Sinuri ( grc, Σινυρι) was a sanctuary of the god Sinuri in
ancient Caria
Caria (; from Greek: Καρία, ''Karia''; tr, Karya) was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia (Mycale) south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Ionian and Dorian Greeks colonized the west of it and joined the ...
,
Anatolia
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
. The ruins of Sinuri are located on the hilltop now called Tarla Tepe, close to the modern village of ,
Muğla Province
Muğla Province ( tr, , ) is a province of Turkey, at the country's south-western corner, on the Aegean Sea. Its seat is Muğla, about inland, while some of Turkey's largest holiday resorts, such as Bodrum, Ölüdeniz, Marmaris and Fethiye, are ...
,
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
.
It was an active religious centre for over a thousand years, from the
Archaic period to
late antiquity
Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...
.
The community at Sinuri erected a large number of inscriptions from the 4th to the 1st centuries BCE, and it is one of the most important known find-sites for inscriptions in the
Carian language
The Carian language is an extinct language of the Luwic subgroup of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The Carian language was spoken in Caria, a region of western Anatolia between the ancient regions of Lycia and Lydia, b ...
. Extensive excavations halted in 1937 and organised archaeological activity only resumed in 2022.
History
Sinuri was situated in a mountain pass in central Caria. Although two
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
stone axes show the age of the site, the archaeological evidence only proves that Sinuri experienced sporadic inhabitation as a natural refuge from the
Geometric
Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ca ...
period onwards.
A ''
temenos
A ''temenos'' (Greek: ; plural: , ''temenē''). is a piece of land cut off and assigned as an official domain, especially to kings and chiefs, or a piece of land marked off from common uses and dedicated to a god, such as a sanctuary, holy gro ...
'' wall from the 7th century BCE demonstrates that Sinuri had become was a developed religious space. Regular religious activity would have been conducted in the open, perhaps in a
sacred grove
Sacred groves or sacred woods are groves of trees and have special religious importance within a particular culture. Sacred groves feature in various cultures throughout the world. They were important features of the mythological landscape and ...
, as excavations have found no evidence of
Archaic buildings within the outer ''temenos'' walls.
Sacred groves were common in Archaic Caria, such as at
Labraunda
Labraunda ( grc, Λάβρανδα ''Labranda'' or Λάβραυνδα ''Labraunda'') is an ancient archaeological site five kilometers west of Ortaköy, Muğla Province, Turkey, in the mountains near the coast of Caria. In ancient times, it was h ...
,
Lagina
Lagina ( grc, Λάγινα) or Laginia (Λαγινία) was a town in the territory of Stratonicea, in ancient Caria. It contained an important temple of Hecate, at which every year great festivals were celebrated. Tacitus, when speaking of the ...
, and
Kasossos.
The sanctuary of Sinuri was governed by a 'clan' or 'fraternity' called ''syngeneia'' ( grc, συγγένεια).
Most members of the ''syngeneia'' lived in the nearby village of Hierakome.
The epigraphic evidence shows that the governing ''syngeneia'' was initially that of Pelekos, which was renamed for unknown reasons to the ''syngeneia'' of Ponmoonous or Pormounous in the mid-4th century BCE. Pelekos may have been the historical or mythical founder of the all-male priesthood of Sinuri, as his name begins a list of historical priests inscribed in the 2nd century BCE.
Hecatomnid period
Alongside Labraunda and
Amyzon, Sinuri was one of three rural highland sanctuaries which benefited from extensive patronage by the
Hecatomnids
The Hecatomnid dynasty or Hecatomnids were the rulers of Caria and surrounding areas BCE.
The Hecatomnids were satraps (governors) under the Achaemenid Empire, although they ruled with considerable autonomy, and established a hereditary dynas ...
who ruled Caria as
satraps
A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires.
The satrap served as viceroy to the king, though with con ...
in the 4th century BCE.
The sanctuary was enlarged and rebuilt on
terraces, obscuring the previous Archaic entrance, and a new ''temenos'' wall was built.
