STATUE OF HERACLES ~ SELEUCIA ON TIGRIS IRAQ

A statue representing Herakles (Hercules), made of bronze found in Seleucia in southern Baghdad, Iraq. The statue dates back to the Hellenistic period (321-139 BCE).

In the spring of 1984 the Iraq Museum acquired this inscribed bronze copy of Lysippos'"Weary Herakles," which had recently been found by chance in the ruins of Seleucia. On the right thigh there is a complete Greek inscription recording Vologeses IV's removal of the statue from Mesene  to the temple of Apollo in Seleucia.The left thigh has a damaged inscription in Parthian providing the same information, with some minor variations.

Greek and Parthian script, lower part of the bronze statuette of Hercules.

SELEUCIA-ON-THE -TIGRIS, IRAQ

 In Iraq, 29 kilometers south of modern Baghdad, lies the site of Seleucia-on-the-Tigris, which rose, flourished, and dwindled away between 307 BCE and 215 CE. Its inception was part of the Hellenizing of the Middle East, the ultimate result of Alexander the Great's campaigns. In the second and third centuries BCE, it was one of the great Hellenistic capitals, comparable to Alexandria in Egypt and greater than Antioch in northern Syria. Lying at the confluence of the Tigris River and a major canal from the Euphrates, Seleucia was in a position to receive traffic from both great waterways. As a vital trading center, the city presided over the exchange of goods from Central Asia, India, Persia, and Africa.

The economic significance of this region, the juncture of the Iranian Plateau with the two rivers of Mesopotamia, had been fully realized and exploited in the millennia prior to the existence of Seleucia. It was in search of one of its predecessors, Opis, that excavations at Seleucia were undertaken by Professor Leroy Waterman of the University of Michigan. In a survey of Babylonian topography, Professor Waterman's attention was drawn to two mounds on the west bank of the Tigris across the river from Ctesiphon. One of these mounds lay one mile northwest of the river, and its great size suggested that it was the site of an important city and that, at one time, the river had flowed beside it. Professor Waterman's hypothesis was confirmed by aerial photographs taken by the Royal Air Force stationed in Baghdad.

Believing that the site he was searching for, Opis, lay beneath the mound identified as Seleucia, Waterman began excavations December 29, 1927, and continued (interrupted at times by the Depression) for six seasons until 1937. Under the auspices of the University of Michigan, the excavations were carried out on behalf of the American School of Oriental Research of Baghdad with funds supplied by the Toledo Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art. The first five seasons (1927–1932) were under the directorship of Professor Waterman, and in the final, sixth season, Professor Clark Hopkins, also from the University of Michigan, acted as General Director. (The University of Michigan excavations, incidentally, did not find Opis below Seleucia.)

Seleucia was founded by Seleucus Nicator, a general of Alexander the Great who, after the death of Alexander in 323 BCE, secured for himself the Middle East from the Mediterranean to India. He located his new Hellenistic city on the Tigris, and it became the eastern capital of the Seleucid Empire. In 141 BCE, the Parthians under Mithridates conquered the city, and Seleucia became the western capital of the Parthian Empire. In subsequent centuries, the ruins were buried under mounds of desert sand.

In the preliminary excavation of the site, archaeologists uncovered three levels of occupation (later expanded to four) and over a thousand objects, plus signs of older Babylonian occupation. At the same time, air photos and air maps of the regions—in one of the earliest applications of aerial photography to archaeology—confirmed the rectangular pattern of streets indicating a major city. After verifying the site as Seleucia, Waterman and his expedition began extensive excavations.

By the 1929–30 season, the team had cleared a block of houses from Level I (115–227 CE) and a more elaborate building, dedicated to Seleucus as founder of the empire. It contained twenty-one rooms around three sides of a quadrangular court. Waterman's Second Preliminary Report (1928–32) describes the excavation of the same block through three distinct levels of occupation, those being: A) The Parthian occupation level, known as Level II (43–116 CE), B) Level III (141 BCE–43 CE) during which the Hellenistic city was autonomous under Parthian rule, and C) Level IV (307–141 BCE), in which the city was a Seleucid capital.

