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S E P T E M B E R 10th |
  Tufan's weather report |
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Only about 5 km from Sigacik and about 13.5
nautical miles from Kizilburun and Tektash ada is the ancient town of Teos. Teos was an important Ionian city, very prosperous at the beginning of 5th century. A major earthquake at the beginning of the 4th century BC, which destroyed many cities along the coast, affected Teos as well. The king Lysimachus ordered many citizens of Teos to move to the newly built city of Ephesos. The town possessed the largest temple to Dionysus in the ancient world, deity not only of wine but also of the arts and the generative forces of nature. In the 3rd century BC, it hosted many actors and musicians who performed throughout Asia Minor under the protection of their association: the Artists of Dionysus. Since they provided amusement to the population in the area and were considered sacred for their relation with the god, they had special rights comparable to the ones of the diplomatic corps of today. Unfortunately, this crowd caused endless trouble and was finally moved to another city. Teos was on an isthmus of a small peninsula and had two harbors. The harbors were crucial to the prosperity of Teos. In 494 BC the city was able to provide seventeen ships for the Ionian fleet at the battle of Lade against the Persians. During the 2nd century BC the Romans incorporated Teos in their Asian Province in order to take control over the harbors. |
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 Plan of Teos from: A travel guide to the historic treasures of Turkey, by Cemil Toksoz. |
It is interesting to learn that Teos was
such an important harbor at the time that our two shipwrecks sunk nearby (only 13 nautical
miles away): one in the end of 5th century BC at Tektash ada and the other in
the 4th century at Kizilburun. It would be logical to believe that our ships at
least called in at Teos, maybe just for amusement of the crew since the fame of the town
in ‘show business’ would always attract people passing by. It may also be
possible that Teos was their destination or their origin. We know that the Classical wreck
(end of 5th century BC) carried some amphoras originally from Mende Island in
the Aegean… Can that be an indication of its origin? Or was it just a coincidence?
Was this boat carrying wine from Mende to Teos? We hope we can answer all this questions during the course of the excavation of the Classical wreck starting next year under the direction of Prof. George F. Bass. |
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 Another interesting fact
about Teos is its famous quarries (F on the map). The blue limestone extracted from it was
a great export item since it was as hard as marble and very easy to work.That makes us think about the millstones wreck…. Was the quarry still functional during medieval times? If so… is it possible that the millstones were made in Teos and that they were being exported somewhere else to the north? What happened to Teos during medieval times? We will try to find the quarry and compare the stone, only visually at moment. Maybe in the future we can get some samples from the wreck and compare them scientifically. Until that happens, these ideas are only conjectures. |
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I would recommend to you a historical novel by Mika Waltari, originally titled Turmus, Kuolematon . The title probably translates as The Etruscan. I read it in Spanish. The story happens in the end of the 6th and beginning of 5th century BC and it reveals many aspects of life at this time. One of the actions described in the beginning is the battle of Lades in which Teos took part with seventeen ships on the side of the Ionians, as did the protagonist of the novel. Berta |
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C O N T A C T U S A T v i r a z o n @ d i v e t u r k e y . c o m |
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