Gümüşçay Polyksena Lahiti Üzerine Yeni Gözlemler: Mimari ve İkonografik Açıdan Bakış

Year 2004, Issue: 10, 37 - 96, 01.11.2004

Suat Ateşler Emre Öncü

Abstract

In 1994 a rescue excavation was carried out in the Kızöldün Tumulus at
Gümüşçay district, near Biga at the Persian regional satrapal capital of Daskyleion.
In the tumulus, two seperate sarcophagi burials were found, the larger of the two
sarcophagi made from fine marble, had been robbed in antiquity. Before being
heaped with the earth of the tumulus, it had been covered by layers of pan tiles.
Beneath the pan tiles at the west side of the sarcophagus, were found two sickled
bronze wheels and a bronze harness or horse bit belonging to a war chariot transformed into the Persian harmamaksa. It certainly looks as if the Polyxena
Sarcophagus was intended for a Girl, but the bones inside belongs to a 40 year old
man. Polyxena Sarcophagus is the earliest marble sarcophagus with figural scenes
ever to have been found in Anatolia. The main side of the sarcophagus includes a
representation of the sacrifice of Polyxena by Neoptolemos, the son of Akhilleus.
On the other side, the preparations and celebrations before the wedding between
Akhilleus and Polyxena are represented just like the wedding ceremony on the
Akhilleus-Polyxena Sarcophagus at Prado. Flavius Philostratos (170-249 A.D.)
who quoted from the writers of the Homer time in Heroides, reports that:
“Akhilleus loved Polyxena and was negotiating this marriage for himself with the
understanding that he would make the Achaeans withdraw from Ilion. Polyxena
also loved Akhilleus; they have seen one another during the ransom negotiations
for Hektor. For when Priamos came to Akhilleus, he made his own child lead him
by the hand, since she was the youngest of those. After Akhilleus died unarmed and
when Akhilleus’ body had already been buried for three days, Polyxena ran to the
tomb at night and leaned upon while speaking many words of pity and marriage”.

Above the reliefs and the lid of the sarcophagus a model of an ionic gabled roof
is imitated. It has dentils, which shows one of the earliest examples (with the
examples from Daskyleion and Labraunda) of this architectural element in
nonfunctional and ornamental using. There is no evidence for the using of dentils
in ionic stone buildings at Asia Minor and aegean islands in the 6th century B.C..
For the present time in Asia Minor, dentils have been seen for the first time in
Labraunda, Daskyleion and on the building represented in the relief of the Stele of
Sinope. The roofing system made on the lid is the same to that of the Early
Classical Building at Daskyleion which was built probably by an Ionian architect
employed by Artabazos (477-468 B.C.), the satrap of Daskyleion. It is probable
that the master of the lid of the Polyxena Sarcophagus was involved in the
construction of an ionic building before working on the Sarcophagus, perhaps he
was also an architect instead of an sculptor. There were ancient settlements near
Daskyleion and Biga, like Miletouteikhos and Didymateikhe, probably found by
Ionian migrants, coming to work in this region.