Karalar Galat Yerleşimi ve Tümülüsleri (Blucium)

Karalar is a small neighbourhood of the Kahramankazan district of Ankara, about 8 kilometres from the district centre and about 55 kilometres from Ankara. On the rocky hills to the north of the neighbourhood, at a spot locally called Asarkaya, lie the remains of a settlement from the Galatian period together with burial mounds, or tumuli. Although Ankara's Galatian period is often mentioned in historical sources, it is little known archaeologically, and that is why Karalar matters to researchers. The Galatians were communities of Celtic origin that came from the west and settled in Central Anatolia from the 3rd century BC onwards. According to Stephen Mitchell's article in the journal Anatolian Studies, Galatia stretched roughly between today's Sivrihisar and Yozgat and was shared by three Celtic tribes. After the region became a Roman province in 25 BC, Ancyra, that is Ankara, Pessinus and Tavium became the centres of the three tribes, the Tectosages, the Tolistobogii and the Trocmi. According to statements by Associate Professor Çiğdem Gençler Güray of Ankara University, the Kazan area mostly contains settlements belonging to the Tolistobogii Galatians. Karalar entered the world of scholarship in 1933. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, Remzi Oğuz Arık uncovered an ancient Galatian city with the Karalar excavation in 1933, the year he was posted to Ankara as archaeologist of the Ministry of Education. The same source writes that through this excavation Arık introduced to the world an inscription bearing the name of Deiotarus II. Arık had studied art history at the Sorbonne and archaeology at the Louvre in Paris, and in later years he also directed excavations such as Alacahöyük, Karaoğlan and Bitik. The Turkish Wikipedia article on Kahramankazan writes that the 1933 excavation revealed a Classical period settlement named Manegerdos; English Wikipedia refers to the same area as a Roman settlement called Mariegordus. Deiotarus was a Galatian ruler who began as tetrarch of the Tolistobogii and gained the title of king thanks to his alliance with the Romans. The Roman orator Cicero defended Deiotarus in a case heard in Caesar's house in Rome. Ancient sources relate that Deiotarus resided in a fortress called Blucium or Bloukion, and English Wikipedia places this fortress near Karalar. However, as Mitchell also stresses, matching the forts of Galatia with the names in ancient sources was long an unsolved problem. For this reason, rather than calling Karalar Blucium with certainty, it is most accurate to speak of it as the place thought to be Blucium. With the permission of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Ankara University began surface surveys in Kahramankazan in September 2021, and the work was completed in 2024. The survey showed that in the pre-Roman Hellenistic period Karalar was an important centre, with wall remains, building traces and burial finds. According to Güray, the tombs uncovered in the excavations suggest that the place was a central Galatian settlement. In surrounding settlements such as Fethiye, Kınık and Dağyaka, simple rural living areas were identified from pottery fragments. The researchers thus announced that they had established a continuity of settlement in the district from antiquity to the present. What can be seen on the ground today is limited but impressive. Photographs on Wikimedia Commons show a tumulus with a rocky core rising on a slope covered with dry grass, and the remains of a temple and fortress with steps cut into the rock. Traces of walls and scattered stones can be made out around the rocky outcrops; do not move the stones on the ground as you walk around. Güray has said that after the excavations treasure hunters were often seen in the area and that the team came across spots blasted with dynamite. This damage is irreversible, so if you see a suspicious dig, informing the authorities is the most concrete way to protect the site. The site is not presented as an arranged museum area, so bring water, a hat and sturdy shoes. The rocky hills are climbed on foot, and the ground can become slippery after rain. There is little shade on the sparsely wooded steppe; spring and autumn are the most comfortable seasons for a visit. A private car is the most practical way to reach Karalar, and the neighbourhood lies west of the centre of Kahramankazan. The site may not be marked as a separate point on maps, so when you reach the neighbourhood head for the rocky hills to the north and ask local people the way. On the same day you can also see the Satıkadın Museum in the district centre and the Kurtboğazı Dam to the north.