In the course of these excavations archaeologists recovered over 3,500 objects. These included inscriptional material such as a cuneiform tablet, fragments of Greek inscriptions, stamped and inscribed objects, Parthian and Seleucid coins, and over 259 bitumen seal impressions or "bullae." Figurines, pottery, and other objects of everyday use were also recovered in abundance. While most of these objects could be dated between 290 BCE and 200 CE, the 1932 excavation of Tel Umar, the most prominent mound at Seleucia, brought to light in an outer wall of the Parthian period a reused brick dated by stamp to 821 BCE, during the Neo-Babylonian period. Since archaeological materials abounded, it was possible to reconstruct private life, the business, and the arts and crafts of the ancient city. Of preponderant interest to scholars, however, was Seleucia's role as a zone of cultural mediation and exchange between East and West.

In the Middle East, the birthplace of so many forces still active in current affairs, the lack of knowledge of the Parthian and of the Sassanian periods had long blocked attempts to reconstruct a continuous history for the region. Discoveries at Seleucia have done much to illuminate these regional "Dark Ages." In studying the history of Middle Eastern architecture during the centuries after Alexander's conquest, for example, art historians turn to Seleucia-on-the-Tigris, since for generations it remained the most important center of post-Alexandrian Greek civilization in the Middle East. Its architecture, according to Dr. Waterman, represents a "missing link" between Hellenistic and Sassanian styles that shows the results of blending Greek with Eastern elements.

Decorative Art

One type of object that is highly illustrative of such cultural blending is the Seleucid decorative stucco. In Seleucia, decorative plaster was employed in and about courtyards, important rooms, and building entrances, and was, in fact, one of the most common decorative materials. In terms of the style of such stucco, while some motifs at Seleucia clearly derive from Graeco-Roman designs common to the Middle East, other motifs show the strong influence of Eastern design. The four- or six-petalled circle rosette cut into a flat surface, for example, indicates Parthian influence. The deep overall repeat of the rosette pattern was particularly adaptable to plaster and was, by Parthians, translated into the stucco grillwork now so commonly associated with the Middle East. While the presence of Hellenistic motifs in shallow relief might suggest a Western origin, scholars agree, on the basis of excavation of Seleucia, that the use of decorative stucco in designs of light and shadow probably entered Mesopotamia with the Parthians, who early adapted it to the traditional Hellenistic house plans and decorative themes.

The Art of Pottery as  a Means to Uncover the Ancient Past 

Of incomparable value to the historian of the Middle East has been the research conducted on the pottery of Seleucia. The Kelsey Museum has the largest collection of Parthian ceramics outside Iraq. Parthian Pottery from Seleucia on the Tigris, by Nelson C. Debevoise, treats the nearly 1,600 Seleucian vessels that remained intact or sufficiently complete to provide a drawing shape. Debevoise records the history of Parthian ceramics in a city that was for two centuries the cultural center of Hellenistic life in "the land of the two rivers." Second only to coins as dating material, the products of the potter's wheel provide one of the best chronological scales for archaeologists. Owing to the very nature of the material, however, pottery seldom remains intact and rarely bears a date. Archaeologists must therefore depend on catalogues of comparative material, none of which existed in the field of Parthian ceramics before the University's expedition to Seleucia.

To devise a satisfactory system of chronology for dating the pottery, Debevoise first reviewed the coins (see Coins from Seleucia-on-the-Tigris, by Robert H. McDowell), some 30,000 of which were found at Seleucia, half with a definite provenance. Since these were datable and occurred with pottery at all levels, they provided a fairly accurate chronological index for the Parthian period. Debevoise also referred to McDowell's research on dated clay seals pertaining to taxes, salt, and slaves in order to obtain further points of chronological reference vis-à-vis the Parthian pottery. Once the chronology of the ceramics was established, it was possible to deduce other information. Research revealed that Seleucian pottery was made from local clay on a true potter's wheel, with a few pot covers and certain irregular shapes that were made by hand being the exception. When completed, the pot was removed with a piece of string from the wheel and was set aside to dry before firing. Some very thin ware was reworked before firing, and handles were stuck on after drying had progressed to a certain point. Kilns were probably fired with bundles of camel thorn, a bush that still grows in the region. In manufacture, great care in technique is apparent from the earliest levels excavated. Seleucia reached the peak of its prosperity under the Hellenistic Greeks and this economic wealth was reflected in careful workmanship. With the growth in political and economic importance of the Parthian city of Ctesiphon across the river, Seleucia probably suffered a slow decline, reflected in the increasing carelessness of manufacture and glazing and even in a decline in the amount of pottery in use. Similarly, changes in shape of cooking pots and storage jars are easily observable at different levels of excavation. The greater part of the pottery from Seleucia was discovered where the inhabitants left it, discarded and broken; only a small percent was taken from graves.

