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MYSTERY OF ASIAN STONE and
SARCOPHAGUS OF ASSOS
Savaşçın M.Y.1, Serdaroğlu U.2 & Savaşçın Z.3
1
Geothermal Energy Research and Application Center, Dokuz Eylul
University, 35100 Bornova, İzmir
2 Maltepe
3
University, Instute of Science, Istanbul
Galatasaray University, Department of Philosophy, Istanbul
Dedicated to Prof. Dr. W. v. ENGELHARDT
The Biga Peninsula to the South of Dardanelles (North West
Anatolia) is well known for its numereous archeological
harbour-cites. The oldest is considered to be Troia (about
3000 B.C.) with its legendary wars between Akhai and Troians
(about 1900-1050 B.C.) continuing more than ten years that
later Homeros elevated in his famous epics Iliada (mid 7th
century B.C.).
The Peace agreement (13. Century B.C.) between the Hittite king
Muwattali and king of Wilusa (Troia) Alaksandu (also known as Paris or
Alexandros) or the warning letters between the Hittite and Ahhiyava
kings in terms of territorial belongings of the islands situated to the
west of Wilusa, indicate an important economical and strategical of the
area.
It is known that the city was settled as early as Bronze Age by
Lelegian people whom Homeros described as “sea men and
pirates during the Trojan Wars.” After Lelegians lost their
power, Aeolian immigrants came from Methymna (Lesvos Island),
settled in Assos and made it their harbour (1000 B.C.)
Assos was also a well-known meeting place for philosophers such
as Theoprastos, Dioskurides, Aristotle, who was one of the
greatest philosophers of the world, worked and lived in the town
for three years in the gymnasium at Assos.
It is also said that sarcophagus (?) or otherwise called “Asian Stone”
(?) to have been found at Assos and to be widely traded from its
harbour reaching as far as Rome and Eygpt. The stone was believed
to decompose the corpes placed in the sarcophagus within a short
period of time, therefore the word itself meant “flesh eater” Σαρξ
(σαρκός) in Greek, thus also indicating that the name sarcophagus
for the tombs originated in Assos. Religiously it was important since
it was thought that one can reach heaven easier and faster.
The description found in ancient documents concerning “Asian
Stone” was contradictory from that of the physical qualites of
the stone itself, therefore, for many centuries the issue of
what was traded from the harbour of Assos remained under
debate by scholars.
German philologist of classical languages Konrad Gaiser in his book
“Theoprast in Assos” (1985) tries to answer this question by exploring
available documents of ancient philosophers and consulting professor
W.v.Engelhardt from the University of Tubingen, Germany.
The writer found out that many ancient philosophers agree “Asian
Stone” (?) to be a good medicine to dry out wounds or cure such
inflammation as gout, is not hard and easy to break, tasting like a salt
and with a white powder on a surface. All these characteristics indicate
“Asian Stone” to be alunite. In contrast to “Asian Stone” of Assos,
sarcophagus is made from trachyte, which is hard and resistant without
any alteration or weathering and still well preserved up to this time. So,
the question is why did they use another name for the stone?
Prof. W. v. Engelhardt, after analysing the geological map of the area,
suggested that Assos, situating on the volcanic rocks, might contain
small veins of alunite. If alunite is in a closed system and affected by
moisture, it transforms into sulphate which is a good condition for body
decomposition.
Based on our investigations in Assos since 1999, following results are
determined.
We found out that Assos is located on the hard
trachyte rocks, which are not affected by
weathering and alteration. Our research group,
however, could not find any alunite veins in the
trachyte.
But after further investigations we discovered
unknown ancient mining areas in three villages
situated to North and North West of Assos. The
main composition of the mines was alunite, which
was impregnated within the altered tuffs and
other magmatic rocks.
Our approximate evoluation for this area was
based on the results of altered alunite bearing
tuffs taken from more than ten different open
pits of such sizes as 200000 and 300000 m3.
Perhaps it might be interesting to know that the
turkish names of three villages are Sapköy,
Sapkebir, and Kızıltepe that respectively mean
“Alunite Village”, “Great Alunite Village” and “Red
Hill”. It might mean that alunite production from
the area continued until the Ottoman Period.
We found out some relict, hard and fresh parts
of alterated tuffs within the sarcophagus, too,
originated from the above mentioned alunite mines.
It means “Asian Stone” ( alunite bearing tuffs )
was additionally put into sarcophagus for the
faster decomposition of flesh.
Conclusion
The discovery of alunite mines in the investigated area
shows that the ancient harbour of Assos was not only
important for trade overseas, but perhaps also presents an
early example in the world of geochemical engineering,
which means natural materials for environmental problems
are used (personal comment of Olaf Schuiling). They called
this stone “Asian” though the ancient name was aluma, so
maybe this mystery was created for trade reasons (secret
patent) in order to gain more profit and fame?