Eskipazar - Hadrianopolis in Paphlagonia

Eskipazar - Hadrianopolis in Paphlagonia

Hadrianopolis in Paphlagonia, also known as Eskipazar, was a city situated in southwestern Asia Minor, located approximately 3km west of the modern town of Eskipazar in the Karabuk Province. The city was inhabited from at least the 1st century BC until the 8th century AD and was named after the Roman emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD.

Hadrianopolis was established during the late Hellenistic, Roman, and early Byzantine periods. When Emperor Theodosius I (347-395) established a new province called Honorias, combining Paphlagonia and Bithynia, the city became known as Hadrianopolis in Honorias. It was largely due to its Christian diocese that it was listed among the current titular sees in the Annuario Pontificio.

Eskipazar - Hadrianopolis in Paphlagonia

Excavations began in 2003, revealing 14 public buildings, including two baths, two churches, a defense structure, rock tombs, a theater, an arched and domed structure, and four other large-scale structures located on the sanctuary that have yet to be identified. A villa and various religious buildings were also discovered.

The mosaic floors of the churches depict images of the biblical rivers Gihon, Pishon, Tigris, and Euphrates, as well as various animals. The ancient city's mosaic has been compared to that of Zeugma, another ancient city in Anatolia. One of Anatolia's earliest churches was also found at Hadrianopolis.

In December 2019, archaeologists discovered an 1800-year-old limestone slab featuring a female silhouette, likely that of Demeter, the goddess of harvest and agriculture. The slab bears the inscription "Herakleides, son of Glaukos" and depicts a woman wearing traditional dress, holding ears of wheat in her right hand, and wearing a belt with a snake on her waist.