THE HERACLES SARCOPHAGUS IN KONYA

In July 1958 the Director of Konya Museum was showing a group of foreign visitors around the museum one afternoon. News came that a Konya lawyer was on the telephone and wanted to discuss a very important matter. The director apologized and ran to the telephone. The old lawyer began to talk excitedly. He said that he had been to Beysehir that morning to attend a trial. Afterwards he had caught a bus back to Konya, but 60 km. before reaching the city the bus had a puncture, and the lawyer got off together with the other passengers. A little way ahead a villager was digging a trench. He went over and greeted him. Just then the villager's spade struck against stone. Thinking it was an ordinary stone he felt it with his hand and brushed the soil off the top, revealing a carved stone of milk white marble. Our friend asked the man to stop digging in case of breaking whatever was buried here, and jumping into the meter deep hole they began to clear the soil away together. The upper surface of a marble cover could be seen in all its beauty but at that moment the bus was ready to start off. "Don't dig any more. Tomorrow I'll bring the museum director to see it," he said to the villager and he got on the bus and returned to Konya. The news was very interesting. The museum director put down the telephone and got in a jeep. The hole which the villager had dug was four or five meters from the side of the road, and at a meter deep could be seen the cover of a marble sarcophagus. However, to dig it out would take two or three days work. The director had two jandarme sent from Beysehir and set them to guard this new find while he got together the equipment and laborers ready to start work the following day. When the sarcophagus was finally dug out it was seen that this beautiful carved sarcophagus ranked among the world's finest, a masterpiece of art perhaps unequalled among those of its period. This 7-8 ton sarcophagus cut from a single piece of marble was lifted onto a caterpillar wheeled vehicle using modern winches supplied by the Second Army in Konya. This convoy entered Konya early in the afternoon watched by thousands of people, who had heard the news on the radio, and the sarcophagus was placed in Konya Archaeological Museum.

The sarcophagus was 2, 5 m. long, 1.30 m. wide, and 1.18 m. high. Its four faces were decorated with tall bas-relief figures so finely and skillfully carved that they might have been made separately and nailed on afterwards. On the cover were the carved figures of a man and woman lying down. The sarcophagus must have belonged to an important man of state. Inside were found two skeletons which were sent to the Faculty of Languages and History for examination, while the sarcophagus, itself was studied in Konya. It was of the Sidamara type made in Anatolia. Sidamara was located on the site of the present village of Anbarli south of Konya and a sarcophagus was found there which is at present in Istanbul Archaeological Museum. The bas-reliefs on the sides of this newly found sarcophagus depicted the God of Force and the twelve labors of Heracles. Brought to life in marble was the killing of the Nemean lion and the nine-headed snake the wild boar, the catching of the stag Which ran like the wind, the destruction of the birds which flung their quills Iike arrows, the removal of the magic belts of the Amazons, and the rest of the twelve labors. The successful Heracles has convinced everyone of his immortal strength. He has a cudgel in his hand and a lion skin on his shoulders. In 'most of the depictions his muscles are strained and his eyes flash as if he were going to leap off the sarcophagus.

At the head of the sarcophagus is a columned temple niche in front of which is a clothed figure sitting on a chair. Standing opposite him is a tall beautiful woman. It is clear that they are whom the sarcophagus was made for. Behind the man is standing another person, who could be a palace advisor or a priest. No detail of the compositions is missing. At intervals columns and sacred animals decorate the sarcophagus.

Historians say that the region where the sarcophagus was found was the site of the ancient Roman city of Tiberiopolis, and other finds from the area confirm this. The latest studies of the sarcophagus have determined that it was made in the Roman period around 260 AD. There is no writing to indicate for whom it was made however. One has to be content with the fact that it is a masterpiece of ancient art.