through a slowly subsiding rift valley, creating a drowned coastline. Human use of the previously forested slopes and valley removed trees and exposed soils to erosion. The sediments were progressively deposited in the trough at the mouth of the river, which migrated westward and more than compensated for the subsidence.

Physical remains of the original Priene have not yet been identified. It is believed they are likely to be buried under many feet of sediment. The top is now cultivated as valuable agricultural land. Knowledge of the average rate of progradation is the basis for estimating the location of the city, which was moved closer to the water again every few centuries in order to operate as a port.

The Greek city (there may have been unknown habitations of other ethnicities, as at Miletus) was founded by a colony from the ancient Greek city of Thebes in the vicinity of ancient Aneon at about 1000 BCE. At about 700 BCE a series of earthquakes were the catalyst to move the city to within 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) of its 4th century BCE location. At about 500 BCE, the city moved again to the port of Naulochos.[2]

4th century BCE city

Athena Polias at Priene. British Museum

At about 350 BCE the Persian-empire satrap, Mausolus (a Carian), planned a magnificent new city on the steep slopes of Mycale. He hoped it could be a permanent deep-water port (similar to the many Greek island cities, located on and up seaside escarpments). Construction had begun when the Macedonians took the region from the Persian Empire, and Alexander the Great personally assumed responsibility for the development. He and Mausolus intended to make Priene a model city. Alexander offered to pay for construction of the Temple of Athena to designs of the noted architect Pytheos, if it would be dedicated by him, which it was, in 323 BCE. The dedicatory inscription is held by the British Museum.[3] The inscription translated to: "King Alexander dedicated the temple to Athena Polias".

The leading citizens were quick to follow suit: most of the public buildings were constructed at private expense and are inscribed with the names of the donors.

The ruins of the city are generally conceded to be the most spectacular surviving example of an entire ancient Greek city; it is intact except for the ravages of time. It has been studied since at least the 18th century. The city was constructed of marble from nearby quarries on Mycale, and wood for such items as roofs and floors. The public area is laid out in a grid pattern up the steep slopes, drained by a system of channels. The water distribution and sewer systems survive. Foundations, paved streets, stairways, partial door frames, monuments, walls, terraces can be seen everywhere among toppled columns and blocks. No wood has survived. The city extends upward to the base of an escarpment projecting from Mycale. A narrow path leads to the acropolis above.

Later years

Greek theatre at Priene

Despite the expectations, Priene lasted only a few centuries as a deep-water port. In the 2nd century CE Pausanias reports that the Maeander already had silted over the inlet in which Myus stood, and that the population had abandoned it for Miletus.[4] While Miletus apparently still had an open port then, according to recent geoarchaeological research, Priene had already lost the port and open connection to the sea in about the 1st century BCE.[5] Its merchants likely had preceded most residents in relocation to Miletus. By 300 CE the entire Bay of Miletus, except for Lake Bafa, was silted in.

Today Miletus is many miles from the sea. Priene stands at the edge of a fertile plain, now a checkerboard of privately owned fields. A Greek village remained after the population decline. After the 12th century CE, more Turkish people moved into the area. In the 13th century CE Priene was known as "Sampson", in Greek, after the biblical hero

Byzantine
control until the late 13th century.

By 1923, whatever Greek population remained was expelled in the population exchange between Greece and Turkey following World War I. Shortly after, the Turkish population moved to a more favourable location, which they called Güllü Bahçe ("rose garden"). The old Greek settlement, partly still in use, is today known as Gelebeç or Kelebeş. The tourist attraction of Priene is accessible from there.

Contemporary geography

Territory

Location of Priene at Maeander River's mouth

In the 4th century BCE, Priene was a deep-water port with two harbours overlooking the Bay of Miletus[6] and, somewhat further east, the marshes of the Maeander Delta. Between the ocean and steep Mycale, agricultural resources were limited. Priene's territory likely included a part of the Maeander Valley, needed to support the city. Claiming much of Mycale, it had borders on the north with Ephesus and Thebes, a small state on Mycale.

Priene was a small city-state of 6000 persons living in a constrained space of only 15 hectares (37 acres). The walled area had an extent of 20 hectares (49 acres) to 37 hectares (91 acres). The population density of its residential district has been estimated at 166 persons per hectare, living in about 33 homes per hectare (13 per acre) arranged in compact city blocks.[7] The entire space within the walls offered not much more space and privacy: the density was 108 persons per hectare. All the public buildings were within walking distance, except that walking must have been an athletic event due to the vertical components of the distances.

