Royal necropolis of Ayaa
The royal necropolis of 'Ayaa' was a group of two hypogea housing a total of 21 sarcophagi of kings and nobles of the city of Sidon, a coastal city in Lebanon, and a prominent Phoenician city-state. The sarcophagi were highly diverse in style, ranging across Egyptian, Greek, Lycian and Phoenician styles. The Phoenicians exhibited diverse mortuary practices that included inhumation and cremation. While written records about their beliefs in the afterlife are scarce, archaeological evidence suggests they believed in an afterlife known as the "House of Eternity." Burial sites in Iron Age Phoenicia, like the Ayaa necropolis, were typically located outside settlements, and featured various tomb types and burial practices.
The royal necropolis of Ayaa was located at the base of Hlaliyeh hill, at an elevation of 35 meters and approximately 500 meters from the sea, at the outskirts of the city of Sidon. The site had been previously surveyed by French orientalist and biblical scholar Ernest Renan who noted the presence of remnants of ancient ashlar masonry. The plot was owned by Mehmed Cherif Efendi, a Sidon local who was quarrying the land for construction material. The discovery of the necropolis in Ayaa was made in early 1877 by one of Cherif Efendi's workmen. The discovery is credited however to American Presbyterian minister William King Eddy who first learned of the necropolis from Cherif Effendi's workman. Eddy subsequently reported the discovery to the media and played a significant role in bringing attention to the site. The royal necropolis of Ayaa is the most famous of the royal necropoli of Achaemenid period Sidon; these consist of clusters of rock cut subterranean burial chambers accessible through vertical shafts.
The discovery of the necropolis was a watershed moment for the career of Osman Hamdi Bey, the founding father of Ottoman archaeology and museology; it was his "most significant archaeological accomplishment", and firmly elevated his stature in the Western archaeological community. It was the reason for the construction of the main building of the Istanbul Archaeology Museums, which became known as the "Sarcophagus Museum". Even today the Ayaa sarcophagi are among the highlights of the museum, which remains by far the largest such museum in Turkey.
The timing of the site's discovery was politically significant, as the Ottoman Empire had just begun to assert itself in the field of archaeology. The discovery of the Sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II three decades before, and Renan's subsequent Mission de Phénicie, had excited the European scholarly community; under the new regime photographs of this discovery were made available to European scholars but the finds were to be kept in Istanbul – this was considered a "failure in European acquisition".
Historical background
Phoenician funerary practices
The Phoenicians emerged as a distinct culture on the Levantine coast in the Late Bronze Age as one of the successor cultures to the Canaanites. They were organized into independent city-states that shared a common language, culture, and religious practices. They had, however, diverse mortuary practices, including inhumation and cremation.Scholars studying funerary practices in Iron Age Phoenicia note the absence of ancient texts describing beliefs about life after death and funeral rituals. However, various finds provide information that Phoenicians, like other peoples of the ancient Near East, believed in life after death and the immortality of the soul. The afterlife was referred to as the "House of Eternity," and the dead were thought to continue living in the underworld. Archaeological finds complement the limited written records; in Iron Age Phoenicia, burial sites were usually located outside settlements. Various types of tombs were found, such as earth pits, cist tombs, rock-cut tombs, some with shafts, and ashlar masonry-built tombs. In inhumation practices, the deceased was buried intact, laid directly on the floor, placed on a wooden plank or bench, or inside a coffin. The more affluent deceased was sometimes embalmed and wrapped in a shroud or clothed, and offerings like food and drink placed in pottery vessels, amulets, masks made of various materials, terracotta figurines were placed in the sepulture. Funerals were accompanied by lamentations, as attested on the sarcophagus of the mourning women found in the Ayaa royal necropolis, and the Ahiram sarcophagus discovered in the royal necropolis of Byblos. Grief was expressed by crying, beating one's chest, and tearing one's clothes.
Archaeological evidence of elite Achaemenid period burials abounds in the hinterland of Sidon. These include inhumations in underground vaults, rock-cut niches, and shaft and chamber tombs in Sarepta, Ain al-Hilweh, Ayaa, Mgharet Abloun, and the Temple of Eshmun. Elite Phoenician burials were characterized by the use of sarcophagi, a consistent emphasis on the integrity of the tomb, and evidence of mummification, suggesting Egyptian influence on elite funerary customs. Surviving mortuary inscriptions invoke deities to assist with the procurement of blessings, and to conjure curses and calamities on whoever desecrated the tomb.
Hellenistic influence
Greek culture had a significant but lesser influence on Phoenician religion compared to Egyptian culture. Peaceful trade connections between the Phoenicians and Greeks began in the second millennium BC and continued to grow. Greek influence on Phoenician culture, including religion and art, became more pronounced from the 5th century BC, even while Phoenicia was under Persian rule. The Sidonian elite admired Greek art and architecture, as evident in the incorporation of Greek mythological scenes in their monuments. They also accepted the identification of their gods with Greek counterparts, such as Eshmun with Asclepius and/or Apollo and Melqart with Heracles. The Phoenician educated elite started learning Greek, delving into Greek mythology and philosophy.Classical era Phoenician royal tombs in Sidon revealed the use of marble in the making of anthropoid sarcophagi imitating elite Egyptian basalt sarcophagi. These anthropoid sarcophagi gradually adopted increasingly realistic faces owing to Hellenistic influence.
