Zeugma to Samosata via the west bank

Zeugma to Samosata via the west bank In the first of these areas there appears to have been an important north-south route across the Merzumen some kilometres inland from Rumkale but not so far inland as the Doliche-Samosata road, which crosses the valley by a bridge – still extant – near the village of Yarýmca. This newly-discovered north-south route is currently not passable by motor vehicle; the gorge of the Merzumen is deep between the villages of Kuzuyatagý and Gurbasak and currently requires a very long detour via Gaziantep to the west for wheeled traffic heading north from Zeugma. But the existence of the Roman tower at the former village and the traces of a similar tower at the latter seem to confirm the importance of this north-south route in the Roman period. The main road in the area was from Doliche to Samosata, still known today as the ‘Sultan Murad Caddesi’, and no doubt commercial traffic normally made use of this route when travelling north from Antioch. There was also a road along the river north (and south) of Zeugma, presumably constructed by the legions in order to control the Euphrates frontier. There seems to have been a particularly heavy concentration of Roman settlement in the area around the point at which these two roads met and near the important Euphrates crossing of Ayni (Capersana?). In 1890 the French officer G. Marmier demişki an article1 concerning the ancient route from Samosata to Zeugma in this region, which he had apparently visited shortly beforehand. He described in particular the area south of the extant Roman bridge on the Kara Su at Süpürgüc which comprises settlements and monuments already described in earlier reports; these include the ancient villages of Elif, Hisar and Hasanoglu #, situated on a low plateau above the Euphrates which constitutes the most eastern part of the Kara Dag chain of mountains. Jut beyond these villages to the south, where the Roman road descends into the eastwest valley of the Merzumen, there are a number of other villages. Marmier mentions two of these: “Miralis” and “Méseré”. “Miralis” is shown on old Turkish maps as Milalýs, a village now known as Göçmez, while “Méseré” is Miseyri, currently Kuzuyatagý. Marmier’s de******ion of this area (page 534) reads as follows: "[…Le vieux chemin du Sultan Mourad…] Ce chemin, qui correspond à la voie romaine, au lieu de gagner par Sarrelar [Sarýlar] Roum-Kala, suivait 4 d'abord une direction parallèle à la chaine du Kara-Dagh, et passait entre le village de Miralis [Milalýs=Göçmez], auprès duquel on remarque une série d'abris constitués par cinq blocs de roche disposés en facon de dolmen, et les ruines d'une cité antique qui dissimule son ancien nom sous celui de Méseré [Miseyri=Kuzuyatagý]. Il y avait là un temple construit en gigantesques blocs à peine équarris, une munitio analogue à celle du village de Burdj et d'autres importants édifices. Plus loin la voie devait franchir le Mersifian [Merzumen] en passant peut-être près de Djobour [Cobur=Gurbasak], où l'on trouve une autre munitio avec des constructions souterraines, assez étendues, puis de là gagnait la station d'Arulis.

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Gönderen: omerfarukaslan

Yorumlayan: talha273 tarih 17.11.2004
thank you for this article..