The Karakuş Tumulus (also Karakush) is a funerary monument—a

hierothesion A hierothesion (Ancient Greek ἱεροθέσιον 'holy seat'), in Commagene, is a monument or royal mausoleum. The term is used in particular in connection with three monuments: * The Arsameia hierothesion for King Mithridates I Callinicus, b ...

—for Queen

Isias Antiochus I Theos Dikaios Epiphanes Philorhomaios Philhellen ( grc, Ἀντίοχος ὁ Θεὸς Δίκαιος Ἐπιφανὴς Φιλορωμαῖος Φιλέλλην, meaning "Antiochos, the just, eminent god, friend of Romans and friend ...

and Princesses

Antiochis The name Antiochis ( grc, Ἀντιoχίς) is the female name of Antiochus. Women Seleucid Princesses & Hellenistic Queen Consorts *Antiochis, a daughter of Achaeus and granddaughter of Seleucus I Nicator. She married Attalus and became the moth ...

and Aka I of

Commagene Commagene ( grc-gre, Κομμαγηνή) was an ancient Greco-Iranian kingdom ruled by a Hellenized branch of the Iranian Orontid dynasty that had ruled over Armenia. The kingdom was located in and around the ancient city of Samosata, which s ...

, built by Mithridates II of Commagene in 30–20 BCE, near the modern village of Çukurtaş in

Kâhta District Kâhta District is a Districts of Turkey, district of Adıyaman Province of Turkey. Its seat is the town Kâhta.Adıyaman Province Adıyaman Province ( tr, , ku, ) is a province in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. The capital is Adıyaman. The province is considered part of Turkish Kurdistan and has a Kurdish majority. Adıyaman Province was part of the pro ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

. ''Karakuş'' means "black bird". The monument received this name because there is a column topped by an eagle. It is located from

Kâhta Kâhta ( ku, Kolîk, Ottoman Turkish: کولک / ''Kölük'') is a city in Adıyaman Province of Turkey. It is the seat of Kâhta District.Doric column The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of c ...

s, each about high. The columns are topped with steles, reliefs and statues of a bull, lion and eagle. An inscription indicates the presence of a royal tomb that housed three women. The monument has Greek honorific inscriptions on the external faces of the two drums of the central column of the northeast. Skipping a couple of phrases where restoration has been doubtful, the inscription reads:

This is the hierothesion acred site or foundationof Isias, whom the great King Mithridates (she being his own mother) … deemed worthy of this final hour. And … Antiochis lies herein, the king’s sister by the same mother, the most beautiful of women, whose life was short but her honours long-enduring. Both of these, as you see, preside here, and with them a daughter’s daughter, the daughter of Antiochis, Aka. A memorial of life with each other and of the king’s honour.

Sometime after the Kingdom of Commagene was annexed in 72 CE by the Roman emperor

Vespasian Vespasian (; la, Vespasianus ; 17 November AD 9 – 23/24 June 79) was a Roman emperor who reigned from AD 69 to 79. The fourth and last emperor who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty that ruled the Empi ...

, the vault of the tomb was looted. The main excavations on the site were carried out by

Friedrich Karl Dörner Friedrich Karl Dörner (born 28 February 1911 in Gelsenkirchen; died 10 March 1992) was a German classics, epigrapher and Classical Archeologist. Born in 1911 as son of the mining office Karl Dörner and his wife Klara in Gelsenkirchen, he studie ...

of the

University of Münster The University of Münster (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of stud ...

Notes

Bibliography

* T.A. Sinclair, ''Eastern Turkey: An Architectural & Archaeological Survey'' 4''
59
*

External links

Columns of Karakus Tümülüs - Çukurtas Köyü (Adiyaman Province, East Turkey)
{{coord, 37.8694, 38.5880, format=dms, type:landmark_region:TR, display=title Commagene Mausoleums in Turkey Buildings and structures completed in the 1st century BC Buildings and structures in Adıyaman Province Buildings damaged by the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake