The silhouette of present-day Amasya rests on the narrow valley that the Yeşilırmak has cut between two mountain ranges and on Mount Harşena, which rises on the valley's northern bank. This limestone mass, shaped like a pointed cone, stands about 272 metres high and dates geologically to the Jurassic. Its name is believed to derive from the Hattic phrase "Harşuwana-Arşuawana", taken to mean "beautiful, blessed river city". On the south face of the mountain, on a slope that drops almost sheer to the river, the dark openings of burial chambers carved twenty-three centuries ago can still be seen. They are the most conspicuous record, written in stone, of Amaseia, the first capital of the Kingdom of Pontus.

The Long Prehistory of the Valley

The earliest inhabitants of Amasya are described by the soil before they are by any written source. According to the nomination dossier prepared for UNESCO's World Heritage Tentative List, the mound and fortress on the southern slope of Mount Harşena were continuously inhabited for more than five thousand years, from the Early Bronze Age to the end of the Ottoman Empire. The same dossier lists a sequence of civilizations in the city, from the Hittites to the Phrygians, from the Cimmerians to the Scythians, and from the Medes to the Persians. Archaeological research confirms settlement in the Bronze and Iron Ages. The city belonged first to the Hittite world and, after the middle of the 6th century BCE, to the Achaemenid Empire, and this tie was not superficial. A Persian-descended aristocracy and Iranian cults continued to shape the texture of the city and of the temple lands around it even in the Pontic period.

The development that gave the city its real identity came in the turmoil that followed the partition of Alexander the Great's empire. In northern Anatolia a dynasty of Persian origin founded its own kingdom. This dynasty descended from a noble family that had ruled the city of Cius (Kios) on the Marmara coast. The first known member of the family was Mithridates of Cius; his son Ariobarzanes II became satrap of Phrygia, rebelled against Artaxerxes as an ally of Athens, and was betrayed by his own son, Mithridates II. This Mithridates II, who stayed in power after Alexander's conquests, was a vassal of Antigonus, who briefly held Anatolia. According to B. C. McGing, in 302 BCE Antigonus had him killed on suspicion of collaborating with Cassander. His son of the same name was also to be killed, but Demetrius warned him and the young man fled east with only six horsemen. He went first to Cimiata in Paphlagonia and then to Amasya on the Cappadocian border. This man, later known by the epithet "Ktistes" (founder), is Mithridates I.

On the foundation date the sources diverge, and this must be stated plainly. The Turkish Wikipedia article on the Royal Rock Tombs places the founding of the kingdom in 302 BCE and the UNESCO dossier in 301 BCE, while the English Wikipedia article on Pontus and Jona Lendering's survey of Amasia give 281 BCE (or 280). According to the Pontus article, Mithridates reigned from 302 BCE onward and proclaimed himself king (basileus) in 281 BCE. The reasonable reading is that 302-301 BCE marks the beginning of the dynasty's dominion in this region, while 281 BCE is the year the royal title was taken. This text adopts 281 BCE for the birth of the kingdom. In these years Mithridates extended his realm westward toward the Sangarius (Sakarya) River, allied himself with the Galatians who had newly arrived in Anatolia, and defeated a force sent by Ptolemy.

The Logic of a Capital

Amaseia became the first capital of the kingdom as the place Mithridates Ktistes had made his base. Pontus was a state built on three cultural strands: Greek, Persian and native Anatolian. The Black Sea coast was the domain of Greek cities and maritime trade. In the interior beyond the Pontic Alps there was an Iranian aristocracy, Cappadocian and Paphlagonian peoples, and powerful temples with extensive estates. The principal city of the interior was Amaseia, and the kings established their palace and tombs there. The name Mithridates used by the kings means "given by Mithra" and plainly shows the dynasty's Iranian religious inheritance. The kingdom's gods were mostly syncretic: Ahuramazda was worshipped as Zeus Stratios, alongside the moon god Men Pharnakou and Ma, who was identified with Cybele.

The sources do not state the reason for the choice, but the geography speaks sufficiently. Strabo, himself a native of Amaseia (Geographika, XII.3.39), describes his home city as admirably devised, offering the advantages of a city and of a fortress at once: a high and precipitous rock descending abruptly to the river. On one side lies the wall along the riverbank within which the city is settled, and on the other the wall that runs up to the peaks. The two peaks are joined to one another by nature and are magnificently towered. Within this circuit lie "both the palaces and monuments of the kings". The neck that rises from the riverbank and the suburbs is five or six stadia in height on either side, and from the neck to the peaks there remains an ascent of one stadium, sharp and proof against any kind of force. Inside the rock two tube-like channels have been hewn, one toward the river and one toward the neck, so the city cannot be deprived of water. Two bridges span the river, one from the city to the suburbs and the other from the suburbs to the outside territory.

The valley widens as it moves away from the river and becomes the fertile plain Strabo calls Chiliocomum ("a thousand villages"). Then come the Diacopene and Pimolisene districts, all of them rich and extending to the Halys (Kızılırmak). Strabo gives the northern part of the Amaseians' country as about five hundred stadia in length, says it reaches south to Zelitis and Greater Cappadocia, and calls it the largest and best region of the area. The same work describes how the rivers water the Pontic plain, how famine never comes, and how wild grapes, pears, apples and nuts can be gathered from the mountainsides throughout the year. The UNESCO dossier presents the 300-metre Cilanbolu cistern inside the fortress, the 186-metre Dungeon Tunnel and the Ceylan Tunnel that reaches the river as monumental stepped water structures opened in the 1st century BCE with rock-tunnelling techniques. The details of the fortress and of Strabo's city are the subject of separate articles; here the emphasis falls on the capital and its tombs.

The First Century of the Kingdom

Ariobarzanes, son of Mithridates Ktistes, captured Amastris in 279 BCE and so gained the kingdom's first important Black Sea port; very little is known of his short reign. His son Mithridates II was attacked by the Galatians, received help from Heraclea Pontica, and sided with Antiochus Hierax in the Seleucid quarrel between brothers. He married the sister of Seleucus II and gave his daughter to Antiochus III, the aim being recognition of the new kingdom and a strong bond. Around 220 BCE he tried to take Sinope but failed. The sources say almost nothing of the reign of Mithridates III. The dates of the rulers vary by a few years according to the source: the Wikipedia article on Pontus gives roughly 250-220 BCE for Mithridates II and 220-185 BCE for Mithridates III, while the text of the same account at times carries Mithridates II down to 189 BCE.

The turning point is Pharnakes I. Fighting alongside Prusias I of Bithynia against Eumenes of Pergamon, Pharnakes took Sinope in 182 BCE; the Rhodians complained to Rome, but nothing came of it. By also seizing coastal cities such as Cotyora, Pharnakia and Trapezus, he came to dominate most of the northern Anatolian coast. His wars against Eumenes and Ariarathes of Cappadocia went well at first, but under the treaty of 179 BCE he had to give up the lands he had won in Galatia and Paphlagonia, and Tium; he kept Sinope. Looking north as well, Pharnakes made alliances with cities such as Chersonesus on the northern Black Sea and Odessos on the western coast. His brother Mithridates IV followed a peaceful, pro-Roman policy and in 155 BCE sent aid to Attalus II of Pergamon against Bithynia. The length of Pharnakes's reign also varies among sources: some give 185-170 BCE, while a Turkish account extends it to 160 BCE.

This last point matters for the history of Amaseia as a capital. Some writings and tourist accounts say that Amaseia was the capital "from 302 BCE to 26 BCE", or for "two and a half centuries". This does not agree with the sources. Having taken Sinope, Pharnakes made this port city, with its international connections, the dynasty's new seat. Strabo likewise writes that Sinope was where Mithridates VI was born and raised, that he regarded it as the "mother city of his kingdom", and that he honoured it especially. Amaseia was thus capital for roughly the first hundred years of the kingdom, approximately 281-182 BCE. Even when it fell into second place, it remained the city associated with the dynasty's palaces and tombs. The fact that English-language sources list the capitals as "Amaseia, Sinope" reflects this order.

Pharnakes's successor, Mithridates V Euergetes, remained a friend of Rome, sent ships and auxiliary forces to the Third Punic War in 149 BCE, and also supplied troops against Aristonicus, who had usurped the throne of Pergamon. In return for this loyalty he received Greater Phrygia. Hellenization quickened in his reign: he recruited Aegean mercenaries on a large scale, was honoured at Delos, and portrayed himself as Apollo on his coins. He was assassinated at Sinope in 121/120 BCE. Because his sons were children, the kingdom passed to the regency of his widow Laodice; when Laodice favoured the younger son Chrestus, Mithridates VI left the court. Later accounts say that during this time he wandered through Anatolia, built up an immunity to poison and learned the languages of his subjects. He returned in 113 BCE, imprisoned his mother and eventually had his brother killed.

