Tymion (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: Τυμίον) was an ancient town in

Phrygia In classical antiquity, Phrygia ( ; , ''Phrygía'') was a kingdom in the west-central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centered on the Sangarios River. Stories of the heroic age of Greek mythology tell of several legendary Ph ...

Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

(in today's Uşak Central District,

Uşak Province Uşak () is a Provinces of Turkey, province in western Turkey. Its adjacent provinces are Manisa Province, Manisa to the west, Denizli Province, Denizli to the south, Afyon Province, Afyon to the east, and Kütahya Province, Kütahya to the north. ...

Aegean Region The Aegean region () is one of the 7 Geographical regions of Turkey, geographical regions of Turkey. The largest city in the region is İzmir. Other big cities are Manisa, Aydın, Denizli, Muğla, Afyonkarahisar and Kütahya. Located in w ...

). Its site is located at the Turkish village of Şükraniye. From the middle of the 2nd century AD to the middle of the 6th century AD, Tymion was an important town for the ancient Christian church of

Montanism Montanism (), known by its adherents as the New Revelation, was an History of Christianity#Early Christianity (c. 31/33–324), early Christian movement of the Christianity in the 2nd century, mid-to-late 2nd century, later referred to by the n ...

. The Montanists, whose church spread all over the Roman Empire, expected the

New Jerusalem In the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible, New Jerusalem (, ''YHWH šāmmā'', YHWH sthere") is Ezekiel's prophetic vision of a city centered on the rebuilt Holy Temple, to be established in Jerusalem, which would be the capital of the ...

to descend to earth at Tymion and the nearby town of

Pepuza Pepuza (Greek: Πέπουζα ''Pepouza'') was an ancient town in Phrygia, Asia Minor (in today's Karahallı District, Uşak Province, in Turkey's Aegean Region). From the middle of the 2nd century AD to the middle of the 6th century, Pepuza was ...

; Pepuza was the headquarters of Montanism and the seat of the Montanist patriarch. One of the founders of Montanism, Montanus, called both towns "Jerusalem." In late antiquity, both places attracted crowds of pilgrims from all over the Roman Empire. Women played an emancipated role in Montanism. They could become priests and also bishops. In the 6th century AD, this church became extinct. Since 2001, Peter Lampe of the

University of Heidelberg Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is List ...

has directed annual archaeological campaigns in Phrygia, Turkey. During these interdisciplinary campaigns, together with William Tabbernee of Tulsa, numerous unknown ancient settlements were discovered and archaeologically documented. Two of them are the best candidates so far in the search for the identification of the two holy centers of ancient Montanism,

and Tymion. Scholars had searched for these lost sites since the 19th century. Historians such as W. Weiss, T. Gnoli, S. Destephen, M. Ritter, C. M. Robeck, T. D. Barnes, M. Mazza, and the classical historian and epigrapher Stephen Mitchell (2023) affirm that Lampe and his team can "claim credit for identifying the location of the Montanist centres Pepuza and Tymion".Stephen Mitchell (''The Christians of Phrygia from Rome to the Turkish Conquest'', Leiden 2023, pp. XV, 419-422, n.364): They "can also claim credit for identifying the location of the Montanist centres Pepuza and Tymion" (p. XV). The archaeological site at Şükraniye (Karahallı area) that Peter Lampe identified as Tymion was already settled in late Bronze and early Iron Ages. It flourished in Roman and Byzantine times as a rural town in which predominantly tenant farmers lived. They worked on an

imperial estate An Imperial Estate (; , plural: ') was an entity or an individual of the Holy Roman Empire with representation and the right to vote in the Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire), Imperial Diet ('). Rulers of these Estates were able to exercise signi ...

and were often oppressed by travelling magistrates or imperial slaves. In a petition, the farmers asked for help from the emperor. The emperor

Septimius Severus Lucius Septimius Severus (; ; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through cursus honorum, the ...

wrote back that his procurator would support the farmers. The imperial rescript is preserved on an inscription.

Literature

*William Tabbernee/ Peter Lampe, ''Pepouza and Tymion: The Discovery and Archaeological Exploration of a Lost Ancient City and an Imperial Estate'' (deGruyter: Berlin/New York, 2008) und * Peter Lampe, Die montanistischen Tymion und Pepouza im Lichte der neuen Tymioninschrift, in: '' Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum'' 8 (2004) 498-512

References

External links

University of Heidelberg: The Discovery of Pepouza and Tymion

In: "SpiegelOnline" 3.7.2010
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{{Authority control Archaeological sites in the Aegean region Roman towns and cities in Turkey Former populated places in Turkey Geography of Uşak Province Uşak District Montanism