Mosaic of Dionysus Discovered at Hierapolis (Manbij) in Northern Syria

Öz

In 2017, the remains of the two mosaics were accidentally found in the city of Manbij, 60 km northeast of Aleppo in northern Syria. These mosaics seem to be part of the same architectural context that has completely disappeared. The best preserved mosaic has a very interesting theme. It is the Dionysus scene with his thiasos including Satyr and Bacchant and leopard. There is also an other scene of landscape with river god and animals. The last one, so damaged, conserve just a mask and the rest of two personages and an amphora, beside it, there is an inscription mentioning Eros. The scene of Dionysus evokes the well-known figures in Zeugma and Antioch, Turkey, dated to the end of the 2nd century AD and the beginning of 3nd centuries. Perhaps, it represents the epiphany of the god. The others scenes are probably linked with Dionysus iconography. The mosaic could be dated, according to the stylistic criteria, to the end of 2nd century AD and the beginning of 3nd century AD. It attests the diffusion of the Dionysus cult in the city of Manbij (Hierapolis) in the roman period.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Syria
• Manbij
• Mosaic
• Dionysos
• Roman

Mosaïque de Dionysos découverte à Hiérapolis (Manbij) en Syrie du Nord

Öz

In 2017, the remains of the two mosaics were accidentally found in the city of Manbij, 60 km northeast of Aleppo in northern Syria. These mosaics seem to be part of the same architectural context that has completely disappeared. The best preserved mosaic has a very interesting theme. It is the Dionysus scene with his thiasos including Satyr and Bacchant and leopard. There is also an other scene of landscape with river god and animals. The last one, so damaged, conserve just a mask and the rest of two personages and an amphora, beside it, there is an inscription mentioning Eros. The scene of Dionysus evokes the well-known figures in Zeugma and Antioch, Turkey, dated to the end of the 2nd century AD and the beginning of 3nd centuries. Perhaps, it represents the epiphany of the god. The others scenes are probably linked with Dionysus iconography. The mosaic could be dated, according to the stylistic criteria, to the end of 2nd century AD and the beginning of 3nd century AD. It attests the diffusion of the Dionysus cult in the city of Manbij (Hierapolis) in the roman period.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Syria
• Manbij
• Mosaic
• Dionysos
• Roman.

Kuzey Suriye’deki Hierapolis’te (Münbiç) Keşfedilen Dionysos Mozaiği

Öz

2017 yılında, iki mozaiğin kalıntıları Suriye’nin kuzeyinde, Halep’in 60 km kuzeydoğusundaki Münbiç kentinde tesadüfen bulundu. Bu mozaikler, tamamen ortadan kalkmış olan aynı mimari bağlamın bir parçası gibi görünmektedir. En iyi korunmuş mozaik çok ilginç bir temaya sahiptir. Satyr, Bacchant ve leoparı da içeren thiasoslu Dionysos sahnesidir. Ayrıca nehir tanrısı ve hayvanların yer aldığı başka bir manzara sahnesi de vardır. Sonuncusu, çok tahrip olmuş, sadece bir maske ve geri kalan iki kişi ve bir amphora korunmuştur, yanında Eros’tan bahseden bir yazıt vardır. Dionysos sahnesi, Türkiye’de Zeugma ve Antakya’da bulunan ve İS 2. yüzyılın sonu ile 3. yüzyılın başına tarihlenen tanınmış figürleri çağrıştırmaktadır. Belki de tanrının tecellisini temsil etmektedir. Diğer sahneler muhtemelen Dionysos ikonografisi ile bağlantılıdır. Mozaik, stilistik kriterlere göre İS 2. yüzyılın sonu ve İS 3. yüzyılın başına tarihlendirilebilir. Dionysos kültünün Roma döneminde Münbiç (Hierapolis) kentinde yaygınlaştığını kanıtlamaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Suriye
• Münbiç
• Mozaik
• Dionysos
• Roma.