The tombs of the dead of Seleucia were in the abodes of the living. Samuel Yeivin's research showed that some bodies were disposed of in walls or under floors without protection of any sort, but the great majority were covered by some kind of superstructure or placed in pottery coffins or jars or, for children and infants, in ordinary cooking pots. The inferior materials, workmanship, and cheap, drab appearance of the pottery coffins throughout the uppermost level corroborate other evidence that this was a period of great economic and cultural decline. Some cultural change in the burials between levels II and III is evident: otherwise, mortuary customs appeared relatively consistent, reflecting the belief that the dead would require the pottery, glassware, jewelry, and other articles of daily use in the afterlife and that a coin, usually placed in the palm or on the mouth, would be necessary to pay the captain of the ferry to the underworld. Close examination of burial practices has led to a somewhat more detailed understanding of the history of the ancient city.

History as Seen From the Sky

Further knowledge of how the people of Seleucia lived and how their city was arranged came from an unexpected source. In "A Birds-Eye View of Opis and Seleucia," Clark Hopkins used the aerial photographs of Seleucia as an aid in interpreting the overall topographical arrangement of the city and the conduct of its business and trade. The photographs suggest where the old bed of the Tigris touched the city, where the docks were, and where the canal from the Euphrates may have connected the city to traffic on that river. "Not only do the carefully formed streets form a regular network," writes Hopkins, "but the whole city exhibits a balanced plan of a master architect." Excavation has disclosed very little change in the general aspect of the city in the course of its history. Despite varying styles in arts, crafts, and architecture, and despite the city's many vicissitudes, the general Hellenistic plan as reproduced by aerial photography has remained intact. Further definitive information on the city can be found in The Topography and Architecture of Seleucia on the Tigris, edited by Clark Hopkins. It includes sections on "The Architectural Decoration," by Bernard Goldman, and "The History of Seleucia from Classical Sources," by Robert G. McDowell.

Source : KELSEY MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGY 

https://lsa.umich.edu/kelsey/research/past-field-projects/seleucia-tigris-iraq-1927-32-1936-37.html

LIST OF THE ANCIENT CITIES CALLED 'ALEXANDRIA '

In a span of just 13 years, from 336 BCE to 323 BCE, Alexander the Great pushed the boundaries of his Macedonian Kingdom as far south as Egypt and as far east as India. Along with conquering region after region, people after people, he founded a series of cities which he named for himself.  These cities would generally serve as places to settle the many thousands of veteran soldiers who had followed him across the Middle East and into South Asia.  Many of these Alexandrias persist today: some with different names; some retaining versions of their original name.  Other Alexandrias have long since passed, and still others have been lost to history.  According to the great biographer/philosopher Plutarch, Alexander founded at least 70 cities, although this number probably include pre-existing settlements renamed and/or repopulated by Alexander.   The actual number of cities directly founded by Alexander regardless is known to be at least twenty, and most of those took his name. Below, a summary of the various Alexandrias (and other such derivative toponyms) in chronological order.

Alexandroupolis

Founded in 340 BCE, while Alexander was still a crown prince under his father Philip II. Little else is known about this presumably short-lived settlement other than its location was likely near the modern Bulgarian city of Sandanski in the extreme southwest of the country.

Alexandria Troas

 Originally founded in 334 BCE, this city on the east Aegean coast did not receive the name 'Alexandria' until 301 BCE, after being renamed by Lysimachus, Alexander’s successor in the region.  The suffix ‘Troas’ refers to the Troad, the historical name of the Biga Peninsula in Turkey at the southwest end of the Sea of Marmara, not far from Troy. A prominent city in its time- its population reached possibly 100,000 people- Alexandria Troas was refounded as a major Roman administration centre in 12 BCE and was even a possible candidate for becoming the new capital of the Roman Empire under Constantine (he, of course, would choose Byzantium).  The city remains a titular see of the Catholic Church but fell into decline in the medieval era.  Much of the city’s ruins were plundered for building material.  Among the ruins still visible there today are an old bath/gymnasium complex and an ancient stadium discovered in the 1970s but not unearthed until 2009.

Alexandria by the Latmus: This is likely the ancient fortress city of Alinda, in the modern-day Aydın Province of Turkey, which dated back hundreds of years before Alexander. Apparently refounded as a military settlement in 333 BCE, the city was returned to its previous name sometime before 81 BCE.  Coins were still being minted here into the 3rd century CE. 

