BIKE CLASSICAL: Sofraz Tumulus B: Religious Center?

Photos by Jack A. Waldron

The landscapes of Adiyaman remind me so much of the Phrygian valley, with richly watered farmlands, and beautiful Spring green, that with summer turns a scorching tan and brown, as the fields approach harvest. The Hattians and Hurrians were once the dominant cultures of these lands, but were later overseen by others, such as the Hittites, Urartu, Phrygians, Cimmerians, Medes, with some struggles in between, followed by the Greeks, the Amenians, the Commagenes, the Romans, The Byzantines, the Ottomans, and then, here we are.

Pictured above, a stele of Antiochus I Theos of Commagene is shown in relief shaking hands with Apollo-Helios-Mithras. This basalt stele was found in the vicinity of the Sofraz Tumuli, and dates from the Hellenistic (Commagene) period 69-36 BC. I was fortunate to be able to photograph these stele at the Zeugma Archeological Museum during my 2014 tour of the area.

Following the dexiosis representation that was common throughout the Commagene Kingdom, these stele, such as those pictured here, with the Sun God (pictured at top) or Hercules (picture above and below) shaking hands with the ruler of the Kingdom of Commagene, elevating the status of the ruler to being a god himself.

The stele pictured above at the Zeugma Archeological Museum, and showing Antiochus I Theos shaking hands with Hercules, also includes a lengthy inscription.

Again, as with the monumental stele we saw at the Arsameia site, a long inscription covers the back and sides of the relief, a translation of which is pictured above.

The Commagene Kingdom was ceded to the Roman Republic in 17 CE under then Emperor Tiberius, but was then given back its independence by Emperor Caligula, who subsequently took it back again. However, the kingdom again gained its independence under Emperor Claudius, which lasted until 72 CE, when Emperor Vespasian made the kingdom a permanent part of the Roman Empire.

This land has throughout history been very productive and sought after, and it is thought that Sofraz may have been a religious center of the Commagene Kingdom, perhaps this is the site of the ancient settlement of Cesum, as discussed in the post on Tumulus A. The Sofraz Tumuli in particular fall into this timeline in the 2C CE during the Roman Period.

Sofraz Tumulus B is located about 700 meter south of Tumulus A along a dirt path that skirts the edge of the farm fields. Excavations on these tumuli began in 1993, and while Tumulus A is guarded by security, Tumulus B is simply unlocked and left open during the day.

A long descending staircase takes us down to the dromos or passage door opening. The design of Tumulus B, with its staircase, exposes the tomb below to water inundation, unlike the Tumulus A, which encorperated a shaft that dropped from an elevated platform.

A shaft entrance may have originally been constructed and used to access the tomb, but I don't see evidence for that now. Six small niches for child sarcophagi are cut into the rock walls on either side of the staircase (pictured above and below).

These niches may have been constructed for family members of the royal Commagene family, or, could have been repurposed by later generations of local families. Tombs were often reused by later generations.

Regardless of who was last to use the tomb for the internment of relatives, these tombs were most likely intended to serve a ruling class, or, at least a family or group belonging to the ruling cultural elite.

Upon entering the tomb, we are greeted with a central room, with three large rooms sculpted from the rock in the Roman style of decor, which are accessed from the central room.

If you view for example, a Lycian tomb, or Phrygian tomb, that has been sculpted from rock, you will see a vast difference in decorative style from this Roman tomb. Again, as with Tumulus A, Tumulus B dates from the 2C CE of the Roman Period.

We do not know exactly who was interred in the tombs, nor the exact dates of the internments, because no grave items were to be found during excavations, as the tombs had already been robbed of their possessions.

As we can see from these photos, the sarcophagi of Tumulus B have been smashed open, robbed, and left for archeological teams to guesstimate at their contents.

It would appear that both Tumulus A and Tumulus B were originally constructed with finely cut stone blocks in their original design and, built with architectural skill, then covered with crushed rock (and soil?). However, as you can see in the photo above, at a later date (probably later), additional rooms were carved out of the rock (not constructed from large blocks), while the original room of Tumulus B was indeed constructed with large blocks (pictured below).

Pictured above and below, the stone block structure and vaulted roof can be seen in what I am referring to as the original room of Tumulus B.

Unlike Tumulus A, Tumulus B appears to have been expanded later by carving rooms out of the rock. These expansions (pictured below) emulated the barrel roof and support wall style, but were obviously of a much lesser refinement.

What this says about those interred, I can't really say, however, we can conclude that a lot of effort went into the construction of Tumulus B, and that the tomb was expanded for family members at a later date, or, the tomb may have been taken over at a later date, and then expanded, or, Tumulus B was built utilizing both techniques in its original construction.

The sarcophagi in Tumulus B lack the through holes in their lids like those we see on the lids of the sarcophagi of Tumulus A. I imagine that the Tumulus B sarcophagi boxes and lids were slid down the entrance staircase instead of being lowered down a shaft.

As you can see in these photos, the lids of the Tumulus B sarcophagi have been broken into, and the entirety of their contents have been robbed.

There are so many tumulus mounds in and around Turkey, that one could spend a lifetime just visiting and exploring these tombs. I will share more of my experiences of visits to tumuli in future posts.