1. KNIDOS KENT SURLARI: KAP KRIO SAVUNMA SISTEMI VE 56 NUMARALI KULE (?).
- Author
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BÜYÜKÖZER, Aytekin
- Subjects
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CURTAIN walls , *URBAN planning , *ARCHAEOLOGICAL excavations , *SMALL cities , *STRUCTURAL analysis (Engineering) , *ORTHOGRAPHIC projection , *COASTAL archaeology - Abstract
Cnidus, one of the coastal cities of the Carian region, is located at the endpoint of the Datça peninsula. The city is built on a sloping terrain descending towards the sea which faces south toward the small island (Cape Krio) just in front of it. In the 4th century BC, Cnidus experienced a civic movement that was interpreted as a transfer by some researchers. A reorganization of a vast majority of the ruins visible today was undertaken according to an orthogonal plan on the ruins of the Archaic and Classical Periods. This arrangement was protected by a city wall of the Geländemauer type. In this study, the curtain walls and towers of Cape Krio, which are an important part of the city wall, will be examined, and a new proposal will be presented on the function of tower 56 (?) at the eastern end of Cape Krio, about which there is a discussion whether it is a tower or a lighthouse. Finally, the construction date of the city wall which is dated back to 330 BC will be discussed. Cape Krio has the appearance of a hill just next to the mainland, ending with a steep cliff in the south, easy to defend and rising from north to south. Some researchers have concluded that Cape Krio was the location of the first settlement in Cnidus. Whether the first settlement in the city was in Cape Krio or not will be clarified as a result of the ongoing archaeological excavations; in any case the importance of this small island for the city cannot be ignored. For this reason, the island was included in the defense system along with the mainland within the framework of the reconstruction activities in the 4th century BC, and suitable areas for the structures were created with the terraces formed on the northern slope. The topographic structure of Cape Krio provided the island with a natural defense, and missing sections were supported by walls and towers. The west and east of the island have lines of defense independent from one another. The land is very steep in the south of Cape Krio, and it turns into vertical cliffs in most places. For this reason, no defense line was needed in the south. The walls begin from the southwest starting point of the fault scarp in the west of the island, follow the fault scarp and connect to the tower at the entrance of the Military Port. Along this line, the walls form steps and offsets by changing directions in some sections following the topography. There are 8 towers from the beginning of the walls to the entrance of the Military Port. While the curtain walls have a mixed wall technique consisting of trapezoidal, rectangular and polygonal blocks, an isodomic technique from rectangular blocks almost without exception was preferred in the towers. There are only 2 towers in the east of the island. A mixed wall technique consisting of trapezoidal, rectangular and polygonal blocks was used in the walls starting from the second fault scarp at the east end, which is used as a quarry for the construction of the southern breakwater of the Trade Port, and continuing towards the south. In the towers with extremely poor protection, isodomic walls from rectangular blocks were preferred. Different wall techniques are seen in Cnidus curtain walls and towers, and different possibilities are suggested as to the reason for this practice. The most valid possibility for this is that the land was shared by different groups to complete the project in a short time. The function of tower 56 on the east of Cape Krio is controversial. There are theories about the structure being a lighthouse or a defensive tower. However, the evaluations made considering its location, measurements, wall technique and plan have shown that the structure is similar to those found in temenos or peribolos type graves, which are commonly seen in the architectural repertoire of Cnidus, especially in the eastern necropolis. For this reason, even though the city is located within the city wall, we think that the structure is an example of the typical temenos/peribolos graves of Cnidus. In connection with the idea that the city had been relocated, the walls of Cnidus were dated back to 330 BC, and this date was accepted by different researchers without question. However, the idea that the city had been transferred and therefore the date in question, are open to discussion. Regardless of the discussions of the transfer of the city and considering the important structures in the period when it was reorganized on an orthogonal plan as well as sculpture in these structures, we can definitively assert that this planning had taken place at an earlier date. Considering that urban planning cannot be carried out independent of the defense system, and that the defense problem must be solved first to organize a settlement, the city walls must have been completed in the second quarter of the 4th century BC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020