Ephesus

History of Ephesus

During its long history, which extends back into the third millenium before Christ, Ephesus, one of the most important centers of antiquity, has always played a significant role in the sciences, in culture, and in the arts.

The harbor city Ephesus, which acts as a gateway between east and west, was the point of departure for the famous royal highway that led through Sardis into Lydia. Because of its location, Ephesus developed into an important political and economic center, and became the capital city of the Roman province of Asia.

Its status as an economic metropolis and capital city was not the only reason, however, for the prominent role of Ephesus in the ancient world; the largest temple of the cult of Artemis, which developed out of the traditions of the Anatolian mother goddess Kybele, is also located in Ephesus. This temple numbers among the seven wonders of the world.

Excavations

Great effort is being devoted to excavating this almost 5000-year-old site, and to uncovering the history of the ages through its ruins. The British engineer J. T. Wood directed the first archaeological investigations from 1869 onward, under the auspices of the British Museum, D. G. Hogarth continued the excavations, and Wood's quest for the Temple of Artemis, from 1904 onward. The excavations of the Austrian Archaeological Institute, which continue to this day, began in 1895 under Otto Benndorf. He received permission to excavate from the Ottoman Sultan, and brought up a good part of Ephesus in the course of his research. After the foundation of the Turkish Republic, the government transferred everything to state ownership. The Austrian excavations kept on except for the two war world wars, and have continued uninterupted since 1954.

Since 1954, excavations and restorations have been carried out not only by the Austrian Institute, but also by the archaeologists of the Ephesus Museum. In their intensive work since 1954, they have uncovered and restored important structures. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism accelerated this cooperative work in 1979 through its program "Selcuk-Ephesus Excavations, Restorations, and Systematization of its Environs."

In recent years, the main accent no longer lies so much on the excavation of further buildings and public spaces, but more on the care and pereservation of the buildings that have already been discovered. Accordingly, the project has restored important structures and monuments in the past fifteen years.

In the course of the excavations, which have now lasted over a century, only ten percent of the ancient city of Ephesus has been unearthed.

Excavation history

Excavations were continued by another British citizen, D.Hogart during the following years.

The second group of excavations were started by Austrians in 1895, after archaeolog Bendorf was permitted by Ottoman officials to start excavation works in the city. Since then Keil, Miltner, Eichler and Wetters from the same institute, conducted excavations.

Among the findings till today we can say the Artemis Temple , St.John church, The Agora, Theatre, Prythaneion Temple, the Marble Road, the Harbour Road,Temple of Trajan , Celsus Library, are the most prominent ones. Some of them are being restored.

During the Ottoman era most of the findings were taken away to British and Austrian museums and only some of them were left to Istanbul Archeology Museum. Since the foundation of the republic in 1923 all findings are supposed to be given to the museums in Turkey by law.

Inanna of Fertility

The Queen of Heaven and Earth. The flowering of Sumeria, its temples, ordered cities, irrigated fields, birth-place of cuneiform writing and codes of law, and mastery of terracotta arts, all offer tribute to this earliest named Great Goddess. Worshipped as early as 7000 BCE., Inanna was still widely revered after patriarchal incursions into the Euphrates plain. She descended from heaven to bring prosperity to Her people, then descended into the Realm of Death in a quest for wisdom. Returning, she condemned her lover and son Dumuzi to replace her there in punishment for his arrogance; their annual sexual union was viewed as the source of fecundity and plenty. Here, bejeweled and serene, she offers Her chalice-shaped body in sacred marriage to Dumuzi.

Isis

At the apex of her influence, this Goddess of Rebirth was worshipped throughout the Greco-Roman world. Her temples were finally closed in the fourth century AD, but her role as Mother of God, as well as many other Christian borrowings from her mythos were assumed by the Virgin Mary. Originally Au Set, a predynastic Egyptian Goddess dating from 3000 BCE., she laid upon the dead body of her husband-brother Osiris (whose annual death symbolized the fertilizing of fields by Nile floodwaters), and conceived Horus, the original Son of God. Her name means throne-woman and she was venerated as inventor of agriculture, law, and medicine, the Mother who placed the sun god Ra in the sky. According to Egyptian scriptures, In the beginning there was Isis, Oldest of the Old, the Goddess from whom all becoming arose.

Diana of Ephesus

Goddess of the Amazons -Ancient worship focused on the nature goddesses Isis - Ishtar - Inanna and called Her Queen of Heaven. By Roman times she is called Diana; yet at Ephesus in Anatolia Her worship was most profound under the names Mother of Animals, Many-Breasted Artemis. Columnar, wearing a unique ritual garment adorned with animals, her crown and staring gaze incorporate Astarte , while Her moon disc and horned beasts evoke Diana. Her temple built by Amazons (undoubtedly matrilineal priestesses), was one of the wonders of the ancient world,a goal of devout pilgrimage. In AD 380 her shrine was rededicated to Mary, whose old age and death Church legend placed at Ephesus. Note the similarity of posture, palms bestowing blessing, with countless images of Mary .

Ishtar of Mari

Babylonian culture flowered from 600 to 200 BCE. under Ishtar, She who endowed [the king] with prestige. A version of the ancient Sumerian Goddess Inanna , Ishtar's priestess-queens may have engaged in periodic ritual sacrifice of their kings to insure good omens and prosperity. Her king's blood, whether symbolic or real, was assumed to fertilize fields and bring bountiful harvest. The city of Mari worshipped Ishtar as a birth Goddess symbolized by the Urn of Life clutched tight to her belly. Worship of her consort Tammuz was imported by the Jews after the Babylonian captivity, and his symbolic death was lamented annually in the temple at Jerusalem. The identifications with Mary , the Virgin Queen, and her divine yet dying son whose blood brings life, are important Christian borrowings.

Kali

Goddess in the aspect of Liberator - Unlike much Western mythology, Hinduism at all times has recognized the feminine principle, most prominently in the form of consort to Shiva or Shiva-Shakti . The male power, inert, is useless without this energizing female power, conceived of in its benign form as Parvati , and in its fierce or destructive form as Kali. In this terrifying aspect, the goddess drips blood from her devouring mouth, and her huge sword has beheaded the demon Ignorance, while her other two hands signify the blessing implied by this penultimate spiritual deed. The Ancient Goddess, in her warrior aspect of Inanna , Medusa , Athena or served a similar psycho-spiritual function in western cultures.

Astarte

The Lady of the Beasts - Along with Lilith she is one of the principle Elohim (this Hebrew plural word means goddesses and gods, though translated as God by biblical revisionists for the past 2,000 years) of the Semites of Phoenicia. Consort to Baal , she is here depicted with two foals in ecstatic dance, her typically upraised arms grasping serpents. She was the Great Goddess, all-powerful, creating-preserving-destroying, an embodiment of Mother Nature. Also known as Ashtoroth, in some poses she is identical with images of Kali , while in her role of virgin she is an ancient prototype of Mary .

Other Sites around Ephesus

The House of Mary

The Ephesus Museum

Other Pictures around Ephesus

A Statue in a Museum from Ephesus

A Statue of Domitian

A View of a Grand Entrance

Another Structure that is being restored

A beautiful Piller still standing

What still stands of shop row

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