Alexandria ad Issum/Alexandretta

Now known by its Turkish endonym İskenderun -although the modern city may just preserve the name of the ancient city rather than being a direct continuation-the city was founded on the Mediterranean coast in 333 BCE at the north entrance to Syria.  Alexandretta prospered until the 3rd century CE, when it was surpassed by neighbouring Antioch (Antakya).

Alexandria, Egypt:

 Easily the most famous of all Alexandrias and one that remains a major metropolis today of well over 4 million people, Alexandria, Egypt was founded in 331 BCE by Alexander to be the new centre of Hellenism in Egypt.

 The new city was built on the site of the pre-existing city of Rhacotis; within a century, it was the largest city in the world.  Despite the various rulers that have come and gone throughout the millennia (the Ptolemies, the Romans, the Sassanids, the Ottomans, the British, and the current republic of Egypt), Alexandria has maintained its prominence as the second city of Egypt after Cairo.

Alexandria Ariana

The first of many Alexandrias in the far east of the Macedonian Empire, this Alexandria is better known today as Herat, the main city of western Afghanistan. Prior to Alexander’s conquering of the region in 330 BCΕ, this city was very likely Artacoana, the capital of Aria.

Conquered by the Parthians in 167 CE, the name Heratwas derived over time from Aria.

Alexandria Prophthasia: Modern-day Farah, Afghanistan.  

Prophthasia was the capital of the Drangiana satrap of the Achaemenid Empire.  The ‘Alexandria’ prefix was added to the city’s name when Alexander came through in October of 330 BCE.  The name Phra for the city was first recorded in the 1st century CE.

Alexandria Arachosia

This is Kandahar, the second-largest city in Afghanistan.   Prior to Alexander’s arrival at the end of 330 BCE, this was likely the Achaemenid city of Kapisakaniš. Arachosia was another satrap roughly equivalent to today’s Kandahar and Helmand provinces.  The name ‘Kandahar’ itself derives from ‘Alexandria’ (Iskandariya).  Despite its location near the edge of the empire, the city remained culturally Greek for some time after Alexander’s death.  Today, Kandahar is known primarily as one of the major battlegrounds of the War in Afghanistan.

Alexandria Caucasiana

Not to be confused with the Caucasus region on the Europe/Asia border, Caucasus Indicus was an ancient exonym for the Hindu Kush.  This Alexandria was a 329 BCE refounding of the Achaemenid city of Kapisa to serve as Alexander’s base in the Hindu Kush (the location is 65 km north of modern Kabul).  The city would eventually be traded to the Indian king Chandragupta Maurya in 303 BCE by Alexander’s successors in exchange for 500 elephants.

Alexandria Eschate

‘Eschate’ translates to ‘farthest’, signifying this city’s position on the Jaxartes (Syr Darya) river that marked the northern edge of Alexander’s empire (reached in 329 BCE) where his troops would do battle against the Scythian tribes to the north and the Sogdian peoples that surrounded them.  Formerly the site of Cyropolis, the northeasternmost city of the Persian Empire of Cyrus the Great, Alexandria Eschate lay at the western end of the Fergana Valley, making it a major location on the Silk Road trading route connecting Europe and Asia.  Today, the city is called Khujand, the second-largest city and northernmost major city of Tajikistan.

Alexandria Oxiana

Moving to the south across the region of Sogdiana, Alexander refounded a Persian city on the Oxus (Amu Darya) river in 329 BCE.  For two centuries the city served as an outpost of Greek culture until its sacking by nomadic tribes in 145 BCE lead to its abandonment.  Today, it is known under the Uzbek name Ai-Khanoum (‘lady moon’ or ‘face in the moon’) on the Afghan side of the Oxus across from Tajikistan.  Between 1964 and 1978, Ai-Khanoum was excavated by French archaeologists, uncovering large amounts of Greek and Indian artefacts, as well as the ruins of a 5,000-seat theatre, numerous temples, and colonnaded courts.  Sadly, three-plus decades of warfare have devastated the archaeological site.

The ruins of Alexandria on the Oxus.

Alexandria Margiana

This city on the Murghab River in the middle of the Karakum Desert is most famous as the major Silk Road port of Merv/Marv and is the site of where the current city of Mary was developed in 1884, as a Russian military post after Russia’s conquering of the Emirate of Bukhara.  Later it would become a major centre of Turkmenistan’s cotton and natural gas industries.  Human settlement on this site dates back to prehistoric times and is mentioned in ancient Persian texts as Mouru and Margu.