Society

Priene was a wealthy city, as the plenitude of fine urban homes in marble and the private dedications of public buildings suggests. In addition, historical references to the interest of

aqueduct
to cisterns, and piped or channeled from there to houses and fountains. Most Greek cities, such as Athens, required getting water from the public fountains (which was the work of domestic servants). The upper third of Prienean society had access to indoor water.

The source of Ionian wealth was maritime activity; Ionia had a reputation among the other Greeks for being luxurious. The intellectuals, such as Heraclitus, often railed against their practices.

Government

Bouleuterion

Although the

obverse and a meander pattern on the reverse; one coin also displayed a dolphin and the legend ΠΡΙΗ for ΠΡΙΗΝΕΩΝ (Priēneōn), "of the Prieneians."[8] These symbols express the Prieneians identification as a maritime democracy aligned with Athens
but located in Asia.

The mechanism of democracy was similar to but simpler than that of the Athenians (whose population was much larger.) An assembly of citizens met periodically to render major decisions placed before them. The day-to-day legislative and executive business was conducted by a boulē, or city council, which met in a bouleuterion, a space like a small theatre with a wooden roof. The official head of state was a prytane. He and more specialized magistrates were elected periodically. As at Athens, not all the population was franchised. For example, the property rights and tax responsibilities of a non-Prieneian section of the population living in the countryside, the pedieis, "plainsmen", were defined by law. They were perhaps, an inheritance from the days when Priene was in the valley.

History

Temple of Athena at Priene

Priene was said to have been first settled by

Ionic Revolt
(499 BCE-494 BCE).

Priene was a member of the Athenian-dominated

Samos, and the troubles after Alexander's death, brought Priene low. Rome had to save it from the kings of Pergamon and Cappadocia
in 155.

Orophernes, the rebellious brother of the Cappadocian king, who had deposited a treasure there and recovered it by Roman intervention, restored the Temple of Athena as a thank-offering. Under Roman and Byzantine dominion Priene had a prosperous history. It passed into Muslim hands late in the 13th century.[10]

Archaeological excavations and current state

The main street
The Roman baths

The ruins, which fell on the successive terraces where they were built, were the object of investigatory missions sent out by the English Society of Dilettanti in 1765 and 1868. They were excavated by Theodor Wiegand (1895–1899) for the Berlin Museum.

The city, as developed at this site that was new in the 4th century, was found to have been laid out on a rectangular scheme. The steep area faces south, the acropolis rising nearly 200 metres (660 ft) behind it. The city was enclosed by a wall 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) thick, with towers at intervals and three principal gates.

On the lower slopes of the acropolis was a sanctuary of

insulae. Private houses were apportioned eight to an insula. The systems of water-supply and drainage are still visible. The houses present many analogies with the earliest ones of Pompeii
.

In the western half of the city, on a high terrace north of the main street and approached by a fine stairway, was the

Cappadocian
restoration.

The sanctuary of Asclepius

An ancient

menorah, has also been discovered.[11]

Around the agora, the main square crossed by the main street, is a series of halls. The municipal buildings, buleuterion and prytaneion, lie north of the agora. Further to the north is the Upper Gymnasium with Roman baths, and the well-preserved Hellenistic theatre. These and most other public structures are at the centre of the plan. Temples of Asclepius and the Egyptian gods Isis, Serapis and Anubis, have been revealed. At the lowest point on the south, within the walls, was the large stadium. In Hellenistic times, it was connected with a gymnasium.[12]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ .
  2. ^ Crouch (2004) pages 199-200.
  3. ^ British Museum Highlights
  4. ^ Description of Greece Book 7 Section 2.11.
  5. ^ Marc Müllenhoff Geoarchäologische, sedimentologische und morphodynamische Untersuchungen im Mündungsgebiet des Büyük Menderes (Mäander), Westtürkei Marburg/Lahn 2005
  6. ^ This article uses this term in preference to the Gulf of Latmus, which remains as Lake Bafa. In ancient times they were continuous.
  7. ^ Hansen (2004), pages 14–16, estimates the walled area as 1.33 to 2 times a measured habitation area of 15 hectares (37 acres). Rubinstein (2004), pages 1091–1093, gives a slightly larger measure of the walled area: 37 hectares (91 acres). Hansen (2004), pages 14–16, estimates 8 persons per house for 500 counted houses and a ratio of 2:1 of urban over rural.
  8. ^ Rubinstein (2004), pages 1091–1093.
  9. ^ Pétridès, Sophron (1913). "Priene" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  10. ^  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainChisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Priene". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  11. ^ Nadin Burkhardt, Mark Wilson, "The Late Antique Synagogue in Priene: Its History, Architecture, and Context", Gephyra 10 (2013), pp.166-196
  12. .

References

Further reading

Archaeology

Epigraphy

History

External links

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