DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4679#0150
124 IV. MOSSYNA, MOTELLA, DIONYSOPOLIS, ETC.
horse-road from Serai-Kern to the Tchal district \ close to the highest
rim of the plateau, and some distance south of the village Kodja-
Geuzlar, the site of Thiounta. Beside the kahve are extensive ruins,
chiefly vaulted tombs, of the Roman period, similar in form to the
^prehistoric building near Salamis in Cyprus, represented by 0. Richter
in JHS 1883 pi. XXXIV, and the Phrygian monument at Gherriz
drawn by J. R. Steuart in his Ancient Monuments of Lydia and
Phrygia. Inscr. 32, 33, have probably been carried to villages of the
neighbourhood from this deserted and solitary locality, and used for
building purposes ; whereas the two inscriptions mentioning Thiounta
(found a mile or more north of Kodja-Geuzlar) are far too heavy to
move, and were lying in the field where they had recently been
uncovered when I saw them in 1888 (nos. 30, 31).
The inscriptions of this district show clearly that it contained
a series of separate villages, each probably with its distinct organiza-
tion, but all under the great city of Hierapolis. Mossyna was merely
one, though the largest and most important, of these villages. The
strict organization, according to the Greek system, in a central polls
had not penetrated into this retired corner; but the old village system
still prevailed (co/cetro kco/itjSov Strabo p. 646). The territory of great
cities, like Laodiceia and Hierapolis, contained many villages; but
the villagers were citizens of the central polis, and their villages were
merely outlying fragments of the city. But, in the village system,
such as we find in the district round Mossyna, each village had its
separate individuality and administration: the population of each
counted itself a demos: each had its own territory, which it held no
doubt on the communal system, still widely spread in Asia Minor.
In the Byzantine period the district was probably a Jcomopolis (p. 298),
a polis of villages taking its name from the largest, Mossyna2.
§ 3. Thiounta. One of the villages closely adjoining Mossyna
was Thiounta, which was situated beside Kodja-Geuzlar3, in a gorge
• that breaks down steep to the Maeander, below the territory of
Dionysopolis. The people of this sequestered village are perhaps the
most quaint and unique that I have seen in Asia Minor. They are of
very small stature and ugly yet not forbidding features, utterly unlike
any other people known to me ; and they have apparently preserved
1 This road, which goes by Ak- no. 32.
Tcheshme (Mandama), six miles or more 3 The village of Kodja-Geuzlar
north-west from Hierapolis, must be dis- (Kodja, big) is situated, I think, about
tinguished from the modern araba-road, two or three miles north from Geuzlar ;
which goes round by Belevi. but I have not gone direct from one to
2 On the derivation of Mossyna, see the other.
horse-road from Serai-Kern to the Tchal district \ close to the highest
rim of the plateau, and some distance south of the village Kodja-
Geuzlar, the site of Thiounta. Beside the kahve are extensive ruins,
chiefly vaulted tombs, of the Roman period, similar in form to the
^prehistoric building near Salamis in Cyprus, represented by 0. Richter
in JHS 1883 pi. XXXIV, and the Phrygian monument at Gherriz
drawn by J. R. Steuart in his Ancient Monuments of Lydia and
Phrygia. Inscr. 32, 33, have probably been carried to villages of the
neighbourhood from this deserted and solitary locality, and used for
building purposes ; whereas the two inscriptions mentioning Thiounta
(found a mile or more north of Kodja-Geuzlar) are far too heavy to
move, and were lying in the field where they had recently been
uncovered when I saw them in 1888 (nos. 30, 31).
The inscriptions of this district show clearly that it contained
a series of separate villages, each probably with its distinct organiza-
tion, but all under the great city of Hierapolis. Mossyna was merely
one, though the largest and most important, of these villages. The
strict organization, according to the Greek system, in a central polls
had not penetrated into this retired corner; but the old village system
still prevailed (co/cetro kco/itjSov Strabo p. 646). The territory of great
cities, like Laodiceia and Hierapolis, contained many villages; but
the villagers were citizens of the central polis, and their villages were
merely outlying fragments of the city. But, in the village system,
such as we find in the district round Mossyna, each village had its
separate individuality and administration: the population of each
counted itself a demos: each had its own territory, which it held no
doubt on the communal system, still widely spread in Asia Minor.
In the Byzantine period the district was probably a Jcomopolis (p. 298),
a polis of villages taking its name from the largest, Mossyna2.
§ 3. Thiounta. One of the villages closely adjoining Mossyna
was Thiounta, which was situated beside Kodja-Geuzlar3, in a gorge
• that breaks down steep to the Maeander, below the territory of
Dionysopolis. The people of this sequestered village are perhaps the
most quaint and unique that I have seen in Asia Minor. They are of
very small stature and ugly yet not forbidding features, utterly unlike
any other people known to me ; and they have apparently preserved
1 This road, which goes by Ak- no. 32.
Tcheshme (Mandama), six miles or more 3 The village of Kodja-Geuzlar
north-west from Hierapolis, must be dis- (Kodja, big) is situated, I think, about
tinguished from the modern araba-road, two or three miles north from Geuzlar ;
which goes round by Belevi. but I have not gone direct from one to
2 On the derivation of Mossyna, see the other.