Saturday 29 November 2014

A Tomb with a View.



Another funerary related post. In 1985, we moved from Bitez and bought a small house in the Kumbahçe district of Bodrum. We would have had a sea view, but for a large hillock in front of us, but the lack of a view made it the only house in Bodrum in our price range.  During the 80s, more and more houses were built and Kumbahçe became a desired address, but the bare mound remained. It was owned by Şalvarağa,  an unkempt  barrel of man who had a sea-facing shack, surrounded by mounds of fire wood, on his hill. If you met him in the street, you'd assume that he was on his uppers, but his shack sat on a goldmine in real estate terms.  It was understood that Şalvarağa was constantly offered great riches for his hill, but he refused to sell.
We moved away and I assume Şalvarağa died, because when we returned to Turkey in 2012 his land was being developed.  Last year, as a road was being excavated to access the incipient million-Euro -plus villas, the diggers unearthed a tomb, just under where  Şalvarağa had had his shack.  Work was stopped as archaeologists were called in to investigate.  A  gold leaf was found, enough to  date the tomb to the Roman Era, and suggest that its occupant was an important military man, as golden laurel leaf crowns were  a symbol of martial victory in Roman times.  Work on the construction was stopped for a while and I like to think that both the occupant of the tomb and Şalvarağa were looking down and having a joke at the expense of the construction company that was desecrating  their hill.

"Resting on one's laurels" - to rely on past success for continued respect. 


18 comments:

  1. . . the 'developers' won't lose out - the tomb will be excavated, preserved in place, and the exclusivity will send the price of a villa in the area soaring. Villa Hardy, The Laurels, Bodrum has a nice, twee ring to it!

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  2. Fascinating....I wonder if Salvaraga benefited in any way....maybe, finally selling for astronomical sums.It sounds like an important find...may be he knew, all along.

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    1. He always appeared very happy with his lot. Always a smile and a "merhaba"

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  3. Never pays to upset the gods...

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    1. Mamon is the only god listened to these days.

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  4. How ironic and fascinating, seems like wherever you dig at that part of the world, some sort of a treasure awaits - we had a similar story at my grandmother's 450 year old house in old Antakya, so fascinating.

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    1. I hope you'll tell us about your grandmother's house.

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  5. Our neighbour (who I called Sophia in the book) told us about the time she was having work done on her garden and fragments from antiquity started to emerge. She covered them up pretty quick. She didn't want any archaeologist trampling all over the lavender! Goes to show what lies beneath.

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    1. Your neighbours house is on a road used for at least 2500 years.

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  6. B to B, I love it when something like this happens. Please keep us posted on what they find - sounds fascinating.

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    1. The report isn't published yet and I think some work is still going on.

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  7. My father-in-law dug the land on his property to lay the foundations for his garage, and unearthed another well-hidden secret: the town's water mains, mysteriously unmentioned when they bought their home. It was lot less impressive, and resulted in a legal battle with the state. I don't think we'll be checking for Roman coins.

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    1. Do they douse for pipes before they dig in France?

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  8. Ha ha yes, seems to be a bit of divine justice, there. Guess they'll find a lot more if they found a gold leaf. :)

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    1. The grave robbers had already been in so I don't think there will be much more in the way of finds.

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  9. Look's like a good place to be..

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  10. I'm starting to think one can't stick a spade in the ground in Bodrum without striking archaeological gold!

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