Smyrna Agora documents reveal clues about İzmir quakes

The finds in Smyrna Agora, known as the largest ancient-period agora in a city center, have revealed information about the previous earthquakes in İzmir.

Stating that there are many clues about the earthquake in the ancient city, Associate Professor Akın Ersoy said: "There are inscriptions and documents of the İzmir earthquakes that occurred in the middle of the sixth century and in 177 in the city."

Founded by Alexander the Great on an area of 193 hectares, the 8,500-year-old ancient city covers an area from Kadifekale to Kemeraltı.

In the ancient city, which offers many clues about the daily life of ancient times, 1,483 objects were found during the excavations that have been ongoing for the last 14 years. Along with these objects, it was revealed that the agora has many pieces of evidence about the earthquakes that occurred in İzmir throughout history.

Ersoy, a lecturer at the İzmir Katip Çelebi University's Department of Turkish-Islamic Archaeology and the head of the ancient city of Smyrna and Agora Theater excavation team, pointed out that there were important inscriptions, artifacts and documents regarding the earthquake in Smyrna.

Stating that the earthquake that occurred in İzmir on Oct. 30 last year had similar ones in the past, he said: "At this time last year, a big earthquake occurred in İzmir. I am one of the victims of this earthquake. There are important inscriptions in the ancient city of Smyrna emphasizing the seismicity of İzmir. There is a work, in which the governor of the period is honored to make İzmir a city again after the earthquake. We believe that there is probably a bronze statue of the governor on this work. There is a concrete inscription and documents from ancient sources. In these documents, they...