Perga

Perga (Perge in Greek and Turkish) is one of the most massive ancient cities I have ever come across. In fact, only Ephesus springs to mind when I try and think of a city covering a larger land mass.

The origins of Perga start with the acroplolis, 180 feet (60m) high and covering an area 7,500 ft² (2,500 m²). It is sandwiched between two hills, Koca Belen and Iyilik Belen, and it was a perfectly adequate defensive location. The River Aksu was the primary reason for its rise, and later the city became a port with the sea some seven miles distant.

The name Perga is actually Turkish, and not Greek or any of the local languages, like Luwian in Side, and its origins are somewhat shrouded in mystery.

Historical accounts suggest the city was first inhabited by colonists from Argos, which is located in the Peloponnese in Greece. Argos itself has one of the oldest known histories of ancient times, dating back at least 6,000 years ago (see ‘Argos’ in the ‘Greece’ section), and was probably the first real city to emerge in Greece, the predecessors of the Mycenaean culture and probably related to the Minoans. Perga, however, was probably settled by colonisers from Argos after the Trojan wars (1250 BC +/-), because clearly the Mycenaeans settled this far on the mainland after the defeat of Troy itself. Greek settlement in Asia Minor, however, was relatively frequent throughout history.

Other accounts suggest the Hittites were the first to establish a base here, as far back as 1700 BC, and it was then known as ‘Parha’. It’s very likely, however, that an earlier settlement existed and no records remain to be able to obtain any information. There was human activity on the acropolis thousands of years earlier, and excavations suggest that the hill was used at least 5,000 years ago during the Neolithic, but to what extent is unknown. I think it’s very likely a large settlement was present for some considerable time before the arrival of the Hittites.

A tablet that was discovered in 1986 certainly casts doubt on the idea that the Greeks were the first colonisers at Perga. The text talks of an agreement between the Hittite King Tuthalia, and Tarhuntassa, the Prince of the land of Karunta. The tablet has been dated to the 13th Century BC, thus suggesting the Greek colonisation of Perga was much later than the Hittites, and could also have been much later than the Trojan wars.

To confuse matters, the goddess of Perga – Artemis Pergaia (Artemis of Perga) – may not be of Greek or Hittite origin. As we saw with the site at Letoon, Artemis was very much related to the Lycian region. She was the daughter of Leto, one of the Greek gods, and brother of the better-known Apollon (Apollo). Since the Greeks went to Asia Minor many years in the past, and the three aforementioned gods are a part of the Greek titans, it looks more and more likely that many of the Greek gods were imported from outside its borders. Leto, so far, is the most likely candidate for originating outside of Greece and probably emerged with the Lycian culture. The Lycian area neighboured that of Pamphylia, which covers the Antalya region and Perga itself, so it’s not too hard to imagine that Artemis originated in Lycia, along with her mother and brother. One question that must be asked though – did the cult of Leto first originate in Greece and was then exported to Lycia in a much earlier time period? That scenario does seem unlikely, and if the first scenario is correct then history may need to be looked at a little differently, for at Ephesus there was built one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World – the massive Temple of Artemis. That staggering building, which was also in Asia Minor, does suggest that Artemis, Apollon and Leto all originated in Lycia, and that the Greeks adopted the goddess Leto into their list of lesser titans. Leto’s parents, however, both Coeus and Phoebe, were two of the twelve great titans of Greek mythology, and therein lies the confusion. These godly origins also have fundamental implications within history because Greece is considered the cradle of civilisation – what if it all actually started in Asia Minor?

Astonishingly, although it’s clear an Artemis temple was located at Perga, it has not been found. There are the remains of a temple atop the acropolis, but its relative location means it is unlikely to be the Artemis temple.

Very little historical data is available until the 7th Century BC when there was a Greek colonisation from Rhodes. Akan Atila writes that “the newcomers” blended in with the local population and “caused the development of a new culture” because the locals “were tied to their traditions”. This, again, suggests that Artemis was a local deity, but what is not certain is whether there were any Greeks still in Perga from the original migration after the Trojan wars, some 600 years earlier.

In 546 BC the city fell to the Persians, and then in 333 BC Alexander the Great arrived and the city surrendered without so much as a sword being raised. The Persian-controlled other cities, like Pisidia and Aspendos, managed to defend against Alexander’s army, but only for a brief time. With Alexander’s death in 323 BC, Perga endured in the Hellenistic period, first under Antigonos and then the Seleucids between 223 – 188 BC. It is during this time that the city expanded. As with most cities in the region, in 188 BC, Perga came under the rule of the city of Pergamum and thus the Romans later in 133 BC.

Perga expanded again in the 1st Century AD, and during the beginning of the next century a wealthy woman called Plancia Magna provided immense funds for further expansion. It is clear that under Roman rule the city enjoyed its most prosperous period and expanded several-fold.

Christianity then swept through the ancient world and by the end of the 3rd Century Perga was a mix of pagans and Christians, but the fall of the Roman Empire saw the beginnings of Perga’s demise, despite the new Byzantine Empire’s continuous power in the region, with its capital at Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul). In the 7th Century Perga was raided, although by who is not clear. What is clear is that the city seems to have been abandoned by the majority of the population, perhaps because the destruction was so severe. Some people did remain in Perga though, in a “small village settlement”, right up until the 13th Century when Perga was finally abandoned.

One famous character was born and lived in Perga during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC – the mathematician Apollonius of Perga (262 – 190 BC) – the first person in the world to study ellipses. The science of the elliptical orbits of the planets and the moon has been attributed to Apollonius, and Isaac Newton studied his work at great length.

My visit to Perga was on the morning of the 18th March, 2015. The day was pleasant and the site was practically empty, apart from a couple of tour groups, a few individual visitors and some workmen and archaeologists in various parts of the site. In the main baths were a group of students drawing. The theatre was closed to visitors and seems to have been that way for quite some time – it is fenced off completely and it is not even possible to view the interior of the theatre even by stopping on the road next to it. Only the façade can be seen. Probably being repaired, the theatre seems like it might be closed to visitors for some time, but the rest of the site is so big it meant, for me, that this was only a minor let down. I also never climbed onto the acropolis because it seemed at the time that access was unavailable. From behind the fountain, however, at the end of the long main street, it does appear that a pathway takes visitors to the top of the acropolis, but I was unaware of that at the time and only realised this from a map in I Akan Atila’s book, which is listed in the references below. Perga is a very big site and I recommend a good half day for the casual tourist, and anything from a full day to a week for those more inclined to scrutinise the site in a more academic manner.

 

References:

Atila, I Akan. Perge, Aspendos, Side, new edition, 2014. Guney Kartpostal, Antalya

http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/go/med/Perge/

http://www.historvius.com/perge-1052/

http://www.exploreturkey.com/exptur.phtml?id=68

http://www.ancient.eu/Hittite/

http://www.theoi.com/Cult/ArtemisCult4.html

http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/coin-of-perga-with-artemis-pergaia-in-temple-3839

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Apollonius.html

http://ancient-greece.org/archaeology/mycenae.html

https://www.academia.edu/1822403/Graeco-Anatolian_Contacts_in_the_Mycenaean_Period

http://lycianturkey.com/cults_of_lycia_deities.htm