An inscription records the dedication of a new
altar
An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paga ...
by
Hecatomnus
Hecatomnus of Mylasa or Hekatomnos ( el, Ἑκατόμνος, Carian: 𐊴𐊭𐊪𐊵𐊫 ''k̂tmno'' “under-son, descendant(?)”) was an early 4th-century BC ruler of Caria. He was the satrap (governor) of Caria for the Persian Achaemenid ...
(r.392–377 BCE) himself.
Inscribed decrees in both Carian and Greek show that
Idrieus
Idrieus, or Hidrieus ( grc, Ἱδριεύς, Hidrieús; died 344 BC) was a ruler of Caria as a Satrap under the Achaemenid Empire. Alongside his sister and wife Ada, he enjoyed the status of king or dynast by virtue of the powerful position he ...
and
Ada
Ada may refer to:
Places
Africa
* Ada Foah, a town in Ghana
* Ada (Ghana parliament constituency)
* Ada, Osun, a town in Nigeria
Asia
* Ada, Urmia, a village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran
* Ada, Karaman, a village in Karaman Province, Tur ...
(r.315–344 BCE) intervened in the governance of the sanctuary.
Hellenistic period
Sinuri remained an important religious centre after the
Macedonian conquest of Asia Minor. In the 290s BCE, Sinuri was governed by the Macedonian
dynast Pleistarchus
Pleistarchus ( grc-gre, Πλείσταρχος ; died c. 458 BC) was the Agiad King of Sparta from 480 to 458 BC.
Biography
Pleistarchus was born as a prince, likely the only son of King Leonidas I and Queen Gorgo. His grandparents were Kings ...
as part of his territory in northern Caria alongside
Heraclea at Latmus and
Hyllarima
Hyllarima ( grc, Ὑλλάριμα, Carian: 𐊤𐊣𐊠𐊪𐊹 ''yλarmi-'') was an inland town of northeastern ancient Caria. Its site is located near Mesevle in Asiatic Turkey. Hyllarima is the find-site of about 30 inscriptions and is the ...
.
An inscribed decree of Pleistarchus' admits an outsider into the governing ''syngeneia'' of Pormounos.
A break in the epigraphic record of Sinuri in the early 3rd century BCE suggests that the site was contested between Pleistarchus and
Ptolemaic Ptolemaic is the adjective formed from the name Ptolemy, and may refer to:
Pertaining to the Ptolemaic dynasty
* Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter
* Ptolemaic Kingdom
Pertaining ...
southern Caria in this time. Alongside
Mylasa
Milas ( grc, Μύλασα, Mylasa) is an ancient city and the seat of the district of the same name in Muğla Province in southwestern Turkey. The city commands a region with an active economy and very rich in history and ancient remains, the ter ...
, it was most likely governed by
Ptolemy II
; egy, Userkanaenre Meryamun Clayton (2006) p. 208
, predecessor = Ptolemy I
, successor = Ptolemy III
, horus = ''ḥwnw-ḳni'Khunuqeni''The brave youth
, nebty = ''wr-pḥtj'Urpekhti''Great of strength
, gol ...
from the start of his reign in 282 BCE.
Sinrui lay on the frontier between the major ''
poleis
''Polis'' (, ; grc-gre, πόλις, ), plural ''poleis'' (, , ), literally means "city" in Greek. In Ancient Greece, it originally referred to an administrative and religious city center, as distinct from the rest of the city. Later, it also ...
'' of Mylasa and
Stratonicea from the time of the latter's foundation by the
Seleucids
The Seleucid Empire (; grc, Βασιλεία τῶν Σελευκιδῶν, ''Basileía tōn Seleukidōn'') was a Greek state in West Asia that existed during the Hellenistic period from 312 BC to 63 BC. The Seleucid Empire was founded by the ...
in the 260s BCE.
Like nearby Kasossos, it was absorbed into the growing ''
polis
''Polis'' (, ; grc-gre, πόλις, ), plural ''poleis'' (, , ), literally means "city" in Greek. In Ancient Greece, it originally referred to an administrative and religious city center, as distinct from the rest of the city. Later, it also ...
'' of Mylasa in the
Hellenistic period
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in 3 ...
