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In the spring of 1538 the largest armada ever known was being formed, consisting of 600 ships belonging to Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, Venice, Portugal, Genoa, the Vatican, Florence, Malta and other European states. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V appointed Andrea Doria, the most celebrated admiral of 16th century Europe, as commander-in-chief of the fleet. The main objective of this great Christian armada was to destroy the Ottoman fleet under the command of Barbaros Hayreddin Pasa, Governor of Algeria and High Admiral of the Ottoman Empire, since the fleet’s supremacy in the Mediterranean was a serious threat to the European countries. At the beginning of September 1538 the fleet gathered in the Ionian Sea in readiness for a major attack. The news soon reached Istanbul, and the Ottoman government informed Barbaros Hayreddin Pasa who was with the fleet at the island of Euboea in the Aegean. Andrea Doria launched a bombardment of Preveza, a port in what is now western Greece and which at that time was the most important Ottoman naval base in the Mediterranean, sinking some of the Turkish ships anchored in the harbour. Barbaros Hayreddin Pasa sent a reconnaissance fleet of 20 vessels under the command of Turgut Reis into the Ionian Sea, and when he arrived off the island of Zanta (the modern Zakinthos) in the southern Ionian Islands he observed a fleet of 40 vessels belonging to the Christian armada. News was sent back to Barbaros, who led the Ottoman fleet from Euboea around the Morean coast to the naval base at Methoni. Learning of the approach of the enemy, Andrea Doria lifted the siege of Preveza and withdrew northwards to Corfu. Meanwhile the Ottoman fleet sailed north to Preveza at the northwest extremity of the Gulf of Amvrakikos and through the narrow channel into Preveza Harbour. This was what Andrea Doria had been hoping for. He had predicted that the Turkish fleet would avoid a battle in the open sea against the superior forces of the Christian fleet, which had three times the number of vessels. With the Ottoman fleet trapped at Preveza a Christian victory was certain.
On Friday 27 September Barbaros Hayreddin Pasa gathered his captains to discuss the enemy’s strategy and decide upon their own. In view of the superiority of arms of the Christian fleet, he proposed to take the initiative and sail out of Preveza to the attack. He argued that the Turkish fleet had the advantages of greater manoeuvring ability and longer range guns. That night the Ottoman fleet made its preparations and set out before daybreak on the morning of Saturday 28 September. A few hours after sunrise the two fleets came face to face. The Ottoman fleet was divided into three squadrons, the ships in the centre commanded by Barbaros Hayreddin Pasa, those to the right by Salih Reis, and those to the left by Seydi Ali Reis. Turgut Reis remained behind in command of the reserve ships. All three Ottoman squadrons began firing on the Christian fleet, and within a few hours half were sunk. At this unexpected defeat, Andrea Doria decided to cut his losses and made a rapid withdrawal. The Battle of Preveza, one of the largest in naval history, thus ended with the victory of Barbaros Hayreddin Pasa.
Born in 1473 Barbaros Hayreddin Pasa began life at sea on pirating expeditions along the coast of North Africa with his elder brother Oruç Reis, winning fame and notoriety throughout the Mediterranean, and conquering most of Algeria, which was subsequently ruled first by Oruç and then by Hayreddin. They accepted Ottoman suzerainty in 1519, and in 1533 Hayreddin Pasa was appointed high admiral of the Ottoman fleet by Süleyman the Magnificent. Under his command the Ottoman fleet became the most powerful in the Mediterranean.
At the advanced age of 70, Barbaros Hayreddin Pasa won his last and one of his greatest victories at Nice. On 5 August 1543, a fleet of Turkish and allied French ships besieged and took the city of Nice from the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. The city was returned to France on 20 August. Several hundred years later a magnificent painting portraying the Ottoman fleet at anchor in Toulon harbour was hung in the city hall of Toulon, France’s main naval base, in commemoration of Barbaros Hayreddin Pasa.
Beneath the painting, which remained there for several years, was a poem, whose last line read, ‘Here you see Barbarossa and his army who came to the aid of us all.’ Hayreddin Pasa died in Istanbul in 1546, two years after this battle, and was buried in his mausoleum situated next to the Naval Museum in Besiktas. The modern Turkish poet Yahya Kemal Beyatli has described his return from campaign in these lines: Whence these sounds of cannon on the horizon of the sea? / Perhaps Barbaros is returning with his fleet / Does he come from the Archipelago, Tunisia or Algeria? / Two hundred armed vessels on free horizons / They come from sighting the newly risen moon / From which dawn do those blessed ships come?
Heading inland from the olive clad shores of Turkey’s northern Aegean coast a steep conical hill reminiscent of an eagle’s eyrie comes into sight. Nearer still and the ruins of Pergamum’s acropolis can be discerned on its summit, overlooking the fertile plain watered by the Bakırçay (the ancient Kaikos).
