Blacksmithing workshop discovered in ancient city of Sillyon
ANTALYA
A blacksmithing and knife workshop from the Seljuk period have been unearthed during the excavations in the ancient city of Sillyon.
Excavations continue in the 4,000-year-old ancient city of Sillyon, located in Antalya’s Serik district and home to many civilizations.
The city attracts attention with its Roman theater, bath, tower, Seljuk-era mosque, Turkish cemetery and the largest stadium in the region.
Excavations are being carried out with a team of 40 people under the presidency of Pamukkale University’s faculty member, Murat Taşkıran.
Taşkıran said that visitors of Sillyon could see traces of the Hittites, Persians, Hellenistic period, Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire and Anatolian Seljuk State.
Stating that Sillyon came to the fore with its defense due to its geographical location and that it was one of the cities that Alexander the Great could not besiege during his Anatolian campaign, Taşkıran said that they found important traces of urban life during their excavations.
Taşkıran explained that they were working around a mosque in the city that they believed belonged to the Ottoman Empire, adding, “We have revealed with scientific data that the mosque belongs to the Seljuk period. We found a blacksmith’s workshop and a knife workshop around the mosque from the Seljuk period. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that ‘we found traces of the famous Serik knife in Sillyon.’”
Details of longest stadium revealed at excavations
Noting that the longest stadium in the region is in Sillyon, Taşkıran said: “We uncovered the details of the stadium during the excavations. The stadium is currently 245 meters long and 65 meters wide. Although Sillyon is a small-scale city, we have seen that there are settlements like villages and towns attached to it. It is a city that dominates a wide area from the seaside in Belek to the foothills of the Taurus Mountains.”
“Menadora, a benevolent woman from Sillyon, and her family used all their assets for the development of the city during the Roman Empire. Stadium, Roman bath and monumental tombs were built and the city’s surroundings were expanded,” he added.
