Bronze Age hoyuks, Iron Age hilltop forts, Roman poleis and Byzantine pilgrimage in Germia and its vicinity. 'Connectivity' and a lack of 'definite places' on the central Anatolian high plateau

Abstract

Germia was a well-connected Byzantine polis in western-central Anatolia, famous for its healing waters and a church of St Michael. After three years of survey the site can now be reconstructed: it included several other churches and monasteries, but little space for ordinary residential buildings. This comes as a surprise, but can be explained by the discovery of two older Roman cities within walking-distance of Germia, where the ordinary people seem to have lived. One of these cities, Mantalos, was home to a local cult of the pagan god Men. This may explain why the Christian healing centre was established at Germia. Later, Mantalos shed its pagan legacy and was apparently renamed Eudoxias after a homonymous member of the Theodosian dynasty. No Roman or Byzantine settlement of the region has a history extending back beyond the Iron Age, when the population retreated to fortified hilltop settlements and many sizable Bronze Age hoyuks were deserted. Settlement locations changed often and grew little in central Anatolia, and this may be blamed on the uniform landscape of the high plateau; it lacks the Mediterranean's diverse geography of 'definite places' that would favour one site above others and ensure its continuity and growth.