Saturday, December 28, 2024

Peter Forschhammer describes annual flooding in the Plain of Troy

 Peter Forschhammer visited the plain of Troy in 1839.  In 1842 he published the following: 

There is no other plain in Asia Minor so much subjected to the influence of water as the plain of Troy is in the rainy season. The Mendere begins to rise as soon as the rains commence in the upper regions of Mount Ida. At its entrance into the lower plain it receives a considerable accession from the Kimar, which, rising far up in the mountains, is also affected by the early rains. The subterranean veins and channels of the mountain which feed the springs of the plain will also be gorged with water, and the probability is that even in this early part of the winter the three Asmaks of the Judan become large and continuous streams, the Akchi-Kevi-Asmak becomes an acting tributary of the Mendere, and a portion of the waters of the Bunarbashi-Su overflow its low eastern banks, and find their way into the bed of that river. As the winter advances the clouds fall down upon the lower Ida, and ultimately discharge themselves over the whole plain. With the exception of what is carried off by the artificial channel of the Bunarbashi-Su, the whole of the water of this side of Mount Ida is drained into the plain of Troy. The Mendere overflows its banks and forms the inundation river mentioned above. The rains of winter are generally accompanied by strong winds from the S.W., which obstruct the current of the Hellespont, and raise the sea- water above its ordinary level at the mouths of the Mendere and of the two Asmaks, thus impeding the current of the rivers and increasing the inundation in the lower part of the plain. The inundation thus created is permanent during the winter. At first it only covers the part of the plain adjoining the salt-water lagoons and the mouth of the Mendere, and up to the high steep banks of the Asmaks. In time, however, the extensive plain in the interior of Mount Ida, between Ene and Bairamiche, is converted into an immense lake, of which the narrow valley through which the Mendere flows between Ene and Bunarbashi is the only outlet. In this passage the water sometimes rises in winter 30 or 40 feet above the bottom of the river's summer bed, as may be seen by the grass left adhering to the trees on its banks. The whole plain of the Mendere is submerged, and at times even the valleys of the Kimar and the Dumbrek are overflowed to a considerable height. In them, however, the inundation rarely continues longer than five or six days at a time ; but it recurs at frequent intervals during the rainy season. 

Peter Forschammer, Observations on the Topography of Troy, P 35 

Forschhammer is saying that run off creates a lake between Ezine (Ene) and Bayramic (Bairamiche). He also tells us that the water in the canyon between Ezine and Pinarbasi (Bunarbashi) can rise 30-40 feet. 























Above: the area between Mt Ida (lower right) and Troy (upper left).  The distance from Bayramic to Ezine is greater than the length of the Trojan plain.  The lake at Bayramic is the reservoir of a modern dam. Forschhammer is right to say that "the whole of the water of this side of Mount Ida is drained into the plain of Troy."  
























Above: the canyon above Pinarbasi.  There is a modern dam just east of Pinarbasi, where the Mendere/Scamander enters the plain, so, the canyon is now a reservoir and full of water.  Some of this is surely deeper than the 30-40 feet Forschhammer estimated. 





































On the map above I've marked the two valleys and the lagoons Forschhammer mentions. 

All in all, he is talking about lots of water coming from three rivers into the plain all at once.   The inundation around the lagoons he calls "permanent in winter". The inundations in the two smaller valleys only last for five days or so, but that seems to imply that the inundations of the larger valley last longer. These would be the times when "The whole plain of the Mendere is submerged", which means the entire valley marked Plain of Troy in the map above is submerged.  




Thursday, December 12, 2024

Frank Calvert Drained Judan Lake

In earlier posts I have treated Judan Lake as an anomaly in the plain of Troy that appears on old maps but is no longer present in the plain.  

In my last post, Heinrich Schliemann described a swamp in the plain of Troy that was drained by Frank Calvert, who owned the land occupied by the swamp. 

In this post I will argue that the swamp drained by Calvert was in fact what the old maps call Judan Lake.  

If that thesis is right, then we can answer a question now.  Was the lake a result of human interventions in the plain or was it natural?  If the thesis is right, the lake was man made, though it was probably not ancient. It was caused by an old bridge which blocked up the drain ways of three springs.  