. Sinuri remained a prominent sanctuary but the governing ''synegeneia'' of Pormoonous became a constituent part of Mylasa. This process occurred by the time
Olympichos, alternately a client of
Seleucus II
Seleucus II Callinicus Pogon ( el, ; ''Kallinikos'' means "beautifully triumphant"; ''Pogon'' means "the Beard"; July/August 265 BC – December 225 BC),, . was a ruler of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, who reigned from 246 BC to 225 BC. Faced ...
and
Philip V Philip V may refer to:
* Philip V of Macedon (221–179 BC)
* Philip V of France (1293–1322)
* Philip II of Spain, also Philip V, Duke of Burgundy (1526–1598)
* Philip V of Spain
Philip V ( es, Felipe; 19 December 1683 – 9 July 1746) was ...
, ruled Caria from
Alinda
Alinda ( grc, Ἄλινδα) was an inland city and bishopric in ancient Caria, in Asia Minor ( Anatolia). Modern scholars identify Alinda with the Hellenistic foundation of Alexandria ad Latmum (Ἀλεξάνδρεια πρὸς τῷ Λάτμ ...
in the late 3rd century BCE.
Accordingly, the majority of inscriptions from Sinuri record their
eponymous magistrate as being the ''stephanephoros'' of Mylasa.
From the 1st century BCE, priests of Sinuri could belong to other Mylasan ''syngeneiai'' than that of Pormoonous. Priests served for life; while the priesthood may have been hereditary in earlier years, it could probably be bought and sold by the late 1st century BCE.
Caria was contested in the 3rd century between
Antigonid
The Antigonid dynasty (; grc-gre, Ἀντιγονίδαι) was a Hellenistic period, Hellenistic dynasty of Dorians, Dorian Greek provenance, descended from Alexander the Great's general Antigonus I Monophthalmus ("the One-Eyed") that ruled main ...
, Seleucid, Ptolemaic,
Rhodian
Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...
and
Pergamene interests. A fragmentary inscribed letter from
Antiochus III
Antiochus III the Great (; grc-gre, Ἀντίoχoς Μέγας ; c. 2413 July 187 BC) was a Greek Hellenistic king and the 6th ruler of the Seleucid Empire, reigning from 222 to 187 BC. He ruled over the region of Syria and large parts of the res ...
to the community at Sinuri shows that his military campaign of 203 BCE reached Sinuri, although Sinuri received nominal independence from the conquering governor
Zeuxis as part of Mylasa.
Macedonian interests in Caria were ended with the
Treaty of Apamea
The Treaty of Apamea was a peace treaty conducted in 188 BC between the Roman Republic and Antiochus III, ruler of the Seleucid Empire. It ended the Roman–Seleucid War. The treaty took place after Roman victories at the Battle of Thermopylae ( ...
in 188 BCE, confirming Rhodian rule with Roman support. Mylasa recovered its free city status, with tax exemptions, under the Rhodians as previously under the Seleucids; this seemingly encouraged economic activity at the sacred lands of Sinuri.
Roman period
Sinuri remained an important religious centre, still dependent on Mylasa, after being incorporated into
Roman Asia
The Asia ( grc, Ἀσία) was a Roman province covering most of western Anatolia, which was created following the Roman Republic's annexation of the Attalid Kingdom in 133 BC. After the establishment of the Roman Empire by Augustus, it was th ...
. The epigraphic record at Sinuri stops abruptly in the second half of the 1st century BCE. The sanctuary may have been destroyed by
Quintus Labienus
Quintus Labienus Parthicus (died 39 BC) was a Roman general in the Late Republic period. The son of Titus Labienus, he made an alliance with Parthia and invaded the Roman provinces in the eastern Mediterranean which were under the control of Mark ...
when he sacked Mylasa in 40 BCE.
A small
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
basilica from the 5th or 6th centuries CE shows that religious activity continued at Sinuri, albeit on a much smaller scale, even after Christianisation.
The God Sinuri
Caria was home to many mountainous sanctuaries for indigenous gods, such as
Labraunda
Labraunda ( grc, Λάβρανδα ''Labranda'' or Λάβραυνδα ''Labraunda'') is an ancient archaeological site five kilometers west of Ortaköy, Muğla Province, Turkey, in the mountains near the coast of Caria. In ancient times, it was h ...
