Yazılıkaya (lit. 'inscribed rock'), Phrygian Yazılıkaya, or Midas Kenti (Midas city) is a village in

Eskişehir Province Eskişehir Province ( tr, ) is a province in northwestern Turkey. Its adjacent provinces are Bilecik to the northwest, Kütahya to the west, Afyon to the southwest, Konya to the south, Ankara to the east, and Bolu to the north. The provincial ...

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 ...

, located about 27 km south of

Seyitgazi Seyitgazi is a town and district of Eskişehir Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. The central town of Seyitgazi lies at a distance of towards the south from the province capital of Eskişehir. According to 2010 census, population o ...

, 66 km south of

Eskişehir Eskişehir ( , ; from "old" and "city") is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the Eskişehir Province. The urban population of the city is 898,369 with a metropolitan population of 797,708. The city is located on the banks of the ...

, and 51 km north of

Afyonkarahisar Afyonkarahisar (, tr, afyon "poppy, opium", ''kara'' "black", ''hisar'' "fortress") is a city in western Turkey, the capital of Afyon Province. Afyon is in the mountainous countryside inland from the Aegean coast, south-west of Ankara along th ...

, which is known for its Phrygian archaeological remains and inscription mentioning

Midas Midas (; grc-gre, Μίδας) was the name of a king in Phrygia with whom several myths became associated, as well as two later members of the Phrygian royal house. The most famous King Midas is popularly remembered in Greek mythology for his ...

. The ancient remains consist of a settlement, sometimes Midas City and a number of rock-cut reliefs, of which the most famous is the Midas Monument, formerly identified as the tomb of Midas. There are two other rock-cut reliefs, known as the Unfinished monument and the Hyacinth monuments.

The Midas Monument

The most prominent feature of the site is the Midas Monument, a high rock-cut facade in the cliff face of the citadel. The relief takes the form of a

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

ed temple front with

acroteria An acroterion, acroterium, or akroteria is an architectural ornament placed on a flat pedestal called the ''acroter'' or plinth, and mounted at the apex or corner of the pediment of a building in the classical style. An acroterion placed at th ...

, and an abstract geometric design which appears to imitated the

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

facings of buildings. There is a niche at the bottom center, with walls bearing graffiti that read (Mother, ''i.e.'' the goddess

Cybele Cybele ( ; Phrygian: ''Matar Kubileya/Kubeleya'' "Kubileya/Kubeleya Mother", perhaps "Mountain Mother"; Lydian ''Kuvava''; el, Κυβέλη ''Kybele'', ''Kybebe'', ''Kybelis'') is an Anatolian mother goddess; she may have a possible forer ...

) and it probably held a statue of Cybele.Munn, p. 77 MidasSehri

The monument carries a dedication in

Old Phrygian The Phrygian language () was the Indo-European language of the Phrygians, spoken in Anatolia (modern Turkey), during classical antiquity (c. 8th century BC to 5th century AD). Phrygian ethno-linguistic homogeneity is debatable. Ancient Greek aut ...

by Ates son of Arkias to Midas. The inscription mentions Midas with his titles: , probably meaning "leader of the people" and "ruler". The inscription is: The name Ates, a variant of

Attis Attis (; grc-gre, Ἄττις, also , , ) was the consort of Cybele, in Phrygian and Greek mythology. His priests were eunuchs, the ''Galli'', as explained by origin myths pertaining to Attis castrating himself. Attis was also a Phrygian ve ...

, is a prominent name in Phrygia, associated with royalty. The fact that the dedication is made to Midas may indicate that he had received posthumous ruler cult. Various indications place the date of the monument's construction in the early to mid seventh century BC, as one of the first in a series of rock cut monuments to be built in western Phrygia. The inscription probably indicates that the monument was erected after the death of Midas in the early seventh century BC. Another inscription, on the right side of the monument includes the letter

yodh Yodh (also spelled jodh, yod, or jod) is the tenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Yōd /𐤉, Hebrew Yōd , Aramaic Yod , Syriac Yōḏ ܝ, and Arabic . Its sound value is in all languages for which it is used; in many lan ...

, which was added to the

Phrygian alphabet The Phrygian alphabet is the script used in the earliest Phrygian texts. It dates back to the 8th century BCE and was used until the fourth century BCE ("Old-Phrygian" inscriptions), after which it was replaced by the common Greek alphabet ("New ...

in the mid-sixth century BC. It shows that the monument was complete before this date, since it was added after the monument was finished. The abstract designs on the facade are stylistically comparable to architectural terracottas of central Anatolia dating from before ca. 600 BC.

Excavation history

The site was excavated by the French Archaeological Institute immediately before and after the Second World War, and also in the 1990s by the Eskişehir Museum.A. Gabriel, ''Phrygie, Exploration archéologique'' 2,4 1952; G.H.E. Haspels, ''Phrygie, Exploration archeologique III, La Cite de Midas, Ceramique et trouvailles''

Notes

Bibliography

* Piotr Bienkowski, Alan Millard, ''Dictionary of the Ancient Near East'', p. 198. * Albert Gabriel
"Au sujet du «Monument de Midas»"
''Comptes rendus de l'académie des inscriptions'' 94:2:202-208 (1950) * C.H.E. Haspels, ''The Highlands of Phrygia: Sites and Monuments'', 1971, . * Mark Henderson Munn, ''The Mother of the Gods, Athens, And the Tyranny of Asia'' *

William Mitchell Ramsay Sir William Mitchell Ramsay, FBA (15 March 185120 April 1939) was a Scottish archaeologist and New Testament scholar. By his death in 1939 he had become the foremost authority of his day on the history of Asia Minor and a leading scholar in th ...

, "The Rock Necropoleis of Phrygia", ''Journal of Hellenic Studies'' 3, 1882.

External links

Midas City
at Phrygian Monuments.

at the TAY Project (Archaeological Settlements of Turkey) {{DEFAULTSORT:Yazilikaya, Eskisehir Villages in Eskişehir Province Phrygia Archaeological sites in Central Anatolia Han District