Peter Forschammer visited the plain and worked there with Thomas Spratt, whose maps of the plain are legendary among scholars.  His "Observations on the Topography of Troy" appeared in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London in 1842. He describes Lake Judan.

E. of the Mendere, and N.W. of the new Chiflik of Akchi Kevi, at the foot of three hills, in which a branch of the Chiblak range terminates, is a marshy lake, fed by springs called by the natives Judan (a water that never diminishes). From the Judan issue three Asmaks * Two of these flow N. of W. towards the sea ; the third flows in an opposite direction, and falls into the Kimar-Su.

 *Asmak is a term applied to channels which contain running water in winter only, and standing pools in summer. The beds of the Asmaks in the Trojan plain are commonly cut by the water through the flat soil, so that in many places they are not visible before you reach the edge of the steep bank.

Peter Forschammer, Observations on the Topography of Troy, P 30

What Forschammer is calling "the new Chiflik of Akchi Kevi" in 1842, is precisely the Chiflik owned by the Calvert family in the 1860's.  Schliemann called it Akshi Kioi.  Kevi and Kioi and Koy and Kuei are different ways of writing down the Turkish word for village. 

Schiemann reported that the swamp on the Calvert farm was caused by a fallen bridge which had blocked three springs.   

These springs — probably owing to their natural channels having been stopped up for centuries by a fallen bridge — have formed a large marsh of 240 acres, the evaporations of which greatly contribute to the malaria of the glorious Plain. ... In order to gain 240 acres of rich land and to make the district more healthy, but especially also in the interest of science, Mr. Calvert has now caused the channels to be opened, and he believes, as the incline is considerable, amounting at least to 53 feet, and the distance from the Hellespont is three hours, that by next summer the whole marsh will be dried up, and the two springs, which are now 5 feet under water, will be brought to light.

Schliemann, Troy and its Remains, 1875, p. 70f.  

About the swamp, Schliemann notes five years later that it "formerly covered an area of about 250 acres" and "has by the exertions of Mr. Calvert and his engineer, Mr. Stoney, been dried up and converted into the most valuable land; the three springs which produced it still exist" (Ilion, the City and Country of the Trojans, 1880, p. 99). So, in 1875 he thought there were two springs, but in 1880 he knows there were three.  The swamp was drained sometime between the writing of the two books.  

Another thing to note here: Forschammer says that the lake is the source of three Asmaks.  Two of them flow to the sea.  The third flows south toward the center of the plain where it meets with the Kimar Su which we know as Kamer Creek.  

The Greek for an arch is ... (kamara). The Turks have adopted the word, which they pronounce Kimar; and hence any water spanned by a bridge or aqueduct is called Kimar-Su, or, in the pronunciation of the Greeks, Kamara-Su.  ... The Kimar-Su has its name from a magnificent arch or aqueduct, founded on high rocks, 55 feet wide, and rising 92 feet above the bed of the river, which crosses it about 5 or 6 miles above its junction with the Mendere. Forschammer, 1842, p. 32f

The aqueduct is a Roman era construction that brought water to New Ilion on Hisarlik.  

Schliemann thinks differently from Forschammer about the Asmaks, claiming that "one arm of it rises in the Duden swamp on Mr. Calvert's farm of Akshi Kioi while another starts from the point where the Scamander and Thymbrius meet" (1880, 99).  He sees what Forschammer calls a third Asmak as the continuation of one of the Asmaks from the plain.  

In another contrast, Schliemann uses the term Duden Swamp, while Forschammer uses the term Judan Lake.  I am convinced that Judan and Duden are two ways of writing down the same Turkish word. 

After describing the rivers, Forschammer notes:

In addition to these watercourses the plain contains a number of swamps and marshes. Those which contain permanent lakes have been already noticed: they are, on the W. side of the Mendere, the marshes surrounding the springs which form the Bunarbashi-Su, and on the E. side, the sources of the three Judan Asmaks. Both are on a higher level than that of the central plain; the Bunarbashi swamps are much more extensive than those of the Judan. 

Forschammer 1842, p. 33 

In the above citation, Forschammer classifies what the maps call Judan Lake as a swamp or marsh that contains a permanent lake. He goes on here to describe the swamp at Yeni Koy as dry during part of the year.  He then describes another marsh on Kamer Creek. 