,
Hyllarima
Hyllarima ( grc, Ὑλλάριμα, Carian: 𐊤𐊣𐊠𐊪𐊹 ''yλarmi-'') was an inland town of northeastern ancient Caria. Its site is located near Mesevle in Asiatic Turkey. Hyllarima is the find-site of about 30 inscriptions and is the ...
, and
Panamara
Panamara ( grc, Πανάμαρα) was a prominent religious centre in ancient Caria. It was the centre of worship for the local god Zeus Panamaros. It was governed by a ''koinon'' (a 'federation' or 'collective') called ''Panamareis'' (Παναμ ...
. By the
Archaic or
Classical periods, when literary and epigraphic evidence first survives from those sanctuaries, their gods had been assimilated with
Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=Genitive case, genitive Aeolic Greek, Boeotian Aeolic and Doric Greek#Laconian, Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=Genitive case, genitive el, Δίας, ''D ...
by
syncretism
Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various school of thought, schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or religious assimilation, assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in t ...
: Zeus Labraundos, Zeus Hyllos, and
Zeus Panamaros respectively.
For unknown reasons, the god Sinuri was not subject to the same process of syncretism. The sanctuary therefore shares its name with its principal deity.
The divine name Sinuri is of unknown origin.
Axel W. Persson initially related it to the
Mesopotamian
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
moon-god
Sin
In a religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered immoral, selfish, s ...
.
Other Mesopotamian connections in Caria are known; the old name of
Aphrodisias
Aphrodisias (; grc, Ἀφροδισιάς, Aphrodisiás) was a small Ancient Greece, ancient Greek Hellenistic_period, Hellenistic city in the historic Caria cultural region of western Anatolia, Turkey. It is located near the modern village of ...
was Ninoe, which
Stephanus of Byzantium
Stephanus or Stephan of Byzantium ( la, Stephanus Byzantinus; grc-gre, Στέφανος Βυζάντιος, ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD), was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethni ...
calls a variant of
Niniveh
Nineveh (; akk, ; Biblical Hebrew: '; ar, نَيْنَوَىٰ '; syr, ܢܝܼܢܘܹܐ, Nīnwē) was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul in northern Iraq. It is located on the eastern ban ...
in
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...
.
This proposal has not been universally accepted, though, and an
Anatolian
Anatolian or anatolica may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the region Anatolia
* Anatolians, ancient Indo-European peoples who spoke the Anatolian languages
* Anatolian High School, a type of Turkish educational institution
* Anatol ...
origin for the god is also possible; the second half of the name 'Sinuri' may relate to the Hittite word ''uri'', meaning 'great'.
Other than that he was male, little is known about the god Sinuri. Altars bearing a double-axe (
labrys
''Labrys'' ( gr, , lábrus) is, according to Plutarch (''Quaestiones Graecae'' 2.302a), the Lydian word for the double-bitted axe. In Greek it was called (''pélekus''). The Ancient Greek plural of ''labrys'' is ''labryes'' ().
Etymology
P ...
) associate this common Carian religious symbol with Sinuri.
On this basis, has suggested that Sinuri may have been the indigenous name for Zeus Karios, which
Herodotus
Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known f ...
identified as the most popular god in Caria in his time.
As well as at Sinuri, the god was also worshipped in the territory of Hyllarima, according to a priesthood sale of the 2nd century BCE.
A bull-sacrifice festival called the ''Bouthysia'' was held every year in the
Macedonian month of Loios, approximately July in the
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...
.
The god was worshipped at Sinuri at least until the 1st century BCE.
As with other religious centres in Caria, Sinuri experienced Christianisation in
late antiquity
Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...
, by which time worship of Sinuri presumably ceased.
Epigraphy
It was subject to extensive excavations in the 1930s by a French archaeological team under the direction of
Pierre Devambez.
Inscriptions discovered during the French excavations were published by
Louis Robert in 1945.
The majority of known inscriptions from Sinuri use the Greek language and date from the 4th to the 1st centuries BCE. Many inscriptions were reused in Byzantine buildings at Sinuri and can still be found at the site.
