Following the Euphrates in antiquity: north-south routes around Zeugma

Abstract

This second article on ancient roads around Zeugma deals mainly with navigation along the river itself and north-south routes on both banks of the Euphrates. Like its predecessor (Comfort et al 2000), this one is based on extensive survey work in the years 1996 to 1999 during the excavations carried out at Zeugma by a Franco-Turkish mission. It discusses sites located in the region surrounding the ancient city on both east and west banks of the river Euphrates and seeks to identify the principal roads of the region used in antiquity. Maps to complement those prepared for the preceding article are included.In Comfort et al 2000, ancient crossing points of the river Euphrates in southern Turkey were discussed in the light of survey work conducted with the help of satellite photos in and around the reservoir created by the Birecik dam. This dam was completed in summer 2000. The lake created behind the Birecik dam stretches north about 100km as far as the Atatürk dam, for the most part constrained in a narrow gorge; a second lake now also reaches for about 20km south from Birecik to the Carchemish dam, itself approximately 6km north of the Syrian border. The survey was conducted over six visits between 1996 and 1999. Given the shortage of resources and the vast area covered (about 2,500km) it can only be considered a preliminary investigation and was indeed originally undertaken with a view only to proving the usefulness of satellite photographs as an aid to archaeological survey work.

Fortresses of the Tur Abdin and the confrontation between Rome and Persia

“…The research for this paper was conducted initially when I visited the region during an archaeological survey around the site of Zeugma on the Euphrates (a city of which much was drowned in 2001 by the Birecik dam: Comfort et al 2000;Comfort, Ergeç 2001). Subsequently, study of the satellite imagery and visits to Syria and the upper Tigris in Turkey culminated in the preparation of a doctoral thesis at Exeter University on the roads and bridges along the frontier between Rome and Persia in late antiquity (2009).…”