The word audacious comes to mind when examining the synagogue at Sardis. Compared for instance to the synagogue at Migdal or the one at Sepphoris, this one is both big and bold, and lavish. It displays the wealth of the Jewish community in Sardis. This is the only synagogue I know of with two places for storing scrolls— two arks! Perhaps one for the Torah and one for the Prophets scrolls? And then there are the elaborate floor... Read more
Considering the tyranny going on in our country authorized by an elected official, there is no better time to remind ourselves of our fundamental American values, in particular our democratic values, from the mouth of Abraham Lincoln. Read more
I love museums, and many of them in Turkiye are treasure troves. This museum was created out of what formerly was a tobacco processing building. Hooray for a better use of this space. I have shared on this blog before about this building but there were some new things to share this time around. For instance there are the sarcophagi of Klazomenae… These remarkable decorative coffins are from the 7th century B.C. from Ionia. I also love the recreation... Read more
Like many ancient cities, where occupation of the site has been continuous into modernity, the ancient remains of Thyatira are mostly buried under the modern city. This is true of many of the NT cities, including for example Thessalonike. But there is a small excavation site in downtown Thyatira, and here are some of my pictures worth sharing. Then, and now Thyatira was not a vast city. The other part of the problem is that Turkey has many hundreds of... Read more
It was not just Laodicea that was a major city that acquired a considerable Christian presence. Papias became the bishop here, and Philip and his prophesying daughters settled here, and he was later martyred. There is considerable irony here in that there is a huge necropolis, but also the thermal pools here were thought to bring health. What it actually did was slightly delay the inevitable. People died. In this post I wanted to show you main street, beyond the... Read more
Full marks to Professor Shimshek and his team for continuing over many years to unearth the vast site at Laodicea, including things from the Byzantine era as well. We will focus on one of the churches unearthed here. While the stones here may be apparently silent, they speak volumes about the religious struggles between Christianity and paganism, but also between Jews and Christians in this place. The struggles only ceased in the early Medieval period due to yet another devastating... Read more
Izmir=Smyrna is a seaside town with a huge bay for ships to find harbor. This is a picture I took as one of the ferries, which Meltem our guide takes to work day by day, glides past the sun as it sinks in the sea. Through the good efforts of Levent Oral and Tutku tours, there is now a small park and exhibit about Izmir’s most famous martyred native son— Polycarp. Without question Polycarp and Papias, closely associated with Polycarp... Read more
Hierapolis has an unusual natural feature— calcium carbonate cliffs. You can see these cliffs from a great distance on the highway as you are driving down the Lycus Valley. In the 20th century this became a major tourist attraction with hotels built right next to these cliffs. Fortunately, the government intervened, and had them removed. When there is insufficient water cascading down these cliffs, they become brown, so the wise thing to do was to provide such water on an... Read more
There used to be a time when skeptical scholars asserted that it is unlikely Paul travelled as much as Acts suggests he did. Ancient people, it was assumed were too sedentary, and apart from the Roman army, they did not take long trips by land or sea. Unfortunately for this theory, the evidence suggests something else. For one thing, Jews in the ‘western’ diaspora, were not simply carted off as slaves by Alexander and the Romans. Yes, the Romans did... Read more
Laodicea is an ongoing project, and the latest development is fascinating. It involves Trajan’s provision of a fountain, complete with his statue, and some new rules about the use of water, which reminds me of the water restrictions you hear about from time to time in L.A. The climate at Laodicea is similar in that there is no rain to speak of during the hot summer months. Here is a shot of what the site looked like before the dig….... Read more
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