The Age of Eupator and Amaseia Before Rome

The greatest ruler of the kingdom, Mithridates VI Eupator (120-63 BCE), fought three wars against Rome. He championed Greek and Iranian culture against Roman influence; he took Colchis, brought the Chersonesus cities of the Crimea under his authority, and acquired Lesser Armenia by inheritance. He allied himself with his son-in-law, the Armenian king Tigranes. In 88 BCE he seized most of Rome's newly created province of Asia and in the same year ordered the massacre known as the "Asiatic Vespers", in which at least eighty thousand Romans and Italians are said to have been killed. Sulla took Athens in 86 BCE and defeated the Pontic army at Chaeronea and Orchomenus; under the peace made at Dardanus in 85 BCE, Mithridates gave Asia back and kept the rest of his lands. The second war (83-82 BCE) ended inconclusively.

In the Third Mithridatic War (73-63 BCE) a Roman army under Lucullus entered the Pontic heartland. In 72 BCE Lucullus marched through Galatia into Pontus and besieged Amisus; in 71 BCE he passed through the Iris and Lycus valleys and made camp at Cabeira. Strabo writes that at Cabeira stood Mithridates' palace, water-mills, zoological garden, hunting grounds and mines; in other words, in this period the places where the king resided were not limited to Amaseia. Amaseia was taken by Lucullus's army in this war; Turkish sources give the date as 70 BCE. Strabo describes the war's mark on his own land: because of the Mithridatic War there are many demolished strongholds and deserted tracts, yet the region is well wooded, affords pasture for horses and other animals, and is well suited to habitation.

In 67 BCE Mithridates won back Pontus by defeating a large Roman force near Zela, but the picture changed when Pompey took command in 66 BCE. Pompey broke up the Pontic army with a night attack near Dasteira and founded Nicopolis in commemoration of the victory. Mithridates fled to Colchis and from there, in 65 BCE, to his son Machares in the Crimea. While he was organizing the defence, another son, Pharnakes, raised a revolt, and Mithridates either took his own life or was killed. Pompey annexed the western half of the kingdom and the Greek cities of the coast, Sinope included, to Rome as the province of Bithynia et Pontus. The interior and the eastern coast remained under a king bound to Rome. Pharnakes' son Pharnakes II, seizing his chance in the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, tried to recover Pontus; he defeated a Roman army at Nicopolis but was beaten by Caesar at Zela in 47 BCE. Caesar's phrase "veni, vidi, vici" is associated with this battle. The Pontic kings bound to Rome ruled until 62 CE, when Polemon II was forced to abdicate by Nero.

A Throne Cut into Rock: The Royal Rock Tombs

The most conspicuous and almost the only standing work surviving from the age of the capital is the group of royal tombs on the southern slope of Mount Harşena. The UNESCO dossier describes them as the most impressive and nearly the only preserved archaeological remains of the Kingdom of Pontus. In the Maiden's Palace area, called the Middle Fortress in the dossier, there are five tombs attributed to kings from Mithridates I to Pharnakes I: Mithridates I, Ariobarzanes, Mithridates II and III, and Pharnakes I. There are nine rock tombs within the fortress walls and a total of twenty-one in the valley and around the city. This district on the bank of the Yeşilırmak is also called the "Valley of the Kings". Jona Lendering mentions twelve priestly tombs alongside the five royal ones and observes that such a group would not have been out of place in Persis.

The tombs range from 8 to 15 metres in height. The initial plan was to surround each of them with corridors so that each would give the impression of a free-standing building cut from the rock; the Amasya Directorate of Culture and Tourism describes this arrangement as "separated from the bedrock by galleries and carved in a U shape". The dossier points to examples of this design in 4th-century BCE Caria, at Kaunos and Telmessos. However, only the corridors of tombs II, III and IV were completed. The corridor of tomb I was abandoned early because the rock is very brittle and fissured. The corridor of tomb V was suddenly left unfinished. The dossier ties this to Pharnakes I moving his capital to Sinope and wishing to be buried there. This is an interpretation and not a document; but it is striking that work at the necropolis stopped at the same time as the capital changed hands.