Kaynakça

1. Abadie-Reynal 2002 C. Abadie-Reynal, “Les maisons à décors mosaïqués de Zeugma”, Comptes rendus des séances de l‘Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 146ᵉ année, 2, 743-771.
2. Abdallah 2011 K. Abdallah, « Mosaïque d’Héraclès découverte à Homs (Syrie centrale) », M. Şahin (ed.), 11th International Colloquium on Ancient Mosaics, Bursa, 1-13.
3. Abdallah 2015 K. Abdallah, « Mosaïque funéraire découverte dans la région d’Apamée, La mosaïque gréco-romaine », XII Colloquio AIEMA, Venezia, 1-13.
4. Abdallah 2018 K. Abdallah, Les mosaïques romaine et byzantine de la Syrie du Nord, T.213, fascicule 3, Beyrouth.
5. Abdul Massih 2012 J. Abdul-Massih, « La mission archéologique libano-syrienne de Cyrrhus, bilan des travaux 2006-2011 », CRAI, 156e année, 1, 303-330.
6. Augé - Linant de Bellefonds 1986 C. Augé - P. Linant de Bellefonds, “Dionysos (in peripheria orientali)”, LIMC III.1, 514-531, LIMC III.2, 406-419.
7. Balty 1977 J. Balty, Mosaïques antiques de la Syrie, Bruxelles.
8. Balty 1981 J. Balty, « La mosaïque antique du Proche-Orient: des origines à la Tétrarchie », Aufstieg und Niedergang des Römischen Welt , Berlin, 347-428 pl. 1-46.

