The Lost City of Antioch In 300 BC, the ancient city of Antioch was founded. It was located in today's southeastern Turkey, near Syria, but was an ancient Greek city. It was founded by Seleucus the first Nicator in the end of the fourth century B.C. It was known as the jewel in the Roman Empire. Its people considered themselves to be the most sophisticated and well educated people in that empire, even to the extent of Rome itself, which eventually ruled the city. Antioch was a center of learning and culture. It was associated with the Silk Road, the Royal Road and the spice trade. In a way its strange. Today we don’t think about spices being the treasure they used to be. Spices had many uses in the ancient world. They were used in some rituals for paranormal purposes, to enhance the flavor of food and even used as medicine. The Chinese in 2,700 B.C. listed plants and spices for medical use. It was said if you sat in the market place you would meet people from every city in the empire. Antioch was founded after the death of Alexander the Great. He had died without naming a successor. Seleucus was one of the generals of Alexander and he created Antioch to be the capital of his kingdom in Syria. This area had been occupied since the Neolithic Period. In 64 BC the city became part of Rome. Its population consisted mainly of Greeks and people from the area. Part of the city sits under the modern city of Antakya in Turkey. The city was situated near the River Orontes in Ancient Syria. It became a center for Greek culture and grew rich. The city was surrounded by stone walls that were seventy feet high. When the city was originally founded the people of the city sacrificed a young virgin to ensure the city would be prosperous. The city was a mecca for pilgrims because of its many temples in the grove of Daphne. It is amazing to me the proclivity we have for building cities and towns over older cities and towns and even buildings over older buildings. This has made it hard for new construction in these places because when archaeological sites are discovered usually everything has to halt and this delays or stops the new construction. Many ancient cities were named Antioch but there were only two major cities. One is the ancient Antioch in Syria, which we are discussing here and the other is Antioch in Pisidia. The Greek language remained the main language of the city even under Roman rule, but some of the more important people of the city decided to learn Latin to try and improve their positions. Pisidia was an ancient country in Asia Minor. Today we can say it corresponds roughly to the modern-day province of Antalya in Turkey. Antioch didn't fare too well over the years. Between the forces of nature and the forces of man, it was practically destroyed. The Persian King Chosroes the first decided to sack the city in 538 AD. The sixth century was not a good one for Antioch. Plague had also struck the city, there was a great fire and earthquakes. The city would never recover and regain its former glory. Over the years many invading armies would control the city. Then came the Muslim Armies in 1268 and the old city was practically destroyed. Its strange in a way, the glory days of Antioch vanished over the years and the city was no longer one of the most desirable places to live anymore. It is said that Antioch was the second most important city to the Christians, the first being Jerusalem. Many from the early church left Jerusalem to avoid persecution and went to Antioch. The first time Christians were called Christians was after they fled to Antioch. The most important part of the old city lay buried for many hundreds of years under the mud of the Orontes River. It is strange but no one ever decided to try and dig up the city until the 1930s. With all the archaeological digs going on one would have thought finding the ruins of the city would have been quite an accomplishment for any archaeologist. "Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul: and when he found him he brought him to Antioch." When the expedition did start to excavate the city it found many treasures, not treasures of gold and jewels, but treasures of our past. Three hundred floor tiles that decorated the floors of houses were found. Other items found were household furnishings, jewelry, furniture, attachments of bronze and bone, locks and keys, lighting instruments, pins, belt buckles, toilet articles, gaming pieces, scales and weights, statuettes and cult instruments for worship. Busts and statues were also found. There was a rich trove of other unique items found. Between the years 1932 to 1939 archaeological digs were conducted and a committee made up of representatives from the Louvre, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Worcester Art Museum, Princeton University, Wellesley college and the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard and its affiliate Dumbarton Oaks oversaw the archaeology. They were disappointed because they had hoped to find major buildings, they were looking for such as Constantine’s Great Octagonal Church or the Imperial Palace, but did find many high quality Roman mosaics. Today more parts of the city are being exposed because of construction going on. It is a shame but this was not protected originally by the committee when digging began. Today the local museum has allowed bulldozers to dig up the land thus destroying or damaging parts of the buried ancient city. Maybe one of the reasons for this is the fact Turkey is so overrun with ancient ruins, some museums just look the other way so construction of new buildings can continue, or maybe there is graft involved somehow. I am sure some construction companies would be more than glad to give money to authorities for not stopping their construction. All this is from a lost city that we knew existed, but what about those cities that have disappeared into the dust of time without leaving a trace? There is a theory life on earth is much older than first thought and the human race may have reached certain plateaus then fallen back only to rise again. If this is true there may be many much older cities just waiting to be discovered, only time will tell.
|
