Click within yellow square for close-up. As the capital of the kingdom of Lydia, Sardis fell to Cyrus in 546 BCE. Later, she passed to the Seleucids, then to the Attalid kings (whose capital was Pergamum). At last, in 133 BCE, Sardis was willed to Rome along with the rest of the Attalid kingdom. An earthquake destroyed Sardis in 17 CE, but aid from Tiberius refinanced her reconstruction. The acropolis of Sardis, with its nearly perpendicular slopes, seemed impossible to scale. Yet its composition was not solid rock, but detritus—tightly compressed gravel that crumbles at the touch. Once famous throughout the ancient world capital of Lydia, Sardis had fallen on tough times and in the first century was heading for extinction. She “had a name for being alive” (Revelation 3:1) but was as good as dead. In later centuries, her impregnable fortress was cast down, not by armies, but by the numerous earthquakes in the area. Hemer describes the site as it appears to a modern visitor: The erosion of these precipices has produced a theatrical landscape of extraordinary strangeness. The main hill is flanked by isolated earthen pinnacles, each several hundred feet high, and capped each with a solitary tree or fragment of masonry. It appears that the roots and stones have formed a resistant apex, yet it is scarcely conceivable that erosional features of such size could have formed in geological time so short as to be related to the life-span even of a succession of trees. There is however other evidence of erosion on a remarkable scale. It has certainly affected the extent of the summit-site, for at its least exposed side the late Byzantine fortifications are in places overhanging an abyss…. [T]he present summit is a mere fragment. Most of the original Sardis has surely fallen over the edge. —Colin J. Hemer, The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia in Their Local Setting (Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series 11), (Sheffield, England: JSOT, 1986), 129-130. Sardis is adjacent to the Turkish village of Sartmahmut, near the city of Salihli (2000 population: 83,137). Want to go deeper?The following are recommended to help you look deeper into the history and archaeology of Sardis. Recommended for purchase: G. M. A. Hanfmann – Sardis from Prehistoric to Roman Times: Results of the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis (Harvard, 1983) Fikret K. Yegül – The Bath-Gymnasium Complex at Sardis (Archaeological Exploration of Sardis Reports) (Harvard, 1986) J. S. Crawford. The Byzantine Shops at Sardis (Harvard, 1990) C. Foss – Byzantine & Turkish Sardis (Harvard, 1976) Philip Harland. Associations, Synagogues, & Congregations: Claiming a Place in Ancient Mediterranean Society (Fortress, 2003).
Online resources: Harvard University Art Museums – "The Archaeological Exploration of Sardis" "Sardis Urban Plan" – Geological survey-type map of Sardis ruins Museum of the Jewish People – "The Ancient Synagogue of Sardis" Jodi Magness – "The Date of the Sardis Synagogue in Light of the Numismatic Evidence" Journal of the American Journal of Archaeology, 109, 3 (2005):443-475. Philip A. Harland – "Spheres of Contention, Claims of Pre-eminence: Rivalries Among Associations in Sardis and Smyrna" Originally published in Religious Rivalries and the Struggle for Success in Sardis and Smyrna. Studies in Christianity and Judaism, ed. Richard S. Ascough, vol. 14. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2005, 53-63, 259-262. Philip A. Harland – "[The Associations & Synagogue of] Sardis" Dick Osseman – Photo Gallery of Sardis William M. Ramsay – "Sardis: City of Death" | "The Letter to the Church in Sardis" 354-368 and 369-390, respectively, from Letters to the Seven Churches & Their Place in the Plan of the Apocalypse, 2nd ed. (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1906). About DS Contact DS ©2008 DeeperStudy.com | Steve Singleton, All Rights Reserved | Sardis Synagogue Satellite View |