9. Balty 1990 J. Balty, La mosaïque de Sarrîn (Osrhoène), IFAPO, Bibliothèque archéologique et historique 140, Beyrouth.
10. Balty 1991 J. Balty, « Notes d‘iconographie dionysiaque : la mosaïque de Sarrîn (Osrhoène) », MEFRA 103, 1,19-33.
11. Balty 1995 J. Balty, Mosaïques antiques du Proche-Orient, Paris.
12. Balty 2004 J. Balty, Les mosaïques d‘Antioche : style et rayonnement, Topoi. Orient-Occident, Supplément 5. Antioche de Syrie, Histoires, images et traces de la ville antique, Lyon.
13. Balty 2006 J. Balty, « Mosaïque romaine, mosaïque Sassanide : Jeux d’influence réciproque », Ērān und Anērān. Studien zu den Beziehungen zwischen dem Sasanidenreich und der Mittelmeerwelt,
14. J. Wiesehöfer - Ph. Huyse Beiträge (Oriens et Occidens 13), Stuttgart, 29-44.
15. Balty 2021 J. Balty, “Echo de la Télèté dionysiaque dans les mosaïques romaines tardives”, N. Belayche - F. Massa (eds.), Mystery Cults in Visual Representation in Graeco-Roman Antiquity, Leiden/Boston, 80-98.
16. Bierl 2013 A.Bierl, “Dionysos in Old Comedy. Staging of Experiments on Myth and Cult”, A. Bernabé-M. H. de Jáuregui- A. I. Jiménez -S. Cristóbal- R. M. Hernández (eds.), Redefining Dionysos, Berlin/Boston, 366-385.
17. Bruhl 1953 A. Bruhl, Liber Pater : origine et expansion du culte dionysiaque à Rome et dans le monde romain, Paris.
18. Chavot 2013 P. Chavot, Les bestiaires des dieux, Paris.
19. Chéhab 1958 M. Chéhab, Mosaïques du Liban, Bulletin du Musée de Beyrouth, t. XIV-XV, Paris.
20. Cimok 2000 F. Cimok, A corpus of Antioch Mosaics, İstanbul.
21. Dardenay et al. 2016 A. Dardenay - A. Allroggen-Bedel - H. Eristov - A. Grand-Clément - M-L.Maraval - C. Marotta - N. Monteix - E. Rosso, Herculanum, Des archives aux restitutions architecturales et décoratives, Chronique des activités archéologiques de l’École française de Rome [En ligne].
22. Darmon 2011 J-P. Darmon, “L‘épouse mystique de Zeugma : Ariane ou Psyché ? Encore une rétractation”, BAntFr 2004-2005, 83-95.
23. Darmon 2018 J-P. Darmon, Mythes et images en mosaïque antique : scripta (musi)varia : recueil de textes (1963-2013), Paris.
24. Daude 1995 C. Daude, “Interprétation, évaluation : le texte entre voir et dire”, Annales littéraires de l‘université de Besançon 582, 23-66.
25. Décor I C. Balmelle – M. Blanchard Lemée – J. Christophe – J.-P. Darmon – A.-M. Guimier Sorbets – H. Lavagne – R. Prudhomme – H. Stern, Le Décor géométrique de la mosaïque romaine I, Paris, 1985.
26. Décor II C. Balmelle – M. Blanchard-Lemée – J.- P. Darmon – S. Gozlan – M. P. Raynaud, Le Décor géométrique de la mosaïque romaine II, Paris, 2002.
27. Dunbabin 2008 K. Dunbabin, “Domestic Dionysus? Telete in mosaics from Zeugma and the Late Roman Near East”, JRA 21, 1, 193-224.
28. Euripide Euripide, Tome VI, Bacchantes, texte établi et traduit par H. Grégoire, avec la collaboration de J. Meunier Paris, 1979.
29. Eraslan 2015 Ş. Eraslan, “Dionysus and Ariadne in the light of Antiocheia and Zeugma Mosaics”, Anatolia Antiqua XXIII, 55-61.
30. Foucher 1963 L. Foucher, La maison de la procession dionysiaque à El Jem, Paris.
31. Gasparri 1986 C. Gasparri, “Bacchus”, LIMC III.1-2, 540–566, pl. 428-456.
32. Ghirshman 1956 R. Ghirshman, Bîchâpour, Vol. II, Les mosaïques sassanides, Paris.
33. Goossens 1943 G. Goossens, Hiérapolis de Syrie. Essai de monographie historique. Recueil de Travaux d‘Histoire et de Philologie, 3e série, 12e fascicule, Louvain.
34. Goette 1991 H. R Goette, “Alpheios in Syrien : Zu mosaic in Tartus”, DaM 5, 71-80.
35. Holt 1989 F. L. Holt, Alexandre The Great and Bacteria: The formation of a Greek Frontier in Central Asia, (Mnemosyne, Supplement 104), Leiden, New York.
36. Levi 1947 D. Levi, Antioch Mosaic Pavements I-II, Princeton.
37. Lucien de Samosate Lucien de Samosate, la déesse syrienne, traduction nouvelle avec prolégomènes et notes par M. Meunier, Paris, 1980.
38. Nofal 2021 O. Nofal, Les scènes mythologiques sur les mosaïques romaines en Syrie (en arabe), Damas.
39. Önal et al. 2007 M. Önal - F. Bulgan - H. Güllüce, Belkis Zeugma and its Mosaics, İstanbul.
40. Otto 1965 W. F. Otto, Dionysus Myth and Cult, Bloomington.
41. Pailler 2009 J. M. Pailler, Les mots de Bacchus, Toulouse.
42. Palagia 1981 O. Plagia,“Alpheios“, LIMC I.2, 576-578.
43. Pouyado - Jaquet-Rimassa 2003 V. Pouyadou - P. Jacquet-Rimassa, Cratère et Kottabe, objets symposiaques? Certes, mais aussi dionysiaques, Pallas 63, 55-75, XI-XV.
44. Schröder 1989 S. F. Schröder, Römische Bacchusbilder in der Tradition des Apollon Lykeios, Roma.
45. Sinclair 2013 A. Sinclair , « Colour and the Classical Theatre Mask », Ancient Planet Online Journal 4, 3-20.
46. Talgam - Weiss 2004 R. Talgam - Z. Weiss, The mosaics of the house of Dionysos at Sepphoris : excavated by E. M. Meyers, E. Netzer and C. L. Meyers, Jerusalem.
47. Turcan 1966 R. Turcan, Les sarcophages romains à représentations dionysiaques : essai de chronologie et d’histoire religieuse, Paris.