The tombs fall into two groups. Tombs I, II and III lie in the east, close to the well-preserved Hellenistic walls; IV and V lie in the west. Tomb I is reached by a staircase cut into the rock, and another staircase leads to the upper level of II and III. The way continues northwest into a tunnel; from there one reaches the long, deep, stepped water tunnel leading up to the acropolis, or goes down westward to the entrance of another tunnel with steps inside it. This tunnel and a staircase lead up to the wide terrace in front of IV, while V is reached by a staircase cut like a gallery into the almost vertical rock.

A feature common to all five tombs is that the entrances to the burial chambers are placed very high, so that one can enter only by ladder. The dossier states that this choice was most probably made in accordance with Iranian purity rules, and that the high entrances can be compared with those of the Achaemenid royal tombs at Persepolis and Naqsh-e Rustam. Three of the facades have columns: six on I, four each on II and IV; III and V have rounded tops and no columns. Some of the steps, the anta walls, thresholds and door lintels were carved separately and fixed to the rock with dowels and clamps, and traces of these fastenings can still be seen. The burial chambers are described as free-standing stone sarcophagus chambers whose upper part is carved from the bedrock in the form of a barrel vault.

There is an unexpected development in the design. In other rock-tomb regions of Anatolia, such as Urartu, Phrygia, Lycia, Caria and Paphlagonia, local forms gradually take on an entirely Greek appearance. In Amaseia the direction is reversed: the facades with columns and pediments inspired by the Greek temple (I, II, IV) become, in tomb V, the last to be built, a columnless, arched, stone-faced surface. According to the dossier, Greek influence disappears completely in this tomb and a style peculiar to the region emerges. This style was imitated in the Tes Tomb in Amasya and in the nearly 13-metre tomb of Hikesios in the Laçin district of Çorum, described as the largest rock tomb in Anatolia. The tombs form the latest group of the Anatolian rock-tomb tradition running from the Archaic to the Hellenistic age and follow their predecessors in Urartu, Phrygia, Lycia, Caria and Paphlagonia.

The largest and latest tomb is Tomb V, belonging to Pharnakes I: 15 x 8 x 6 metres. A rock inscription above it records that Metrodoros, commander of the castle (phrourarchos), dedicated an altar and a flower-bed to the gods for King Pharnakes; the rock steps, partly visible today, once led up to it. This is the only document that gives a king's name directly in the pairing of tombs and kings. The passage of Strabo quoted above speaks of "the monuments of the kings" but does not name them, and the English Wikipedia describes the attribution of the tombs to these five kings as traditional. The individual names, then, such as "the tomb of Mithridates I" or "the tomb of Ariobarzanes", rest, apart from that of Pharnakes, not on documents as solid as the inscription but on scholarly attribution. The detailed study of the subject is Robert Fleischer's book in the Istanbuler Forschungen series (vol. 56, 2017).

Amaseia in the Roman Age

When Pontus disappeared as a political entity, Amaseia did not disappear with it. When Pontus was turned into a Roman province, Amaseia became the administrative centre of Bithynia-Pontus; in 2 or 3 CE it was attached to Galatia and about 112 to Cappadocia. In the second century it received the title "metropolis", an honour of great meaning to Roman citizens. Strabo says that Amaseia was once given to kings but in his own time is a province. Fertile plains, trade routes and a naturally protected site carried the city from age to age. Alongside Strabo, Bishop Asterius, whose sermons date to about 400 CE, is named as one of two authors from the city whose works survive.

According to Christian sources, a Christian named Theodore was arrested for setting fire to the local temple of Cybele and was burned alive; he was later counted among the great saints of the Eastern Church. The UNESCO dossier writes that Saint Theodore was born in Amasya in 284 CE, chose Christianity at a time when Rome pressed Christians, and was killed under torture at the age of 22. The same dossier cites Strabo as the world's first geographer and notes that he spent most of his life, which ran from 64 to 24 BCE, here. The city remained in Byzantine hands until the Turkish conquest of Anatolia in the late 11th century.

The Later Life of the Tombs

The tombs remained part of the city's memory afterward. In the Maiden's Palace area there are two Ottoman-period baths; the dossier dates them to the 14th and 15th centuries, another source to the 15th. The Maiden's Palace was used as a military base in the time of the Candaroğulları Beylik and for more than 150 years served Ottoman princes and sanjak governors; the palace remains are still underground. The dossier records that Amasya came under Ottoman control in 1386, was organized as a princely sanjak in 1402, and that twelve princes served here, seven of whom ascended the throne. The same slope that was a tomb to kings thus later became a residence for princes; this is why Amasya is called a layered city.

