Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Μ. Ασία ΙΔΡΥΜΑ ΜΕΙΖΟΝΟΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ
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Nora

Συγγραφή : Leka Evridiki (6/9/2001)
Μετάφραση : Velentzas Georgios

Για παραπομπή: Leka Evridiki, "Nora",
Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Μ. Ασία
URL: <http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=12267>

Νώρα (11/12/2008 v.1) Nora (4/4/2011 v.1) 
 

1. Location – Name

Nora was an ancient fortress in western Cappadocia situated, according to ancient writers,1 in south Garsauritis, near the Lycaonian border. Ancient sources also report that Nora was a small fortress on the top of a hill,2 whose diameter was less than two stadia. It had abundant supplies of water, grains, timber and salt.3 The name Νeroassos has also been handed down for the same fortress.4

Ancient Nora has not been safely identified yet. However, five assumptions have been made so far as for its location, with two of them being the most prevalent.5 The first assumption6 supports that Nora is identified with the fortress at Gelin Tepe, a hill to the northwest of Sivrihisar, approximately 34 km east-southeast of Colonea.7 According to the second assumption,8 Nora is identified with the fortified acropolis at Viranşehir and is the predecessor of the early Byzantine city of Mokissos, which is located on the same site.9 Viranşehir is at the north foot of Mount Argaios (Hasan Dağ), about 500 m to the south of the village of Helvadere and 27 km to the southeast of Colonea.

Although Nora probably existed already from the Achaemenid period,10 it became known as the refuge of Eumenes of Cardia, who found shelter there in the spring of 320/319 BC while trying to escape to Armenia, and was besieged for one year by Antigonus I Monophthalmus.11 At a subsequent moment the fortress was renamed Neroassos and was used as a treasury by Archelaus I (37/36 BC-17 AD), possibly during the war against the usurper of the Cappadocian throne, Ariarathes X Eusebes Philadelphos (43-36 BC) in 37/36 BC.12

2. Τhe Fortress at Gelin Tepe

The fortress at Gelin Tepe, near Sivrihisar, which is identified with ancient Nora, covers an area of approximately 3000 sq.m. Parts of the fortification wall, reaching up to a height of 3 m, have been traced only at the north side of the hill, which was better accessed from the plain. A mighty tower is also reported at the south side, where an arched structure was added at a later construction phase. A second similar structure is reported to the northwest of the tower. As indicated by its masonry, the fortress was in use during the Roman and the Byzantine periods, while the tower possibly existed since the Hellenistic period.13

3. The Acropolis and the Roman Necropolis of Viranşehir

Viranşehir is considered the site of the early Byzantine city of Mokissos, whose ruins are found scattered along a basin directing from north to south and on the four surrounding hills.14

The acropolis has been identified with ancient Nora and covers the northwestern hill, directly to the west of the access point. It is a small acropolis 120 m long and 30-50 m wide, largely enclosed by a powerful fortification wall, which has been preserved up to a height of 3 m. At certain points the wall is double, made from massive irregular blocks at the two external sides and small stones in-between the two faces. The main entrance to the fortress was on the southwestern corner, while a second gate was traced at the western side and a sort of a propylon at the eastern side. It has been supported that the wall was constructed according to the pseudopolygonal system; it is dated to the late 4th c. BC.15 The ruins of a single-aisled early Byzantine church, a house and a complex of rooms, possibly for the guards, have been found inside the acropolis. Houses are also found outside the acropolis, at the southern and western sides.16

A Roman necropolis has been traced in the area between the northeastern and the eastern hill as well as at the northern side of the western hill. A total of nearly 50 tombs are visible today, some of which are in very good condition. They are mainly arched and chamber tombs with domed roofs. The settlement to which the necropolis belonged to has not been discovered yet, though it must have been on the site of modern Halvadere or a little to the west.17

1. Strabo 12.2.6; Plutarch Εum. 10.1; Diod. S. 19.44.2; Nep., Eum. 5.3; Equini Schneider, E., “Siti di età romana in Anatolia: indagini in Cappadocia 1993”, ScAnt 6-7 (1992-1993), pp. 401-402.

2. Diod. S. 18.50.4, 18.53.4, 18.41.2 “χωρίον” (village), “χωρίον…μι κρόν” (small village), “φρούριον” (fortress); Plutarch Εum. 10.1 “χωρίον”; Strabo 12.2.6 “φρούριον”; Nep., Eum. 5.3 “castellum”; Just., Epit. 14.2.2 “castellum munitum”.

3. Diod. S. 18.41.2‑3; Plutarch Εum. 11.1‑3. For the ancient sources referring to Nora, see generally Franck, L., “Sources classiques concernant la Cappadoce”, RHA 34 (1966), pp. 38‑39, 110.

4. Strabo 12.2.6.

5. For all identifications of ancient Nora, see RE 17.1 (1936), columns 923-924, see entry “Nora” (W. Ruge).

6. Hild, F. – Restle, M., Tabula Imperii Byzantini 2: Kappadokien (Kappadokia, Charsianon, Sebasteia und Lykandos) (DAW 149, Wien 1981), pp. 245-246; Mitchell, S., “Three Cities in Pisidia”, AS 44 (1994), p. 130.

