Artifacts linked to the cult of Asclepius have been unearthed on the Roman pool in Bahçeli, southern central Turkey. Constructed within the 2nd century A.D., the pool was beforehand believed to have been a reservoir, a part of the traditional metropolis of Tyana’s ingesting water system. This 12 months’s excavation revealed proof that it was additionally a middle of therapeutic and non secular devotion.
In line with [excavation leader Professor Osman Doganay of Aksaray University’s Archaeology Department], one of the vital vital discoveries was an altar devoted to Asklepios, acknowledged in antiquity because the god of medication and remedy. The altar, adorned with snake motifs—symbolic of rejuvenation and therapeutic in historic medical cults—was discovered alongside further sculptural fragments that includes snake imagery.
These finds, coupled with the architectural stays uncovered alongside the pool’s jap aspect, point out the presence of a sanctuary or temple complicated devoted to Asklepios. Doganay described the location as “a spot the place therapeutic rituals involving sacred water as soon as came about,” marking it as a therapeutic vacation spot within the historic world.
Tyana far predated Rome. The primary point out of it seems in Hittite Empire texts from the seventeenth century B.C. After the collapse of the empire, Tyana turned a capital of the Luwian Neo-Hittite polity on the flip of the first millennium B.C. and remained a strong city-state even when it was absorbed into the Neo-Assyrian Empire within the eighth century B.C. and once more by the Persian Achaemenid Empire within the sixth century B.C. Come the Hellenistic period, it was second most essential metropolis within the Cappadocian area, and regarded probably the most Hellenized of all of them. Cappadocia was taken over by the Roman emperor Tiberius within the 1st century, and Tyana’s Greek tradition superior its stature underneath the empire. It even turned the capital of the Roman province of Cappadocia Secunda when Emperor Valens divided Cappadocia in two within the 4th century.
The pool was constructed throughout the reigns of the Emperors Trajan (r. 98-117 A.D.) and Hadrian (r. 117-138 A.D.), however the temple complicated was added later. A Greek language inscription discovered within the 2025 excavation data that the pool was commissioned by or devoted to Marcus Aurelius or his son Commodus. Each names are talked about within the inscription and the references made it attainable for archaeologists to slim down the timeline of development. The sanctuary was constructed between 177 and 180 A.D.
The excavations on the web site in 2025 had been the primary in 80 years. They may proceed subsequent 12 months, specializing in the world surrounding the pool. Archaeologists hope to uncover extra artifacts linked to the cult of Asclepius and the spiritual points of the well being spa. Such swimming pools had been broadly frequented in antiquity, and guests usually left votive choices of their quest for improved well being, see the astonishing wonderland of bronze statuary found on the San Casciano baths in Tuscany, for instance.