  Whether or not it was Alexander himself who refounded the city in 328/327 BCE or his general Craterus, the city was temporarily renamed for him regardless.  A major cultural and religious crossroads, Merv is reputed to have been the largest city in the world in the mid-12th century with a population of 200,000, about twice that of modern-day Mary.  The only time the site was not settled occurred in the 19th century after the Bukharans razed Merv in 1794, deported the population, and environmentally wasted the city via dam breakages.

Alexandria Bucephalus

Founded in 326 BCE on the Hydaspes (Jhelum River) and named for Alexander’s beloved horse Bucephalus.  This site was located somewhere in the Punjab, perhaps near the modern Pakistani city of Jhelum.  The large dockyards described indicate that it was intended as a centre of commerce.  The city was renowned enough to appear eight centuries later as one of the easternmost places listed on the Tabula Peutingeriana.

Alexandria Nicaea

Located across the river from Alexandria Bucephalus and founded at the same time, evidently serving the same function (this is believed to be the modern town of Mong, which would place the city 34 km/21 mi downstream from Jhelum).  Nicaea translates to ‘victory’, as the Hydaspes River was the scene of Alexander’s last great victory in India over the king Porus, in May 326 BCE.  Alexander was impressed enough by Porus’ skill and bravery to let Porus rule in his name upon his departure. 

Alexandria on the Hyphasis

The furthest eastern outpost of the Macedonian Empire, this is ultimately where Alexander would begin his long turn back west after his troops mutinied upon his attempt to invade the kingdom of Magadha, having been pushed too far from home for too long to tolerate any further.  The Hyphasis is today’s Beas River in India’s Punjab state.

Alexandria en Indo Potamo (Alexandria on the Indus): Now heading south along the Indus River, Alexander founded this settlement in 325 BCE at the confluence of the Indus and Chenab River with 10 000 veterans and natives. Under its modern name of Uch Sharif, it would become a major centre of Islamic study and architecture.  The ruins of Alexander’s city are believed to lie underneath Uch’s citadel, much of which was washed away by a change in the course of the Chenab.

Alexandria Rhambacia

 Modern-day Bela, Pakistan near the mouth of the Indus, founded in the autumn of 325 BCE.

Alexandria Carmania

Assuming this was founded by Alexander and not by the later Seleucids, it would have to have been founded at the beginning of 324 BCE in Carmania (analogous to Iran’s Kerman Province).  Equated possibly with the modern locale of Golashkerd near the border with Kerman in Hormozgān.

Alexandria Susiana: 

One of the last cities founded before Alexander’s 323 BCE death upstream in Babylon, Alexander founded this city on an artificial hill above the Tigris River estuary in the spring of 324 BCE atop the older Persian settlement of Durine.  This city would go on to be better known under the name Charax Spasinu or simply Charax, an Ancient Greek reference to its palisaded fort.  Originally a bustling port with its centre located less than 2 km from the mouth of the river, the location is now 150 km (93 mi) from the Persian Gulf thank to the continual deposition of material in the Tigris-Eurphates delta, not far from modern Basra, Iraq.  The site of the old city has been identified but no excavations have taken place.

By K. KuschSource: Brewminate 

ANCIENT GREEK CITIES IN MESOPOTAMIA

 Mesopotamia is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent, in modern days roughly corresponding to most of Iraq, Kuwait, the eastern parts of Syria, Southeastern Turkey, and regions along the Turkish–Syrian and Iran–Iraq borders.

The Sumerians and Akkadians (including Assyrians and Babylonians) dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of written history (c. 3100 BCE) to the fall of Babylon in 539 BCE, when it was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire. It fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BCE, and after his death, it became part of the Greek Seleucid Empire.

The regional toponym Mesopotamia  comes from the ancient Greek root words μέσος (meso) "middle" and ποταμός (potamos) "river" and translates to "(Land) between two/the rivers". It is used throughout the Greek Septuagint (c. 250 BCE) to translate the Hebrew and Aramaic equivalent Naharaim. An even earlier Greek usage of the name Mesopotamia is evident from The Anabasis of Alexander, which was written in the late 2nd century CE, but specifically refers to sources from the time of Alexander the Great. In the Anabasis, Mesopotamia was used to designate the land east of the Euphrates in north Syria.
The map above shows cities in Mesopotamia,  based on Ptolemy's coordinates.

SOURCE: Wikipedia