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Matronianus, Comes Isauriae: an Inscription from an Early Byzantine Basilica at Yanıkhan, Rough Cilicia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Stephen Hill
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Extract

The ruins at Yanıkhan form the remains of a Late Roman village in the interior of Rough Cilicia some 8 kilometres inland from the village of Limonlu on the road to Canbazlı (see Fig. 1). The site has not been frequently visited by scholars, and the first certain reference to its existence was made by the late Professor Michael Gough after his visit on 2 September 1959. Yanıkhan is now occupied only by the Yürüks who for years have wintered on the southern slopes of Sandal Dağ. The ancient settlement at Yanıkhan consisted of a village covering several acres. The remains are still extensive, and some, especially the North Basilica, are very well preserved, but there has been considerable disturbance in recent years as stone and rubble have been removed in order to create small arable clearings. The visible remains include many domestic buildings constructed both from polygonal masonry without mortar and from mortar and rubble with coursed smallstone facing. There are several underground cisterns and a range of olive presses. The countryside around the settlement has been terraced for agricultural purposes in antiquity, and is, like the settlement itself, densely covered with scrub oak and wild olive trees. The most impressive remains are those of the two basilical churches which are of little artistic pretension, but considerable architectural interest. The inscription which forms the substance of this article was found on the lintel block of the main west entrance of the South Basilica.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 35 , December 1985 , pp. 93 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1985

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References

1 I owe a great debt to Mrs. Michael Gough who produced for me a copy of her husband's notes on the inscription, and to Miss Joyce Reynolds who first drew my attention to its prosopographical significance. Whilst the author can claim no credit for the discovery of the inscription, and little for its interpretation, he must assume full responsibility for any errors in this paper. The site was visited by the Goughs in 1959; by myself and my wife in 1976 with the aid of a grant from the Gerald Averay Wainwright Fund of the University of Oxford; and by myself again in 1979 accompanied by Mr. James Crow. My second visit occurred during my tenure of the Earl Grey Memorial Fellowship of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, with the support of a grant from the Committee for Fieldwork and Excavation of that University. I should also like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara for its help at all times, and in particular to thank Dr. David French for his permission to borrow Institute transport in 1979.

2 Gough, M. R. E., “Christian Archaeology in Turkey”, Atti del VI Congresso Internazionale di Archeologia Cristiana (Ravenna, 1962) (Rome, 1965), 409Google Scholar. It is also possible that Sterrett visited Yanıkhan in 1885. “Three quarters of an hour from Göyerek, our general direction remaining the same, we passed an ancient cemetery, with sarcophagi of solid workmanship still in place. The surrounding country is a great undulating plateau, but exceedingly rocky and dreary. Twenty minutes beyond the cemetery we reached the ruins of a large Graeco-Roman village, with many doorways and several arches, which evidently belonged to substructures of buildings still standing. The site is now a Turkoman Yayla and the ancient cistern of well-hewn and nicely-adjusted stones is used at the present day by the turbaned nomads.” J. R. Sitlington Sterrett, The Wolfe Expedition to Asia Minor, Papers of the Archaeological Institute of America, 3 (Boston, 1888), 4. There is a cemetery such as that described by Sterrett a few kilometres to the southeast of Yanıkhan at the hamlet called Batısandal.

I have formerly published a brief description of the churches at Yanıkhan, in “Early Church Planning in Rough Cilicia”, Architecture of the Eastern Churches (ed. Hornus, J-M) (Birmingham, 1981), 27–8.Google Scholar Yanıkhan has also been mentioned, but not described, by Professor Semavi Eyice in his article which describes the basilicas at Öküzlü, another village site with extensive Late Roman remains which is sited several kilometres to the southwest of Yanıkhan beyond Batısandal: “Un site byzantin de la Cilicie: Öküzlü et ses basiliques”, Rayonnement Grec—Hommages à Charles Delvoye (Bruxelles 1982), 357Google Scholar.

3 For a firm rejection of the significance of straight masonry joints as evidence for structural phases in Cilician churches see Gertrude Bell's comments on the various butt joints which are visible at the east end of the so-called Transept Church at Corycus (Kızkalesi): “Notes on a Journey through Cilicia and Lycoania”, Revue Archeologique4, IX (1907), 6–7Google Scholar.

4 The presence of such passages at the eastern ends of Christian basilicas is very common in Cilicia (see e.g. Gough op. cit. 409). The subject is discussed at some length in my Ph.D. thesis The Early Christian Churches of Cilicia (University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1984)Google Scholar.

5 This assumption involves accepting Seeck's emendation of “duci et praesidi Sardiniae” to “duci et praesidi Isauriae”, for which see Jones, A. H. M., Martindale, J. R., and Morris, J., The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Volume I (A.D. 260–395), (Cambridge, 1971) 568Google Scholar (under “Matronianus 2”).

6 Alföldi-Rosenbaum, Elizabeth, “Matronianus, Comes Isauriae: an Inscription from the Sea Wall of Anemurium”, Phoenix XXVI (1972), 183–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 For λιττάς (sc. πέτρα) see Kaibel, G., Epigrammata Graeca ex Lapidibus Conlecta (Berlin, 1878), 256Google Scholar: τεάν ὑπο λισσάδα κε[ῖται] (inscription from Salamis in Cyprus).

8 Edwards, Robert W., “Two New Byzantine Churches in Cilicia”, AS XXXII (1982), 29Google Scholar.

9 The architectural importance of the Cilician churches which can be attributed to the late fifth century, more particularly to the reign of the Emperor Zeno (472–91), has been widely accepted. See Mango, Cyril, “Isaurian Builders”, Polychronion (Festschrift F. Dölger), (1966), 358–65Google Scholar and Gough, M. R. E., “The Emperor Zeno and some Cilician Churches”, AS XXII (1972), 199–212Google Scholar. I have considered the importance of Yanıkhan in the development towards the great churches of the fifth century in my Ph.D. thesis. Consideration of this subject is beyond the scope of the present paper, but it is my intention to publish my conclusions on this subject, which confirm and extend Gough's conclusions, in the near future.