In Turkey, a French mission discovers a Persian enclosure in a Hittite fortress
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ARCHEOLOGY – A fortification from the Achaemenid era was unearthed this summer at the site of the ancient citadel of Porsuk. Damaged at the beginning of the Ier century, it also bears witness to resistance to the Roman Empire.
The Hittites had been right. Built in the heights of the Taurus Mountains, in southern Turkey, Porsuk Citadel was built around 1650 BC. J.-C. with an idea in mind: to create a lock on the way to the gates of Cilicia. The road still governs, yesterday as today, one of the major accesses to the center of Anatolia. The Hittite civilization understood this, like the Neo-Hittites or of the Romans. And Persians too. This is the discovery this summer of Turkish and French archaeologists in charge since 2017 of the excavation of the site.
A limestone wall has been uncovered in recent weeks at the archaeological site of the fort, located some 1,300 meters above sea level, near the village of Porsuk – Zeyve Höyük (Niğde prefecture). The exhumation of such a construction could no longer be surprising on the site of an ancient four-hectare fortress, where brick towers, thick curtain walls and discreet posterns intertwine. And yet. This enclosure dates from the Achaemenid period, named after the dynasty that reigned in Persia between the VIe and the IVe century before our era. A unique find in Porsuk.
“The discovery of a Persian rampart in Anatolia is exceptional because there are few known examples, apart from the sites of Gordion and Daskyleion”explain to Figaro archaeologist Claire Barat, lecturer at the Polytechnic University Hauts-de-France (Valenciennes) and director of the Porsuk excavation for the French Institute of Anatolian Studies.
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To the great surprise of French, Turkish, Italian and American researchers, this section of Achaemenid fortification, five meters wide, had been built on the model of the ramparts of Persepolis. And on the remains of previous defensive structures. It is difficult for the discerning eye of orientalists to confuse the Iron Age ramparts, erected in mud brick by the Hittites, with the compacted limestone favored by the Achaemenids! “The Persians cut away part of the Hittite ramparts to build their own fortifications, of a more compact size but more robust, with a plating”notes Claire Barat.
There is reason for scholarly satisfaction to be found in this agglutination of stones: the excavation of this Achaemenid enclosure has provided researchers with crucial historical data on a hitherto little known period of Porsuk. The stronghold had thus been invested from 546 BC. J.-C. and restored by the Persian forces, and not simply taken back as it was from the Neo-Hittites. More importantly, archaeologists have found traces of heavy fighting on these consolidated fortifications. The assault, however, dated from even more recent times.
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Roman peace by force
“We realized that these Achaemenid walls were attacked and then restored in Roman timessays Claire Barat. Traces of fire were discovered inside the fortification and typical Roman mortar was used to restore the enclosure.These details are important, notes the archaeologist: “Until last year, we thought Porsuk’s entry into the Roman world was peaceful.“. But it was nothing.
What had happened then, at the beginning of the Ier century AD, in the Taurus Mountains? Let’s go back in time. Placed in the Persian era under the aegis of a satrap, this region of Anatolia had kept its political organization following the conquest of Alexander the Great and the emergence, after his death in 323 BC. J.-C., of a new Hellenistic kingdom. But this Macedonian empire, which included – at its maximum extent – Anatolia, Syria and Mesopotamia is wide, too wide to administer.
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An indigenous kingdom of Cappadocia then wrested its autonomy and defended it for nearly three centuries until its annexation within the Roman Empire, at the beginning of the reign of Tiberius. “The written sources do not expand on the annexation of this kingdom, so we have always assumed that its integration was not a problem, explains Claire Barat. However, the attack and then the repair of the fortifications of Porsuk indicate that there was at least a form of local resistance, perhaps that of a potentate established in Porsuk.
The Cappadocians had not quite allowed themselves to be quietly annexed by the formidable empire that had emerged from Italy. Installed by arms, the Pax Romana takes his ease and sees houses springing up at the foot of the old foothills. Part of the newly discovered remains will be the subject of a restoration campaign starting next year.
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