An ampulla, a small round vessel used for sacred purposes like carrying holy water or oil and often bought as souvenirs of pilgrimages, was found at the excavations of the ancient city of Pergamon in Türkiye's western Izmir.
Founded in the third century B.C. by the Hellenistic Attalid dynasty, Pergamon served as the capital city of the kingdom for 15 decades. The ancient city was home to many civilizations and is a place where communities lived uninterruptedly for more than 2,500 years. Pergamon was home to an amphitheater that could seat 50,000 people and a theater for 30,000 people, the second largest library in the ancient world as well as the first hospital.
Pergamon, which hosted rulers for thousands of years, including Macedonian King Alexander the Great, the Romans, Seljuks and Ottomans, overlooks fertile lands and water resources from the high hill on which it was founded. The ancient city was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2014 thanks to its outstanding historical value. "Pergamon is a testimony to the unique and integrated aesthetic achievement of the civilizations. It incorporates Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman structures, reflecting Paganism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam, preserving their cultural features within the historical landscape,” UNESCO says on its website.
The ongoing excavations have been recently focused on the Red Basilica in the ancient city, located in the Bergama district of Izmir. Initially discovering a house with a peristyle (a continuous porch formed by a row of columns surrounding the perimeter of a building) near the Red Basilica, archaeologists later unearthed an ampulla. Explaining that their teams have mostly worked on the acropolis to date, professor Felix Pirson, the director of the German Archaeological Institute in Istanbul and head of excavations in Pergamon, stated that they find new things as they sustain their studies in different parts of the city.
Highlighting that they concentrated on the area of the Red Basilica, he said: "In addition to the new mosaics and layers in the house here, we came across a finding that we can define as a pilgrim bottle. This artifact called ampulla appears to belong to the early Christian period."
While a new museum was set to be built on the empty land next to the Red Basilica, archaeologists are carrying out our excavation work in the area at the newly discovered house, which features mosaics and a peristyle. "When the remains of the house with mosaics were discovered, we realized that it was an important structure and included it in our work program this year. It is understood that it was a large house from the Roman period and had a courtyard or a garden called peristyle in the middle, surrounded by galleries with columns. This house is located near the Red Basilica, which is a temple dedicated to the Egyptian gods. It is also important in this sense."
Adding that they are still trying to understand the structure, Pirson continued: "It seems to be from the Roman period, but interestingly, there are also remains from the Hellenistic period here. In the Hellenistic period, it was thought that the city was limited to the acropolis hill, now it is understood that the city was spread outside the walls at that time as well."
According to the professor, the ampulla is made of terracotta instead of glass. These types of earthenware artifacts are known as "pilgrim bottles" in international literature as they were used by people who visit the pilgrimage sites where Christian martyrs were laid to the rest in the early Byzantine period. The pilgrims of the period filled these vessels with the holy water at the pilgrimage sites and wore them like necklaces. Therefore, the experts in Pergamon thinks that their ampulla dates back to the fourth or fifth century A.D., coinciding with the same period of early Christianity.
Pirson said that the ampulla features a scene with St. Daniel, who is known as Danyal in Islam and accepted as a companion of Prophet Muhammad. "According to a common belief, Daniel lived in the sixth century B.C., fought against the King of Assyria and was thrown into a den full of lions to be punished. The lions did not attack him because he believed in one god. That's why he is considered a holy person. This story is mentioned in the Torah and the Bible," said Pirson.
The back of the ampulla depicts the legend of St. George and the dragon. St. George is known as "Aya Yorgi" by the Anatolian Greeks. "The legend tells of Saint George taming and slaying a dragon that demanded human sacrifices. It is a well known story from Bible again," Pirson stated. Therefore, it is understood that the main subject of art was stories about Christianity, and the religion determined all iconography at those times. "The discovery of this ampulla is important in that it sheds light on the period after the people of Pergamon became Christian. We already know that one of the first Christian communities in Anatolia was located in Pergamon, and even the earliest Christian martyr was given in Pergamon. But this information is generally known from written sources. It is of great importance for us that we now found an archaeological material that sheds light on that period. The fact that it has been preserved in particularly good condition and has stories on both sides makes this ampulla a much more significant finding," professor Pirson added.
