"Paul Was Here"

Where in the world is Luther?

Although people lived there since about 3500 BCE, the Greek town of Priene was founded in about 350 BCE. It was located on a sea coast at the foot of Mount Mycale. It never grew to more than 4-5,000 inhabitants. They were once known as luxurious intellectuals. Heraclitus railed against their wealthy living. There's always a critic.

("Hey, Luther, get down from there, can't your read the sign?" Luther responded, "It's all Greek to me!" I said, "Read the pink lettering, that's English." Luther said, "Hang on, I will after I go out on a limb.") 

Priene has deep roots into the Bronze age from early to mid 1,300 BCE with the Minoans. During the late 1300’s some Carians and then Greeks settled. (Luther was a bit scared he'd find some dead meat and scavengers at this dead city. I told him the Carians were an ancient people. These are not carrions. He was much relieved.)

As often is the case, we walk on a street that would be littered on each side by housing before reaching the town's center where the temples, administrative buildings, fountains and theaters would be located, the lotus of activity. Most ruins are only partially excavated, most is still rubble under years of silt. It takes time and money to learn about our past. This city moved every couple of centuries and so the original city center hasn't been discovered. Farmers are reluctant to let people dig through their crops.

So, why pick this place to build a Greek City?

They needed to pick a mountainside above the sea that was easily spotted from miles away, a place where lots of trade would pass through and a source of spring water.
Roman built their usual public baths and other buildings before the town became a village as it's two ports were silted over. Most probably moved to Miletus (a city down the coast) so you get a real picture of a Greek city that wasn't built over much after the Roman times. 

On the right is one of the many fountain pools for people or animals. These dot the streets. On the left thank you Wikipedia maps for the location of Miletus. The orange dot is on the Western coast of modern Turkey.




The next thing you need to do is build a beautiful temple dedicated to a particular god. The hope is that god will be pleased and visit the city with its blessing. [Modern business people might say that's a self fulfilling prophecy because something beautiful attracts visitors and their money. That in turn provides jobs and blesses a community with riches. Human reality doesn't change as the visitor center still takes in money to see these things. As far as fountains go Rome, Athens and many cities still have sidewalk fountains where people stop to get water. And religion's side affect still provides jobs (yours truly), a community and commence.]

On your left is what remains of the Temple to Athena. There are many foundations of other temples and a Jewish Synagogue. 












The theater was used for plays, discussions and before each production, a sacrifice. Note the cracked altar below. Also where our children are seated were the stone chairs for honored people of the town. This Greek amphitheater was small compared to the Roman and I'd guess reworked by the Romans. The trees grew in after the theater fell into ruin by the march of time.  

Luther got the dirt on this town.

Due to deforestation around 1000 BCE and poor soil management by small farmers, dirt washed from the hills into the sea. Miles of the Aegean Sea were filled up. This town and the other major cities eventually lost access to the sea and therefore trade. That ended the riches and caused the cities to be abandoned. The picture [that will eventually accompany this] shows countless farm squares in the valley. Imagine that ground being many meters deep of sea in 1000 BCE.

Check out the foundation to one of the city gates. The square holes is where the wooden stakes go to bar the gates. On either side you see worn rock where the chariot and wagon wheels wore ruts.

Priene was the greatest (not in size) and wealthiest Greek city from 600-500 BCE.


What marks a wealthy town? A third of the houses had indoor plumbing as opposed to the normal use of public baths and bathrooms.