Izmir, Turkey – A rare, one-of-kind ritual water basin has been discovered by archeologists at the ancient Greek city of Klazomenai near the region of Smyrna, located in the modern town of Urla on the western coast of Anatolia on the Gulf of İzmir about twenty miles from what is modern Izmir, Turkey on the Çeşme peninsula.
Klazomenai is attested in antiquity as one of the twelve Ionian cities where stood the Temple of Apollo near the Baths of Agamemnon. A silver coin minted in Klazomenai shows the head of Apollo, the titular god of the city. Swans, a bird sacred to Apollo, were also apparently common in the city. The verb klazo refers to the call of wild birds and gave the city part of its name.
The site has been inhabited since 4,000 B.C.E. The cities of Ionia were forerunners of Greek civic development its maritime activity spread throughout the Mediterranean as far as the Iberian Peninsula. Among Kalzomenai’s most notable residents were the philosophers Anaxagoras and Scopelianus. The remains of a causeway ordered by Alexander the Great are still visible.
A 2,500-year-old perirrhanterion (wash-basin) was found during this year’s excavations in the Klazomenai Ancient City in Izmir’s Urla district. [Photo Credit: Demirören Haber Ajansı]
While little remains of Klazomenai, scientific excavations have been carried out for over a century beginning in 1921. The current excavation has been relatively continuous since 1981. Among the items previously found at the site is a restored workshop with an extraction mechanism dating back dating to the 6th century B.C.E. is the only example of using weight presses in the processing of ancient olive oil.
“This year’s excavations unearthed a sink foot and its base decorated with fantastic mythological creatures and chariot races,” said Prof. Dr. Yaşar E. Ersoy, the lead archeologist of the current excavation directorate who has led the team since 2007. “This sixth-century B.C. artifact is about 2,500 years old. It is decorated with figures, embossed and painted in this way. It is the first of its kind.”
The discovery is a special type of louterion, a ritual water basin typically of clay or stone that is mounted on a stand and used for washing the face, hands, and body. They were used as part of ablutions for religious purification. They were also used during some burial ceremonies. Louteria were often found in holy sanctuaries and dedicated to a specific deity involved in healing.
The louterion just discovered in Klazomenai is a special type of vessel called a perirrhanterion (περιρραντήριο) that was also used for ritual washing and was found in Greek sanctuaries of the Archaic and later periods. Corinth, for example, was a well-known source of perirrhanteria, from the 8th century C.E. when they were created and exported into the Hellenistic period.
The recently-discovered perirrhanterion from Klazomenai Ancient City in Izmir’s Urla district. [Photo Credit: Demirören Haber Ajansı]
What makes the newly discovered perirrhanterion so unique, experts say, is the artwork. The vessel is embossed and adorned with figures that resemble heiracosphinxes. The perirrhanterion also depicts chariot races.
“In the excavations carried out here, we also find many […] ceramics produced in workshops connected with the city,” Ersoy said. “The sink we found this year is decorated with fantastic mythological creatures and chariot races. This artifact, which dates to the sixth century B.C., is about 2,500 years old. We do not know of an example embossed and painted like this sink.”
While no other similar examples of such a perirrhanterion have been founded, the region was well-known in ancient times as a ceramic production center and economic powerhouse.
“Klazomenai is considered to be one of the most important ceramic production centers in the region,” Ersoy noted, “especially in the Archaic period in the sixth century B.C.”
Professor Yaşar Ersoy and the new discoveries. [Photo Credit: Demirören Haber Ajansı]
Aristotle commented that the inhabitants of Klazomenai were economic pioneers having used olive oil to leverage its purchases of other commodities. “At the same time, another type of vase, which is identified with Klazomenai, is a commercial amphora,” Ersoy also noted in Hurriyet Daily News. “Olive oil or wine used to be stored and carried in these amphorae. We see vases of this type in many places in a wide geography, mostly on the northern, eastern, and western coasts of the Black Sea and in the Western Mediterranean and Eastern Mediterranean. This shows us the dominant commercial activity of the city from the seventh century B.C. to the beginning of the sixth century B.C.”
The purpose of the perirrhanterion at the site remains unknown including whether the object holds any connection to the Apollo of the temple there. Further excavation and research may offer some insights.
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