MYSTERY OF ASIAN STONE and SARCOPHAGUS OF ASSOS

Savaşçın M.Y.1, Serdaroğlu U.2 & Savaşçın Z.3

1 Geothermal Energy Research and Application Center, Dokuz Eylul University, 35100 Bornova, İzmir

2 Maltepe University, Instute of Science, Istanbul

3 Galatasaray University, Department of Philosophy, Istanbul

Dedicated to Prof. Dr. W. v. ENGELHARDT

The Biga Peninsula to the South of Dardanelles (North West Anatolia) is well known for its numereous archeological harbour-cites. The oldest is considered to be Troia (about 3000 B.C.) with its legendary wars between Akhai and Troians (about 1900-1050 B.C.) continuing more than ten years that later Homeros elevated in his famous epics Iliada (mid 7th century B.C.).

The Peace agreement (13. Century B.C.) between the Hittite king Muwattali and king of Wilusa (Troia) Alaksandu (also known as Paris or Alexandros) or the warning letters between the Hittite and Ahhiyava kings in terms of territorial belongings of the islands situated to the west of Wilusa, indicate an important economical and strategical of the area.

It is known that the city was settled as early as Bronze Age by Lelegian people whom Homeros described as “sea men and pirates during the Trojan Wars.” After Lelegians lost their power, Aeolian immigrants came from Methymna (Lesvos Island), settled in Assos and made it their harbour (1000 B.C.)

Assos was also a well-known meeting place for philosophers such as Theoprastos, Dioskurides, Aristotle, who was one of the greatest philosophers of the world, worked and lived in the town for three years in the gymnasium at Assos.

It is also said that sarcophagus (?) or otherwise called “Asian Stone” (?) to have been found at Assos and to be widely traded from its harbour reaching as far as Rome and Eygpt. The stone was believed to decompose the corpes placed in the sarcophagus within a short period of time, therefore the word itself meant “flesh eater” Σαρξ (σαρκός) in Greek, thus also indicating that the name sarcophagus for the tombs originated in Assos. Religiously it was important since it was thought that one can reach heaven easier and faster.

The description found in ancient documents concerning “Asian Stone” was contradictory from that of the physical qualites of the stone itself, therefore, for many centuries the issue of what was traded from the harbour of Assos remained under debate by scholars.

German philologist of classical languages Konrad Gaiser in his book “Theoprast in Assos” (1985) tries to answer this question by exploring available documents of ancient philosophers and consulting professor W.v.Engelhardt from the University of Tubingen, Germany.

The writer found out that many ancient philosophers agree “Asian Stone” (?) to be a good medicine to dry out wounds or cure such inflammation as gout, is not hard and easy to break, tasting like a salt and with a white powder on a surface. All these characteristics indicate “Asian Stone” to be alunite. In contrast to “Asian Stone” of Assos, sarcophagus is made from trachyte, which is hard and resistant without any alteration or weathering and still well preserved up to this time. So, the question is why did they use another name for the stone?

Prof. W. v. Engelhardt, after analysing the geological map of the area, suggested that Assos, situating on the volcanic rocks, might contain small veins of alunite. If alunite is in a closed system and affected by moisture, it transforms into sulphate which is a good condition for body decomposition.

Based on our investigations in Assos since 1999, following results are determined.

We found out that Assos is located on the hard trachyte rocks, which are not affected by weathering and alteration. Our research group, however, could not find any alunite veins in the trachyte.

But after further investigations we discovered unknown ancient mining areas in three villages situated to North and North West of Assos. The main composition of the mines was alunite, which was impregnated within the altered tuffs and other magmatic rocks.

Our approximate evoluation for this area was based on the results of altered alunite bearing tuffs taken from more than ten different open pits of such sizes as 200000 and 300000 m3.

Perhaps it might be interesting to know that the turkish names of three villages are Sapköy, Sapkebir, and Kızıltepe that respectively mean “Alunite Village”, “Great Alunite Village” and “Red Hill”. It might mean that alunite production from the area continued until the Ottoman Period.

We found out some relict, hard and fresh parts of alterated tuffs within the sarcophagus, too, originated from the above mentioned alunite mines. It means “Asian Stone” ( alunite bearing tuffs ) was additionally put into sarcophagus for the faster decomposition of flesh.

Conclusion

The discovery of alunite mines in the investigated area shows that the ancient harbour of Assos was not only important for trade overseas, but perhaps also presents an early example in the world of geochemical engineering, which means natural materials for environmental problems are used (personal comment of Olaf Schuiling). They called this stone “Asian” though the ancient name was aluma, so maybe this mystery was created for trade reasons (secret patent) in order to gain more profit and fame?