7. For the opposite view, see Equini Schneider, E., “Siti di età romana in Anatolia: indagini in Cappadocia 1993”, ScAnt 6-7 (1992-1993), pp. 394-396; Equini Schneider, E., “Classical sites in Anatolia: 1993 archaeological survey in Cappadocia”, Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı 12 (1994), p. 430; Equini Schneider, E., “Classical sites in Anatolia: 1994 archaeological survey in Cappadocia”, Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı 13 (1995), pp. 15-17; Berger, A., “Vıranşehır (Mokisos), eine byzantinische Stadt in Kappadokien”, MDAI(I) 48 (1998), p. 418.

8. Equini Schneider, E., “Siti di età romana in Anatolia: indagini in Cappadocia 1993”, ScAnt 6-7 (1992-1993), pp. 401-407; Equini Schneider, E., “Classical sites in Anatolia: 1993 archaeological survey in Cappadocia”, Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı 12 (1994), pp. 433-434; Equini Schneider, E., “Classical sites in Anatolia: 1994 archaeological survey in Cappadocia”, Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı 13 (1995), pp. 17-19.

9. For the opposite view, see Berger, A., “Vıranşehır (Mokisos), eine byzantinische Stadt in Kappadokien”, MDAI(I) 48 (1998), pp. 368-371, 415-419.

10. Briant, P., Rois, tributs et paysans. Etudes sur les formations tributaires du Moyen-Orient ancien (Annales littéraires de l’Université de Besançon 269, Paris 1982), p. 20; Briant, P., Histoire de l’empire Perse de Cyrus à Alexandre (Paris 1996), p. 731. For other similar fortresses in Achaemenid Asia Minor, see Xenophon Cyr. 2.4, 3.1, 3.2, 6.1, 7.4.

11. For the siege of Nora, see Strabo 12.2.6; Diod. S. 18.41.1-7, 18.42.1-5, 18.50.4 and 18.53.4-5; Plutarch Εum. 10.1-4, 11.1-5, 12.1-3; Nep., Eum. 5.3-7; RE 6 (1909), column 1086, from line 39 onwards (Kaerst); Briant, P., “D’Alexandre Le Grand aux Diadoques: le cas d’Eumène de Kardia”, RΕA 74 (1972), pp. 32-73; Anson, Ε.Μ., “The Siege of Nora: A Source Conflict”, GRBS 18 (1977), pp. 251-256; Anson, E.M., “Discrimination and Eumenes of Cardia”, AncW 3 (1980), pp. 55-59.

12. Strabo 12.2.6. For other similar fortresses in Hellenistic Asia Minor also used by Mithridates VI Eupator (120-63 BC), see Strabo 12.3.31, 12.3.37-40 (Pontus), 12.5.2 (Galatia), 12.6.1 (Lycaonia), 12.6.4 (Pisidia); Diod. S. 19.16.1-5; Briant, P., Rois, tributs et paysans. Etudes sur les formations tributaires du Moyen-Orient ancien (Annales littéraires de l’Université de Besançon 269, Paris 1982), pp. 20-21.

13. For the fortress at Sivrihisar, see Hild, F. – Restle, M., Tabula Imperii Byzantini 2: Kappadokien (Kappadokia, Charsianon, Sebasteia und Lykandos) (DAW 149, Wien 1981), pp. 245-246, fig. 16; Equini Schneider, E., “Siti di età romana in Anatolia: indagini in Cappadocia 1993”, ScAnt 6-7 (1992-1993), pp. 394-396, fig. 7-10; Equini Schneider, E., “Classical sites in Anatolia: 1993 archaeological survey in Cappadocia”, Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı 12 (1994), pp. 430, 436, fig. 2-3; Equini Schneider, E., “Classical sites in Anatolia: 1994 archaeological survey in Cappadocia”, Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı 13 (1995), pp. 15-17, 24-26, fig. 2-5.

14. For more details of Viranşehir and Mokissos, see Berger, A., “Vıranşehır (Mokisos), eine byzantinische Stadt in Kappadokien”, MDAI(I) 48 (1998), pp. 349-429, pl. 45-62.

15. Equini Schneider, E., “Siti di età romana in Anatolia: indagini in Cappadocia 1993”, ScAnt 6-7 (1992-1993), pp. 403-404, fig. 21-22, 406; Equini Schneider, E., “Classical sites in Anatolia: 1993 archaeological survey in Cappadocia”, Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı 12 (1994), pp. 433-434, 439-440, fig. 8a-b; Equini Schneider, E., “Classical sites in Anatolia: 1994 archaeological survey in Cappadocia”, Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı 13 (1995), pp. 17-19, 27-28, fig. 6-8.

16. For the acropolis at Viranşehir, see also Berger, A., “Vıranşehır (Mokisos), eine byzantinische Stadt in Kappadokien”, MDAI(I) 48 (1998), pp. 368-369, pl. 52, fig. 3-4, pl. 53, fig. 1-2.

17. For the Roman necropolis at Vıranşehır, see Equini Schneider, E., “Siti di età romana in Anatolia: indagini in Cappadocia 1993”, ScAnt 6-7 (1992-1993), pp. 403, 405-406, fig. 26-27; Equini Schneider, E., “Classical sites in Anatolia: 1993 archaeological survey in Cappadocia”, Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı 12 (1994), pp. 433, 440, fig. 9; Equini Schneider, E., “Classical sites in Anatolia: 1994 archaeological survey in Cappadocia”, Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı 12 (1995), pp. 18-19, 29-30, fig. 10-12; Berger, A., “Vıranşehır (Mokisos), eine byzantinische Stadt in Kappadokien”, MDAI(I) 48 (1998), pp. 371-372, pl. 53, fig. 3, pl. 54, fig. 3.

     
 
 
 
 
 

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