Metropolis (Anatolia)

Metropolis in Ionia was a city in the ancient region of Ionia. It is situated on a mountain near Özbey district Torbalı in the province of Izmir in western Turkey.

38.12527.3225Koordinaten: 38 ° 7 ' 30 " N, 27 ° 19' 21" E

Name

The name of the place (old Greek Μητρόπολις of μήτηρ for mother and πόλις for city, other names Ματρόπολις, Μητρόπολις ἡ Εφέσια, Μητρόπολις ἔν Ἰωνία ) refers to a mother goddess, Galessia meters. In a cave nearby, with a place of worship for the Anatolian fertility goddess was found. The name of the nearby Turkish city Torbalı is a Turkish forming Metropolis.

History

Finds of pottery shards, stone axes and obsidian fragments indicate that the place was already in the Early Bronze Age populated ( third millennium BC). Found on the Acropolis geometric and archaic pottery could be dated to the period 725-500 BC. The archaeologist Recep Meric concludes on a city founded around 725 BC In this period, the findings limited to the area of the Acropolis. From the fourth and third century BC lacks any finds.

In the Hellenistic period in the third century BC Chr.hatte the city flourished. It began an enhanced urban development, which can be seen through the construction of city walls and fortifications. It began with the construction of Arestempels on the Acropolis and other monumental buildings, the Stoa, the Buleuterions and theater on the mountain slopes.

In Roman times, altars were erected with reliefs in honor of the Emperor Augustus and his great- nephew Germanicus in the theater. On the northern slope, a bathroom and a gymnasium were built. A nationwide festival called Sebaste, Caesarea was established. The earthquake of AD 17 has at least the Stoa affected.

In the Byzantine period, a new fortress between Acropolis and Stoa was built around the 14th century. Soon after the conquest by the Ottomans in the 15th century, the city was abandoned, the inhabitants moved to Torbalı.

Research

The city was explored by Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi of Izmir since 1989 by Recep Meric. Since 2007, the management of the excavations in collaboration with the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, where Håkon Ingvalsden edited the coin finds from the Trakya Üniversitesi Serdar Aybek Edirne.