COMANA CAPPADOCIAE
(Şar, Tufanbeylin Adana)
Turkey.
In the valley of the Sarus (Göksu), in the
deep glens of the Antitauros. It is probably Hittite Kummani, religious center with goddess Hepat. By Hellenistic
times Comana, with Comana Pontica, was one of the two
cult centers of the Goddess Ma, equated by Strabo with
Enyo. The city, chief town of the strategia of Cataonia,
was ruled by the chief priest, who ranked second after the
king of Cappadocia and was generally of the royal f amily. Strabo states that the temple servants numbered 6000
and also implies a lay population (12.2.2); an inscription by the demos honors King Archelaos and a gerousia
is also attested. Roman period inscriptions refer to the
city as Hieropolis. Then as in the Byzantine period it was
evidently prosperous but not important.
The small town center, unwalled as befits a holy place,
did not hold the whole population. The fertile valleys for
miles around bear traces of ancient occupation. Principal
standing monuments are the Ala Kapi, a tetrastyle prostyle temple of the 2d c. A.D., the Kirik Kilise, 4th c. A.D.
heroon of the senator Aurelius Claudius Hermodorus, a
theater, and a number of churches and chapels. Outside
the town are hundreds of tumulus graves. A number of
sculptured and inscribed monuments are housed in the
Adana Museum.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
R. P. Harper & I. Bayburtluoğlu, “Preliminary Report on Excavations at Şar, Comana Cappadociae, in 1967”
PI and R. P. Harper, “Tituli Comanorum
Cappadociae,”
AnatSt 18 (1968) 149-58 & 93-147 resp.
R. P. HARPER