Today’s Bergama, the Turkish name for Pergamum, covers most of the lower city on the plain. It is an attractive mixture of ancient remains and historic and modern buildings. Ochre painted old Turkish houses with bay windows and wooden balconies are interspersed with traditional workshops. The town has managed to combine modernisation with conservation in a sensitive balance which delights visitors, thanks to local awareness of the value of Bergama’s heritage.
Although Pergamum can be traced back to origins in the 12th century BC, and bathed in the reflected glory of King Croesus of Lydia in the 6th century BC, the city’s real rise to fame began after the death of Alexander the Great. When his empire was divided up the Aegean region came under the control of his general Lysimachus. Following his death in battle in 281 BC, Lysimachus’s treasurer Philetaerus stepped into his master’s shoes, and proceeded to construct a great new city at Pergamum.
His great-nephew Attalus I became an energetic and progressive leader who ruled his kingdom from Pergamum between 241 and 197 BC, and is best remembered for his single-handed and miraculous victory against the invading Gauls from western Europe who estahlished the state of Galatia. The psychological boost which this achievement lent to the Hellenic civilisation of the Aegean was more significant than any strategic gain. The day before the decisive battle Attalus treated his army to a feast of sheep’s livers from hundreds of animals sacrificed to Athena, patron goddess of Pergamum. It is said that the soldiers were amazed to read the word “victory” on the liver. Shouts of joy rang through the air at this sign sent by the goddess. The next day they soundly defeated the Gauls. Attalus then turned on the Seleucids and drove them southwards beyond the Toros mountains. Pergamum’s most splendid monuments date from this period, including the celebrated Altar of Zeus which became one of the seven wonders of the world.
Attalus I was succeeded by his eldest son Eumenes II, who maintained the kingdom at its powerful and wealthy height. Next to the enormous Temple of Athena with its Doric and Ionic columns was the twostorey library containing two hundred thousand papyrus scrolls stored on damp proof shelves in the care of trained librarians. This library rivaled the legendary Alexandrian Library established by Cleopatra, who in annoyance forbade the export of papyrus reeds. However this ban only galvanised the creative powers of the Pergamenes, who promptly invented parchment as a more than adequate substitute. The word parchment itself is a corruption of Pergamum.
The city became a renowned centre of science, philosophy and literature, producing such famous names as Pythias and Menandros. The terraced stopes of the acropolis rock were adorned with palaces and gardens, while the Altar of Zeus with its 120 metres long reliefs was a symbol of Pergamum’s supremacy. The remains of temples of Dionysus and Demter, stadiums, agoras, and gymnasiums with the names of some pupils still visible on the seats, stretch down to the foot of the acropolis. The theatre here is Turkey’s oldest and best preserved ancient Greek theatre, and the view over the countryside far below is breathtaking.
Attalus II, who succeeded Eumenes, inherited his father’s warrior temperament. He challenged both Bithynia in the west and the Seleucids to the east. After sacking Bithynia as far as the shore of the Marmara Sea, he turned south to the Toros, and forced the Seleucids back as far as Side. Having failed to capture Side, however, he resolved to found his own Mediterranean port, and called it Attalai, or “city of Attalus”, today’s Antalya.
The last member of the dynasty was Attalus III, who won a name in history for a very different reason. Before dying childness he bequeathed his kingdom to Rome, the burgeoning empire which Pergamum had been at pains to keep at arm’s length. This strange gesture was perhans prompted by realisation that Pergamum would gain nothing in the long run from resisting inevitable subjection by Rome. Unwelcome as this subservience to Rome was for the Pergamenes, it was under the Romans that Pergamum enjoyed its second golden age. In 31 BC the Emperor Augustus invested Pergamamum with the title of Neokoros, given to cities which had won the right to practise the cult of emperor worship.
Under Hadrian (117-138 AD) the city reached is pinnacle of prosperity and importance. The imposing temple dedicated to Trajan and Hadrian, who were worshipped as gods, dates from this period. Reconstruction of the temple by German archaeologists is almost complete, revealing this building in all its original magnificence.
Worship of the ancient Greek goddess Isis inspired the Serapis cult which arose in the Hellenic era, and the Temple to Serapis is popularly known as the Red Courtyard because it is built of red brick. Another highlight of any visit to Pergamum is the Aesculapium, a complex of buildings, courtyards and the temple itself, later converted into a church by the Byzantines.
Dedicated to Aesculapius, a legendary figure worshipped as god of health by the Greeks and Romans, the Aesculapium was one of the first psychiatric hospitals of the ancient world, originally founded in the 4th century BC. According to legend Aesculapius was the son of the god Apollo and Coronis, daughter of the king of Thessaly. Coronis made the mistake of committing adultery, and when the ravens carried the had news to Apollo, his with sister Artemis killed Coronis with her bow and arrow. Thereupon Apollo saved her unborn son and entrusted it to Kheiron, a wise physician who lived in the mountains. The child, named Aesculapius, learnt the art of healing and soon surpassed his master to the point of discovering the secret of reviving the dead. Zeus was so enraged by this audacity on the part of a semi-mortal that be sent a thunderbolt to strike him dead. Aesculapius died but his knowledge of medicine lived on.
