THE MILITARY INSTALLATION AT ZEUGMA: RECENT INVESTIGATIONS, RESULTS AND PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT

This paper deals with the preliminary results of the archaeological surveys and geophysical prospections carried out in city of Zeugma between 2008-2014, in order to assess the urban expansion and the physical borders of the city, as well as its association with the military installation. The main goal of this research was to investigate the location of the military installation and its characteristics, about which new theories are being proposed based on the latest results. Contrary to previous assumptions, the results of the recent research indicate that the relatively large flat area to the west of Belkıs Tepe was surrounded by Roman city walls, enclosing the so-called At Meydanı and most of the flat terraces overlooking Bahçedere which determines the western boundary of the city. The southern margin of this large area, on other hand, seems to be bordered by a noticeable ridge which appears to overlap with the city walls ascending to Belkıs Tepe. The geophysical results and the archaeological data suggest that this extensively fortified area was urbanised and settled by Latin speaking, westernized, civic and military inhabitants affiliated to military units, including vexillatio and auxilia (especially cohors milliaria Maurorum) which primarily came from Pannonia, Moesia and Danube from the beginning of the 2st century onwards, through the middle of the 3rd century AD. It is likely that the soldiers of the legio IIII Scythica who were based at Zeugma around c.66/67 AD built their conventional type of garrison installation outside of the Hellenistic city, but not far from the western Hellenistic city walls of Seleucia. After the supplementation of the Roman military presence in the region in the 2nd and 3rd centuries with auxiliary legions, however, the area of the garrison appears to have expanded to the south, gaining an urban character and transforming this western expansion into a Roman military colony (colonia). This military urban installation developed in the fortified area of the Roman period, located to the west of Belkıs Tepe and to the south of Karatepe. The fact that the test trenches and soundings carried out in this large military quarter hitherto had not exposed any burned layer of destruction suggested that this well-fortified zone was not destroyed during the Sasanian sack of the city in 252/253 AD. Considering this, it seems plausible that the civil inhabitants who had evacuated their dwellings in the old city centre might have taken refuge in this fortified military urban installation during the siege. Recent investigations have also brought some new results and theories concerning this military urban fabric and its architectural armatures. Results of the geophysical prospection indicated that the so-called theatre building might in fact be an amphitheatre, which is yet to be tested archaeologically with excavation. One of the important results of the investigation concerns the rectilinear terrain feature in At Meydanı, which was tentatively identified as a stadium in our previous field surveys. Recent evaluation, however suggests that the structure might be associated with a campus, where military equestrian parade would have taken place. On the other hand, an elliptical/round anomaly exposed in geophysical prospection on one of the terraces overlooking Bahçedere in the south-western sector of the military expansion, is probably associated with a small amphitheatron for military trainings. An important stray find of a marble Mithras relief that was found in 2015 near At Meydanı seems to be associated with an architectural structure and strongly suggests the presence of a mithraeum in this military urban expansion. Overall, archaeological and geophysical data collected during these surveys indicate that the fortified western expansion of the city was the venue of the military installation which developed in an urban fabric. This installation model has its parallel in Dura-Europos, where the military quarter was largely built by the soldiers of legio IIII Scythica after 165 AD. It seems likely that the soldiers of this legion were involved in designing and improving their new military quarter at Dura-Europos as in Zeugma, enabling in both cases more integration with the civic life of the city.