Excavation history
Previous discoveries in Sidon
Consecutive discoveries in the 19th century of necropoli in the hinterland of Sidon gave rare insight into the city's past. The remains of the ancient city were built over by a dense matrix of narrow medieval Souks and densely populated residential quarters. The first record of the discovery of an ancient necropolis in Sidon was made in 1816 by English explorer and Egyptologist William John Bankes. Bankes, who was the guest of British adventurer and archaeologist Hester Stanhope, visited the vast necropolis that was accidentally discovered in 1814, in Wadi Abu Ghiyas at the foot of the towns of Bramieh and Hlaliye, northeast of Sidon. He sketched the layout of one of the sepulchral caves, made faithful watercolor copies of its frescoes, and removed two fresco panels which he sent to England.On 20 February 1855, Antoine-Aimé Peretié, the chancellor of the French consulate in Beirut and amateur archaeologist was informed by treasure hunter Alphonse Durighello, of an archaeological find in a hollowed-out rocky mound that was known to locals as Magharet Abloun 'The Cavern of Apollo'. Durighello had taken advantage of the absence of laws governing archaeological excavation and the disposition of the finds under the Ottoman rule over Lebanon and had been involved in the lucrative business of digging up and trafficking archaeological artifacts. Under the Ottomans, it sufficed to either own the land or to have the owner's permission to excavate. Any finds resulting from the digs became the property of the finder. To perform digs in the site of the cavern, Durighello bought the exclusive right from the land owner, the then Mufti of Sidon Mustapha Effendi. Durighello, who is referred to as Peretié's "agent" in de Luynes' account, unearthed the Sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II in an underground vaulted hypogeum and sold it to Peretié.
Discovery and removal to Istanbul
At the beginning of 1887, Mehmed Cherif Effendi, the owner of a piece of land known as Ayaa, obtained a permit from the local authorities to exploit it as a quarry. One of Cherif Effendi's workmen uncovered a shaft and chamber tomb. At nightfall, Cherif's workman made his way to American Presbyterian minister William King Eddy's home, a Sidon resident, to inform him of the find. The two men lowered themselves with a rope into the deep shaft, where Eddy realized upon inspecting the tomb that it was of considerable significance. He was the first to report this find to the media, and consequently, according to the American missionary narrative, is credited with the discovery. Eddy had informed the English Orientalist William Wright who wrote an article in The Times imploring the British Museum to "take immediate measures to secure these treasures and prevent their falling into the hands of the vandal Turk".On 2 March 1887, Cherif reported to the Kaymakam of Sidon, Sadik Bey, of the shaft and chamber tomb. Sadik Bey examined the site and spotted through a hole in the eastern wall of the shaft two sarcophagi. He escalated the matter to the Vali of Syria, Rashid Nashid Pasha, and the Governor of Beirut Nassouhi Bey, and entrusted the well to the care of Essad Effendi from the gendarmerie of Sidon.
Sadik Bey uncovered the entrance to two additional burial chambers to either side of the first one, both containing sarcophagi. Nachid Pacha was updated with the findings and had the work suspended due to the delicate nature of the finds until the arrival of Bechara Effendi, the chief engineer of the Vilayet of Syria. On March 15, Bechara Effendi arrived in Sidon and opened a total of seven burial chambers, all of which contained at least one sarcophagus. He wrote a summary report to the Ministry of Public Instruction in Istanbul, based on which, Sultan Abdul Hamid, tasked the new curator of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, Osman Hamdi Bey with excavating the necropolis, and transporting valuables back to Istanbul.
Hamdi Bey left Istanbul on 18 April 1887, accompanied by Demosthenes Baltazzi Bey the director of the archaeological service of the Vilayet of Aidin. They arrived in Sidon 12 days later. Hamdi Bey paid Mehmed Sherif Effendi, the owner of the land, 1500 Ottoman Liras at the behest of the Sultan.
On 1 May 1887, Hamdy Bey initiated the excavations: He oversaw the construction of a ladder to retrieve sarcophagus fragments through the surface shaft and supervised the excavation of a sloping trench that began from the adjacent grove known as Bostan el-Maghara, and extended into one of the necropolis' subterranean vaults. The trench was completed on the evening of 13 May. He had the vaults closed off to deter curious locals and looters, had guards stationed on site, and built tramway tracks that provided easy access to the necropolis to facilitate the retrieval of the sarcophagi. Once unearthed, he had a frigate brought from Istanbul and had the sarcophagi loaded onto it through openings cut in its side.
A group of people rode from Beirut to visit the site and see the collection, and one sarcophagus was found to contain a well-preserved human body floating in a fluid. During the transportation however, and while Hamdi Bey was at lunch, the workmen overturned the sarcophagus and poured the fluid out, such that, according to Jessup, the "secret of the wonderful fluid was again hidden in the Sidon sand". Notably, after the "peculiar fluid" left the sarcophagus, the body started to decompose. Hamdy Bey noted in 1892 that he had kept a portion of the sludge that remained in the bottom of the sarcophagus.
Bechara Effendi is credited with discovering new burial chambers and with devising transport mechanisms and superintending the transit of the massive troves to a frigate bound for Constantinople's museum.
All tombs had been violated in antiquity except for N17. Hamdi Bey believed that all the interred were related.