The Aesculapium is linked to the acropolis by the Sacred Road, which is lived by what is left of Ionic and Corinthian columns. The first building along this road is the Temple of Aesculapius, reminiscent of an Eskimo’s igloo. In the courtyard at the entrance to the complex is the pedestal of a statue which once stood here. Here worked the famous physician Galius, who wrote volumes of treaties on every aspect of medical practice, from caesarian section to pathology. Like Aristides, a philosopher who spent 13 years here after suffering a nervous breakdown and recorded his life at Pergamum in a series of poems, you might take off your shoes, walk barefoot to the odeon, run around the earth track for a while, then take a mud bath before listening to a concert of music soothing to the spirit. Finally take a drink of water from the sacred fountain and retire to your bed to dream for the benefit of the physicians who will interpent them the next day.
As you bid farewell to Bergama, you will not feel as if you are departing from a ruined city, but experience a feeling of unity with the past, of continuity. The hospitable inhabitants of today, who weave their intricate carpet patterns and carve onyx into decorative objects, are walking in the footsteps of their predecessors, and make you who have trodden the same soil feel a part of their heritage.
It is strange to stand in the largest and most advanced Neolithic settlement ever discovered, a town first founded 9000 years ago and inhabited for several thousand years. In an age when primitive villages were as far as most ex-cave dwellers got, the town of Çatalhöyük housed over 10,000 people in homes of sun-dried brick arranged like the cells of a honeycomb, and with exuberant murals on the walls. The sensation of being close to the mysterious depths of history is combined with the thrill of the detective work involved in tracing the origins of our own civilisation.
The 15 metres high mound in central Turkey north of the Toros mountains was first excavated in the 1960s by James Mellaart, but the site is sadly a good example of the damage which can be done to archaeological evidence by impatience and lack of forethought. Although the figurines which were discovered in the first excavations of this remarkable site and which are now in the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations in Ankara are spectacular, the equally remarkable architecture of this site has suffered for the sake of these movable finds. The walls of the houses revealed in that first excavation collapsed as a result of erosion in the intervening years.
In 1993 the British archaeologist Ian Hodder resumed excavations, this time patiently taking full precautions to protect the site. The exposed walls are now being repaired and further houses and secrets gradually being uncovered. Despite the large population no buildings of greater size or magnificence which would indicate the existence of a ruling chieftain or class have emerged. Çatalhöyük appears to have been a model egalitarian society. Archaeologists are also puzzled as to why the city did not expand beyond its original boundaries over the thousands of years it was inhabited. Instead the settlement was rebuilt over the same area, eventually forming a settlement mound 25 metres high. Prof. Hodder is trying to answer the question of why the people did not disperse over the fertile and empty land around them, and the most likely theory at present is that the site was regarded as sacred. This sacred character may have been due to ancestral bones buried in the town. Prof. Hodder explains that an isolated arm bone found in one house is strong evidence that this body was buried in parts. This unusual phenomenon suggest that the skeleton may have belonged to an individual regarded as sacred, and that his bones were buried at diverse points around the town, so delineating a sacred area.
Whatever the truth of the matter, the inhabitants of Çatalhöyük certainly practised customs which seem strange to us today, such as burying their dead inside their own homes. The body was placed in a basket with a red painted stone and plastered over before being interred in the floor. How did they deal with the terrible smell which would have come from the decomposing bodies ? The murals on the houses walls have revealed the answer. The dead were left outside the town to be stripped by vultures and dried in the sun before being retrieved for burial.
The excavation team at Çatalhöyük is equipped only with tiny brushes and mallets the size of their palm. Everyhing of interest which they find is numbered, and the discarded soil is then mixed with water and sifted through by local village women to make sure that no fragment has been overlooked. In one corner tiny bone fragments, plant remains and obsidian fragments are separated into different piles.
The buildings which are revealed are theated by special techniques to preserve them from erosion, but the murals pose a special problem. These crucial witnesses to life 9000 to 7000 years ago have come to no harm under the soil, but almost the moment they are exposed to sunlight the colours fade away. So that these unique finds are not destroyed they are removed together with the wall and the soil covering them, and then treated to preserve the pigments.
Prof. Hodder estimates that excavations at Çatalhöyük will take 25 years to complete. In other words he is prepared to dedicate his entire working life to this single site. Over this time he plans to reveal between 50 and 100 houses. The extraordinary finds here inslude the earliest known textile fragments, the first containers made of wood and clay, and the first wall paintings.
Who knows what else might be found at Çatalhöyük, where excavations sponsored by Visa are continuing. This precocious culture has put the chronology of human civilisation in a completely new light, forcing archaeologists to alter many of the assumptions about the agriculture, economic life and technology of Neolithic man.