Listed 4 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "KERAMOS Ancient city TURKEY".
City in Caria, on the Ceramic Gulf about 40 km S-SE of Milas. It appears
to be Carian in origin; no Greek settlement is recorded, but archaic statuary
of Greek type has been found on the site. Keramos paid a tribute of 9000 dr. in
the Delian Confederacy, and was later an important member of the Chrysaoric League
(Strab. 660). From 189 to 167 B.C. it was under the domination of Rhodes, and
shortly afterwards, in difficulties in its relations with a neighbor, probably
Stratonikeia, appealed to Rhodes for an alliance. By the first century she had
fallen under the control of Stratonikeia. The chief deity of Keramos was Zeus
Chrysaoreus, who appears on some coins together with a young god, apparently a
local deity.
The site is partially occupied by the modern village, and the ruins
have been much despoiled. The city wall, enclosing an extensive area, followed
the hills to the N and E and took in much of the flat ground on the S. The masonry
is for the most part polygonal, in some places with an upper part in squared blocks,
little of which now remains. The numerous gates are mostly arched. The best-preserved
stretch is high up on the mountain to the E. The wall as a whole appears to be
of Hellenistic date.
The earliest remains have been found at a spot called Bakicak, on
a low hill: a platform supported by an ashlar wall carries the foundations of
a temple, probably that of Zeus Chrysaoreus. Nothing remains of the temple itself
except three large blocks scattered on the hillside, but a block with a relief
of a double axe was found nearby, and at Bakicak itself a handsome marble head
of archaic date and kouros type was uncovered. It has been thought that this head
may represent the youthful deity who appears with Zeus on the coins. Below the
platform on the W is a complex of terrace walls joined by crosswalls, and a row
of six large niches.
Outside the city on the E was a second temple, now known as Kursunlu
Yapi, which stood on a platform with a supporting wall 6 m high surmounted by
a cornice; only a few steps can be made out. The supporting wall still stands,
in handsome masonry, but the cornice has been recently destroyed. Architectural
members of the temple, in the Corinthian order, are strewn about, and two clipeae
rotundae, with their inscriptions, can still be seen.
The tombs at Keramos were placed, in the usual fashion, beside the
roads leading to the gates; a number of sarcophagi and several so-called Carian
tombs are still in evidence.
G. E. Bean, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
A Dorian seaport town on the north side of the Cnidian Chersonesus, on the coast of Caria, from which the Ceramic Gulf took its name.
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