Samsat


Samsat is a small town and district in the Adıyaman Province of Turkey, situated on the upper Euphrates river. Halil Fırat from the Justice and Development Party was elected mayor in the local elections in March 2019. The current Kaymakam is Halid Yıldız.
Known as Samosata in antiquity,. The current site of Samsat is comparatively new, however, being built only since 1989 when the old town of Samosata was flooded during construction of the Atatürk Dam. Indeed, to some extent the re-construction of the town is still ongoing A even more ancient tell nearby dating back to the paleolithic era has survived to the current day.
In 2016 the town had a population of 3789, down from 4720 in 2008 and a peak of 6.917 in 2000.

Name

The town was a center of the Hittite kingdom in the Iron Age and was called Kummuh in that period.
By the Hellenistic Period, the Greeks and Romans knew the city as Samosata or Samosate.
The most commonly accepted origin of the name suggests that ancient Samosata was so named in honour of Sames I, an Orontid king of Armenia and Sophene who ruled around 260 BCE. The name of the city passed on to Շամուշատ Shamushat, and ܫܡܝܫܛ šmīšaṭ.

History

Antiquity

The region was conquered by Sargon in 708 BC and became a province of Assyria.
Control of the region of Commagene was apparently held by the Orontid dynasty since the 3rd century BCE, who also ruled over Armenia and Sophene. These seem to have held Commagene continuously from the time of Sames I, as the later kings of Commagene of the 2nd century BCE traced their lineage back to them.
King Antichos III was the last effective ruler, and his death cause a political crisis of succession into which Rome intervened in 72 AD.
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It was at Samosata that Julian II had ships made in his expedition against Shapur II, and it was a natural crossing-place in the struggle between Heraclius and Chosroes in the 7th century.
Samosata was the birthplace of several renowned people from antiquities such as Lucian and Paul of Samosata.

Medieval history

The Arabs took the city from the Byzantines. Safwan bin Muattal died and is buried in Samsat. The 13th century was very hard for the town. Rüknettin Süleyman II of the Anatolian Seljuks captured Samsat in 1203, and it was looted in 1237 by the Harzemşah. Then it was invaded by the Mongol Emperor Hülagü Khan in 1240 and later also by the Dulkadiroğulları.
It was absorbed into the Ottoman Empire by Yıldırım Beyazıt in 1392 and in 1401 it was destroyed by Timur. In 1516, the ottoman Sultan Selim I recaptured it for the Ottomans. It lost its old importance in the Ottoman administration and became the center of a sanjak.

Modern times

During the republican period, it the towns population decreased. In 1960, Samsat was transformed into a district center and connected to the province of Adıyaman.
The city of Samsat was evacuated from the old settlement on 5 March 1988 due to the construction of the Atatürk Dam. A new location for the settlement was announced through the law No. 3433 dated 21 April 1988. The historical Samsat submerged in 1989 as the Atatürk Dam was filled with the water of the Euphrates river. The new town was built beside the new waterline by the Turkish government to house the displaced residents.

In Christianity

In the Christian martyrology, seven Christian martyrs were crucified in 297 in Samosata for refusing to perform a pagan rite in celebration of the victory of Maximian over the Sassanids: Abibus, Hipparchus, James, Lollian, Paragnus, Philotheus, and Romanus. Saint Daniel the Stylite was born in a village near Samosata; Saint Rabbulas, venerated on 19 February, who lived in the 6th century at Constantinople, was also a native of Samosata. A Notitia Episcopatuum of Antioch in the 6th century mentions Samosata as an autocephalous metropolis ; at the synod that reinstated Patriarch Photius I of Constantinople of 879, the See of Samosata had already been united to that of Amida. As in 586 the titular of Amida bears only this title, it must be concluded that the union took place between the 7th and the 9th centuries. Earlier bishops included Peperius, who attended the Council of Nicaea ; Saint Eusebius of Samosata, a great opponent of the Arians, killed by an Arian woman, honoured on 22 June; Andrew, a vigorous opponent of Cyril of Alexandria and of the Council of Ephesus.
Chabot gives a list of twenty-eight Syrian Miaphysite bishops. The Syrian bishopric probably lapsed in the 12th century. Samosata is included in the Catholic Church's list of titular sees, but no further titular bishops have been appointed for that eastern see since the Second Vatican Council.

Archaeology

Samsat Höyük is a tell located just north of the Samsat district of Adıyaman.
Archaeological research on the hill of Şehremuz in Samsat has uncovered relics from the 7000 BC Paleolithic era; the 5000 BC Neolithic, 3000 BC Chalcolithic and 3000 to 1200 BC Bronze Ages. The ancient city of Ḫaḫḫum was located nearby; it is recorded as a source of gold for ancient Sumeria.
The first excavations were conducted in 1964 and 1967 under the direction of T. Goell. In fact, the settlement was known and famous before these excavations. Then, in 1977, under the Lower Euphrates Project, which was aimed at identifying and saving the archaeological settlements that will remain within the water collection area of Karakaya and Atatürk Dams. Surface surveys were conducted under the direction of Mehmet Özdoğan. In these studies, it was concluded that the settlement was permanently inhabited from the Halaf Period to the Ottoman Period. The following year, the excavations started in 1978, except for 1980, until 1987, Ankara University, Faculty of Language and History-Geography Professor. Dr. It was conducted by the team led by Nimet Özgüç. These excavations were carried out on a very wide area, including the lower city and surrounding walls.
Coins belonging to the 12th - 13th centuries AD were identified during the excavations in the layers dating to the late phases of the Middle Ages. Of these Seljuk sultans I. Gıyaseddin Keyhusrev, Ala al-Din Keykubbad,, II. Gıyaseddin Keyhusrev, IV. Rükn el-Din The coins of Kılıç Arslan, as well as the coins of Saladin printed in Harran, were uncovered.
The collection of glassware with cups, glasses and bowls is very rich. Other finds include oil lamps, ivory comb, fragrance bottle, terracotta lamps, bone spoons, leaf-shaped marble sconces and coins.
The walls of the Seljuk Period, built on a solid Byzantine fortress, were preserved intact. The inscription on the limestone of this fortification was studied by a master calligrapher. The landfill belonged to Diyarbekr Şah Karaaslan.
The center of the palace, which is thought to be the central courtyard, is 14,65 X 20,55 meters and it has a mosaic corner.
The skeletons of five people thrown into a 1.8 meter diameter well of the Islamic Period were found. At the bottom of the skeleton at the bottom of the skeleton, there are five gold coins and silver coins from the Abbasid Period. One of the gold coins belongs to Harunürreşid and the other to Mutevekkil.
Today the settlement is 700 meters inside the Euphrates but before inundation it was 37–40 meters above the plain level and has an area of 500 x 350 meters. The most steep slope is the eastern slope and the lowest slope is the southwest facing slope. The mound consists of a terrace and a sub-city. Samsat Höyük as an archaeological site is considered to have been destroyed due to the importance it carries in the dam lake.
The old town of Samosta below the tell was not excavated

Geography

The new Samsat district is a peninsula surrounded on the three sides by the Atatürk Dam Lake. The distance from the sea to the city center is 47 km. The district is a plain that descends to the south.
In the hot summers and dry winters, while the Mediterranean climate is warm and rainy, it is similar to the South East Anatolian climate due to the low relative humidity. However, due to the Atatürk Dam Lake in recent years, the humidity has increased relatively.