In the plain the bed of the [Kimar] river increases in breadth, and after passing the last height to the N. divides into three arms which re-unite near the Chiflik of Akchi-Kevi, where the water begins to re-appear at intervals. About 100 yards farther on the river passes through a little marshy wood called Baluk (a place for honey), at the lower end of which the channels of the Akchi-Kevi-Asmak meet those of the Kimar. The marsh was quite dry in the month of August; but a deep and well-defined bed, with a smaller one by its side, could be traced from it to the Mendere, through which the waters of the Kimar and Akchi-Kevi- Asmak find their way in the wet season.  P 33

Forschammer 1842, p. 33

This marsh occurred at the meeting point of the Asmak and the Kimar, south of Hanai Tepe.  

Below are two views from a map of the area provided by Schliemann's 1875 work. 


The area Schliemann has labeled "Marshy" is Judan Lake, or Duden Swamp as his own works call it. 

Coming out the south side of that marshy area we see a dotted line that represents what Schliemann thinks of as a continuation of the Asmak, but which Forschammer calls the Akchi-Kevi-Asmak. While Forschammer says that this Asmak flows downhill toward the center of the plain, Schliemann seems to think that it brings water from the Mendere to the Asmaks, which would have the water flow uphill, I believe. 

There is a bridge marked on the NW side of the marshy area.  That is probably the bridge that Frank Calvert removed to allow the swamp to drain into the Asmaks, one of which Schliemann likes to label the Ancient Bed of the Scamander.  Forschammer describes that very bridge. 

Some indications of ancient buildings are found on the hills above the Judan, near Akchi-Kevi. They are extensive, although there is no appearance of a town wall. Near them, and now surrounded by the marshy lake, is a bridge, 20 feet wide, across the channel of the Kalifatli-Asmak. It is evident that the extension of the lake must have rendered this bridge impassable to carriages for many centuries; the stones of the arch are about 1 1/2 foot in thickness, and yet the wheels of carriages have worn not merely deep tracks, but positively large holes through them. It is impossible to assign a date to this bridge, or to any of the bridges of square blocks for foot passengers which are pointed out on the map. 

Forschammer, 1842 p. 40  

He describes a somewhat spectacular ruin with amazingly deeply rutted stones.  It seems to be partly submerged if the lake has made it unusable.  Forschammer's 1842 piece provides a Spratt map. Below is the same area as seen on that map. 





















On the NW side of "Judan Lake," this map shows a Br in Ruins, which means Bridge in Ruins.  Notice that the map maker marks two more bridges, Br, along the Pasha Tepe Asmak.  That Br in Ruins is probably the bridge that Frank Calvert, the eventual owner of "Akschi Keui Chiflik," removed, allowing the marsh and lake to drain away into the Asmaks. 

Another Spratt map shows the same area with a different emphasis.  





















This map does not label the marshy area west of Akshi Kioi, but it does draw the signs of marshiness there, as it does south of Kanai Tepe.  It also shows a Ru. Ant. Bridge, ruined ancient bridge, at the top of the meeting point of the two Asmaks.  And that is yet another representation of the bridge that Frank Calvert removed in order to drain what Virchow and Schliemann call Duden Swamp, and what Spratt and Forschammer call Judan Lake. 





















On this final map, from Schliemann's 1880, the area in question is labeled Duden Swamp, and we see a bridge over the Asmak on its NW side. 

Also worth noting: between 1875 and 1880 Schliemann has changed his mind as to which of the Asmaks used to be the Scamander.  


Conclusion: 

I believe that the anomaly known as Judan Lake has been explained.  It was not a remnant of an ancient water control system as I had once suspected it might be. 

It was instead a swamp caused by a fallen bridge.  The lake disappeared after Frank Calvert removed the ruins of the bridge.  


Mea Culpa

In writing the last two entries on this blog I have come to realize that I have been making a huge mistake in looking at the satellite images while thinking about the Spratt maps.  I have been placing Judan Lake in the wrong place.  It belongs much further up the plain than three of my prior posts have placed it.  I will be updating with disclaimers on all of those posts in the future.   




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