Carian Inscriptions
Two inscriptions in the
Carian language
The Carian language is an extinct language of the Luwic subgroup of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The Carian language was spoken in Caria, a region of western Anatolia between the ancient regions of Lycia and Lydia, b ...
are known from Sinuri. These use a distinctive local variant of the
Carian alphabet
The Carian alphabets are a number of regional scripts used to write the Carian language of western Anatolia. They consisted of some 30 alphabetic letters, with several geographic variants in Caria and a homogeneous variant attested from the Nile ...
, most closely related to that of
Kildara
Kildara ( grc, Κιλδαρα) or Killara (Κιλλαρα) was a town of ancient Caria. It was a ''polis'' (city-state) and was in a sympoliteia with Theangela and Thodosa. Kildara is the find-spot of numerous inscriptions in the Carian language
...
.
Although Louis Robert claimed to have found (but not published) a third Carian inscription from Sinuri, Wolfgang Blümel has since confirmed that this was originally a Greek text which had been erased in antiquity.
Nonetheless, the length and content of the known inscriptions make Sinuri one of the most remarkable find-sites of Carian language material in Anatolia.
The fragmentary inscription known as C.Si 2 records part of two decrees in both Greek and Carian issued by the Hecatomnid satraps and
sibling-spouses Idrieus and Ada. The dynasts' names are recorded as 'Idrieus (son) of Hecatomnus and Ada (daughter) of Hecatomnus', ''
dyin k̂tmñoś sb ada k̂tmñoś'' (
𐊢img title="CarianR"; style="text-decoration: none; height:150px;float: left; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px;"src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/CarianR.png" >𐋈𐤧𐊵 𐊴𐊭𐊪𐊳𐊫𐊸 𐊰𐊩 𐊠𐊢𐊠 𐊴𐊭𐊪𐊳𐊫𐊸). Interpretation of the Carian-language decrees is disputed. It apparently refers to Ponmoounnean (i.e. a member of the governing ''syngeneia'' of Ponmoonnous/Pormounous). The Carian word ''pñmnn-śñ'' (𐊷𐊳𐊪𐊵𐊵𐊸𐊳) is an ''accusativus genitivi'', forming an accusative singular in -ñ on an original
possessive adjective Possessive determiners (from la, possessivus, translit=; grc, κτητικός / ktētikós - en. ktetic
Lallu) are determiners which express possession. Some traditional grammars of English refer to them as possessive adjectives, though they do ...
in -ś. The decree may have conveyed the privilege of freedom of taxation (''ateleia'') to an individual.
Regardless of the precise content, this inscription is unique in showing that the Hecatomnids issued laws in Carian as well as in Greek.
The other Carian inscription from Sinuri, known as C.Si 1, is much shorter and may be
funerary
A funeral is a ceremony connected with the Disposal of human corpses, final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture ...
.
Because no other Carian inscriptions are known from the site, and Greek inscriptions are so much more numerous, it is likely that Greek became the dominant language of the community at Sinuri by the end of the 4th century BCE. An inscribed list of priests from the 2nd century BCE records Greek names in the two most recent columns and indigenous, Carian names only in the first column, suggesting that naming practices had changed with the spoken language in the early Hellenistic period.
Greek Inscriptions
A large proportion of surviving Greek-language inscriptions concern sacred lands owned by the god Sinuri and his priesthood. Many of these are
lease
A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...
documents. Land sold to the god was then permanently leased back to the original owner and his descendants, who paid rent in cash and
olive oil
Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: f ...
to the sanctuary. This arrangement was common in central Caria in the Hellenistic period and hundreds of similar documents survive from nearby Mylasa,
Olymos
Olymos ( grc, Ὄλυμος) or Olymon (Ὄλυμον) or Hylimos (Ὕλιμος) was a town of ancient Caria. It was a ''polis'' (city-state) and a member of the Delian League.
Its site is located near Kafaca, Asiatic Turkey. Many inscription ...
, and
Euromos. Consequently, not all the land owned by Sinuri was contiguous, and this dispersal of territory may have facilitated the sanctuary's integration into Mylasa.
References
{{Former settlements in Turkey
Populated places in ancient Caria
Former populated places in Turkey
Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Turkey
Archaeological sites in Turkey
Roman towns and cities in Turkey
History of Muğla Province