Zeugma: Belkis on the Euphrates

Photos by Jack A. Waldron

The Zeugma museum is most famous for housing the Gypsy mosaic (pictured above), among other mosaic treasures.  But before we get to the museum, first an exploration of the ancient site of Zeugma (pictured below).

The upper city palace remains in situ, where it is now preserved by a massive roofed glass enclosure (see above and below).

A father and son who were shocked to see me cycling to the ancient city stopped me along the route to chat, both spoke near perfect English and accompanied me through the upper city (pictured below).

When I cycled through their hometown of Osmaniye the following day, they showed me some Turkish hospitality by taking me out for a fantastic kebab dinner!

The word zeugma is used in Thucydides histories (5C BC) meaning,'bridge of boats'.  In 64 BC, Zeugma was given to Antiochus I by the Romans, and who had assumed the role as a member of the 'toga praetexta', a robe bordered with a purple stripe worn by the higher magistrates of the Roman empire.

This appears to be the beginning of a hegemonic state between Rome and their rival enemy Parthia, whom Antiochus kept close relations.

Pictured below, the upper part of the city can be seen under its massive glass enclosure, and beyond the glass you can see the Euphrates, now cover the lower city.

Due to the damming of the Euphrates, the lower city is lost under its currents, but all the mosaics were hurriedly excavated and moved to the Zeugma Archeological Museum.

In the photo below, you can see the lower city with its magnificent mosaics shining within the buildings they once adorned.

Those magnificent mosaics and some of the major buildings that surrounded them are now preserved in the Zeugma Archeological Museum in the city of Gaziantep, or, Antep (see below).

An important crossing point on a curve in the Euphrates, Zeugma, meaning 'the span', was thus named according to Pausanius (2C AD) by the god Dionysus as, 'the city in the place where the Euphrates was spanned'.

Above, a mosaic of the river god Oceanos and his wife Tethys who are encircled by sea creatures. 

In the mosaic above, Metiochus and Parthenope set their gaze upon each other.  Below, the myth of their relationship plays out, and the history of the mosaic is told.

Below, the decapitation of KHTOC.

Below, the largest mosaic in the museum depicts the tale of Pasiphae and Daedalus and a labyrinth built by Daedalus to confine the fabled Minotaur.  

Pictured below, a diagram explaining the layers and constructions of mosaics was very interesting.

Pictured below, a recreation of a partial mosaic showing the various layers.

Below, a bronze statue of Mars found at the site and which once watched over the ancient city of Zeugma, now stands atop a column guarding the Zeugma museum in Antep.

*All photos and content property of Jack A. Waldron (photos may not be used without written permission)

**Please support my work and future postings through PATREON:

https://www.patreon.com/bikeandsailclassical

Or, make a Donation through PayPal:

Gobekli Tepe: Beginning of History

Photos by Jack A. Waldron

Gobekli Tepe holds secrets that will never be known for certain.  Is the the center of a community spread over the whole of northern Mesopotamia?  A gathering place for the hunter communities of 12,000 years ago?  Is the site spiritually important, or just a centrally positioned location for an emerging cult?  

What myths grew from the reality of events that occurred during the days of Gobekli Tepe?  If their surviving myths can be deduced, how much of them can be deconstructed?  For example, if the genesis myth or the biblical flood myth was built on some real events that came from Gobekli Tepe, can the reality of these myths be found?

From the reliefs on the stone 'head' pillars ('T-head'), we can see that nature was in the minds of those who constructed the enclosures.  Were the animals key to the survival of those who made use of the site, both in the preservation of life, as well as a detriment to it?  Were they animals of feast, fear or both?  Scorpions and geese, snakes and goats, spiders and cranes, boars and foxes, gazelles and buzzards, bucranium and bovine, humans and hieroglyphs, buildings and agriculture . . . all are represented on the stone 'head' pillars.  Why?  For what?  We will never truly know.

Pictured above, the human arms decent from the bent elbows that climb the neck of a stone 'head' pillar ('T-head').  The fingers rest on what appears to be a robe, with a hieroglyphic belt to hold the robe in place.  It has been suggested that the 'H' symbol is that of two humans joining hands, which may have created a meaningful sign.  I may ask if the series of three hieroglyphs starting from top to bottom may represent a hierarchical order of community?  The top inverted symbol may represent a handing down of laws, edicts, formalities, etc., while those that follow are the resulting harmonious community, joined in commonality.  Further, could the belt clasp symbolize the heads of wheat that the cooperating community is able to produce, as they grow from a hunter gathering people to a farming people?  On the right side of the clasp, two inverted 'H' symbols; might they represent the ruling order, who collect and distribute the yield from the harvest?  The symbols of Gobekli Tepe are well served to endless questioning . . . Thinking?

Avian encircle the base of a stone 'head' pillar ('T-head')(pictured below).  

Below (a replica on display at the Museum of Anatolian Ancient History), what appears to be a buzzard with its wing outstretched and supporting a solar disc or moon or some other object, may represent harvest calendar, as wheat stalks are gathered and bound below the store house structures.  This is my interpretation, as the late Klaus Schmidt did not offer an interpretation for the bound shafts or square arch topped image of three consecutively.  He did however offer an interpretation for the 'vulture' and 'disc', which he speculates could be "either a depiction of the solar disc or - despite the perfectly round shape - the vulture's egg".

Below, on Pillar No. 12 in Enclosure C (a replica on display at the Museum of Anatolian Ancient History), there are what appear to be avian in an arch movement, with a net-like relief filling in the background, while a ferocious boar dominates the pillar shaft, followed by what looks like a fox.

Below, my new found philosopher friend, Nils eats lunch over the plain surrounding Gobekli Tepe.  As a side note, I had planned to visit the Gobekli Tepe site while the dig was taking place.

But, just weeks before I arrived, the director of the site and author of Gobekli Tepe: A Stone Age Sanctuary in South-Eastern Anatolia, Klaus Schmidt (the book I was given by my new co-worker Anita Tjan, thanks!!), suddenly passed away, and his funeral had taken place a week before I was able to visit the site.

Above, a photo of Enclosure C, with Nils (from Estonia), Mehmet and myself. 

Above, atop the citadel in ancient Urfa (Ursu in the second millennium BC, Edessa from 306 BC), two giant columns in the Corinthian order dating from the 2C or 3C AD stand conspicuously above the Berket Ibrahim Springs, where legend says, Nimrod, from his throne on the mount had a giant sling built between the columns, and where Abraham was slung from the mount, and where he landed springs came from the spot (are not myths humorous?).  On the eastern column there is a dedication in Syriac to Queen Shalmath, who is thought to have been the wife of Abgar the Great.  Below, the Justinian Bridge, built under the rule of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, the Great 527-565 AD, in Urfa.

*All photos and content property of Jack A. Waldron (photos may not be used without written permission)

**Please support my work and future postings through PATREON:

https://www.patreon.com/bikeandsailclassical

Or, make a Donation through PayPal: