AKÇAKOCA
formerly Aklehir, Turkey.
On
the Black Sea 56 km NW of Bolu is a town near which
may have been the site of ancient Dia. According to
ancient sources Dia was a town on the Pontos (Steph.
Byz.) 60 stadia E of the mouth of the Hypios (Marcian
Herakl.
Epit. Peripl. Menipp. 1.8) now the Melen Deresi,
and a harbor for small ships (Anon.
Peripl. Pont. Eux.,
which also places it 60 stadia E of the Hypios). Ptolemy
(5.1.2) mentions a Diospolis in Bithynia. These references have been believed to identify the same site, generally placed at or near Akçakoca. An Imperial inscription found at nearby Kepenç mentions harbor improvements to an unnamed city, and sherds from the Roman
to the Turkish period have been found on a hill near the
coast 3 km W of Akçakoca. Dia may have been the port
for Prusias ad Hypium, ca. 30 km inland and reached
from the coast by a modern road which may survive
from antiquity.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
G. Perrot,
Exploration Archéologique
de la Galatie et de la Bithynie (1862) 20; G. Mendel,
“Inscriptions de la Bithynie,”
BCH 25 (1901) 49-55; F.
Dörner & W. Hoepfner, “Vörlaufiger Bericht über eine Reise in Bithynien 1961,”
ArchAnz (1962) 572-79
MI;
id.,
AnzWien (1962) 30-35.
T. S. MACKAY
