Pepuza

Pepouza (Greek Πέπουζα, also Pepuza ) was a city in Phrygia, Asia Minor; south of the present Usak in western Turkey, which was declared by the Christian prophetic movement of the Montanists to the " New Jerusalem " in the 2nd century. In Pepouza should according to the expectations of the Montanists, a new city, a new Jerusalem emerge on the earth in accordance with a Vision of the New Testament book of Revelation, chapters 21 and 22 at the end of the Apocalypse.

Location

The ruins of the city Pepouza are located on the territory of the village Karayakuplu, 16 km from Karahalli, Province Usak removed; in the valley of the river Banaz, west of Cilandras Bridge.

History

In Pepouza founded in the middle of the 2nd century AD, Montanus the Montanist movement. He claimed to be the eschatological Paraclete. Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis, reported in his Panarion that Pepouza after the death of the founding prophet Montanus, Priscilla and Maximilla became a place of pilgrimage for Montanists that " there in the secret rites introduced " were. In Pepouza there were hostels for pilgrims, churches and a monastery, it was the headquarters of a popular movement throughout the Roman Empire. Around 550 Pepouza was destroyed on the orders of the Roman emperor Justinian I..

History of Research

Since the 19th century, scholars tried to identify Pepouza. Between 1883 and 1931 trying to find the traces of the city of the Montanists, the British epigraphists William Ramsay.

In July 2000, an international research team, with the participation of the American Montanismusexperten William Tabbernee from Tulsa and early Christianity historian Peter Lampe of the Ruprecht -Karls- University of Heidelberg in the district of the Turkish village Karayakuplu discovered a previously unknown Roman town settlement, which so far in due to a variety of evidence the history of research most promising candidate for an identification with Pepouza is. The indications are, for example, sources such as the enriched geographical indications Reiseitinerar Synekdemos of Hierocles or council files that occupy a Byzantine monastery in Pepouza, refer to. Among the newly discovered townsite has a rock monastery, which is unparalleled in the radius of 100 km.

Settlement Archaeological Surveys under the direction of Peter Lampe services since 2001, evidence of continuous, intensive settlement since the Hellenistic period. Pottery shards, coins, architectural fragments, a necropolis and the remains of that infrastructure, two Roman roads and a bridge, and two marble quarries were formerly with several thousand inhabitants found as evidence for the existence of a city.

In addition, was found near a lying at Karayakuplu village an inscription on the Roman emperor Septimius Severus the inhabitants of the village Tymion who complained as farmers on unlawful charges and oppressions of passing travelers, magistrates and imperial slaves told, that he by his procurator would support. Tymion was next to the central site Pepouza one of the main places of Montanism, which was the ancient sources, near Pepouza. The stele with the favorable imperial rescript was erected in the early 3rd century, close to the village on the road to deter future oppressors. For a subsequent deportation of the inscription on the locality there is no evidence. In this way, the village area of Şükranje, which shows clear traces of a Roman settlement, make a settlement area of the ancient Tymion probably did. Şükranje is only about 10 km away from the amount made ​​as Pepouza urban area in Karayakuplu.