The area is protected today. Excavations at the Maiden's Palace and the fortress were carried out in 2006-2008 with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism; since 2009 the Department of Art History at Istanbul University has continued the fortress excavations. Mount Harşena is a first-degree natural site, and the 350,000 square metre area covering Harşena, the fortress, the Maiden's Palace and the Inner Fortress is registered as a first-degree archaeological site. Mount Harşena and the Pontic Royal Rock Tombs were added to UNESCO's World Heritage Tentative List with a submission date of 13 April 2015; some English sources write 2014, but in UNESCO's own document the submission date is 2015. The dossier describes the tombs as "the first and the only necropolis of the royal family in the world" and records that this rock-tomb tradition did not continue in the second capital, Sinope. Lit in the evenings, the tombs look like dark windows opened in the rock behind the riverside houses.

Frequently Repeated Errors

The claim that Amaseia was the capital for 250 years does not agree with the sources. Its time as capital lasts from the foundation to about 182 BCE, when Pharnakes took Sinope and moved the capital, that is, about a hundred years. After that Sinope is the capital, and Amaseia remains the city of the kings' tombs and palaces. It is also often said that the five tombs belong with certainty to five named kings, yet only in the tomb of Pharnakes I is the king's name supported by an inscription; the attribution of the others is traditional and scholarly. It is true that the tombs were designed as free-standing monuments independent of the mountain, but this plan was completed with corridors only in tombs II, III and IV.

There is also a muddle over height. Some writings say that the tombs stand 20-25 metres high. Official sources give the height of the tombs as 8-15 metres, and no source supporting the figure of 20-25 has been found.

Chronology

302 BCE: The father of Mithridates (later Ktistes) is killed and the son flees with six horsemen. The period counted as the beginning of the dynasty's dominion in the region opens.

281 BCE (or 280): Mithridates Ktistes proclaims himself king and the Kingdom of Pontus is founded. Amaseia becomes the capital of the kingdom.

279 BCE: Ariobarzanes takes Amastris. The kingdom thus gains its first important Black Sea port.

182 BCE: Pharnakes I takes Sinope and the capital moves to Sinope. The corridor of Tomb V appears to have been left unfinished at this time.

120-63 BCE: Mithridates VI Eupator reigns. In this period three wars are fought with Rome.

About 70 BCE: Amaseia is taken by the Roman army under Lucullus. The Third Mithridatic War is under way.

63 BCE: Pompey defeats the kingdom of Mithridates VI. The west of Pontus is annexed to Rome.

47 BCE: Pharnakes II is defeated by Caesar at Zela. The attempt to recover Pontus thus comes to an end.

62 CE: Polemon II is forced by Nero to abdicate. The age of the Pontic kings thus ends.

2-3 CE: Amaseia is attached from Bithynia-Pontus to Galatia. About 112 it will be attached to Cappadocia.

13 April 2015: Mount Harşena and the Pontic Royal Rock Tombs enter UNESCO's World Heritage Tentative List with their submission date. The five royal tombs form the main element of the site.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Strabo, Geographika XII.3.39-40 (translated by H. L. Jones), LacusCurtius (Penelope), penelope.uchicago.edu. penelope.uchicago.edu

Official sources

  • UNESCO World Heritage Centre, "Mount Harşena and the Rock-tombs of the Pontic Kings" (Tentative List, submission date 13.04.2015), whc.unesco.org. whc.unesco.org
  • Amasya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, "Kral Kaya Mezarları", amasya.ktb.gov.tr.

Other sources

  • Jona Lendering, "Amasia", Livius.org. livius.org
  • "Kingdom of Pontus", "Tombs of the kings of Pontus" and "Mount Harşena", Wikipedia (English); "Pontus Krallığı", "Kral Kaya Mezarları", "Amasya" and "Amasya Kalesi", Vikipedi (Turkish), as auxiliary sources. en.wikipedia.org
  • B. C. McGing, The Foreign Policy of Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus, Brill, 1986 (via the citation in Wikipedia); Robert Fleischer, Die Felsgräber der Könige von Pontos in Amasya, Istanbuler Forschungen 56, Wasmuth, 2017 (as bibliographic information). tr.wikipedia.org

Online sources