Dülük

Dülük
Village
Dülük Location in Turkey
Coordinates: 37°09′N 37°22′E / 37.150°N 37.367°E / 37.150; 37.367Coordinates: 37°09′N 37°22′E / 37.150°N 37.367°E / 37.150; 37.367
Country	Turkey
Province	Gaziantep Province
District	Şehitkamil
Elevation	950 m (3,115 ft)
Population (2012)
• Total	2,256
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Postal code	27000
Area code(s)	0342
Licence plate	27

Dülük, ancient Doliche (Greek: Δολίχη) is a village in Şehitkamil district, a district of Greater Gaziantep, Turkey. At 37°09′N 37°22′E / 37.150°N 37.367°E / 37.150; 37.367 it is about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) to Gaziantep city center. The population of Dülük was 2256.^[1] as of 2012.

History

Finds in Tell Dülük or Doliche include stone tools from 30-40 thousand years ago. These tools are from a Neolithic culture, unofficially dubbed "Dulicien culture" by researchers with a name that refers to the sanctuary of Jupiter Dolichenus that led to the place name.

Other finds in Doliche are an underground Mithraic temple, rock graves, and stone quarries from which giant rock blocks are produced.

In 2014, a team of German archaeologists from the University of Münster announced the excavation of a relief depicting an Iron Age deity previously unknown to them on a stelle among the remains of Mar Solomon,^[2] a medieval monastery uncovered during 2010 excavations in Doliche. The monastery had been known only through writings indicating that it had been used through the era of the crusades. The University of Münster's Asia Minor Research Centre has been conducting excavation work at the main sanctuary of Jupiter Dolichenus under the direction of Engelbert Winter and Michael Blömer and is supported by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft, DFG). The international group consists of archaeologists, historians, architects, conservators, archaeozoologists, geoinformation scientists, and excavation workers. Winter's field work at the sanctuary dates back to 2001.

Hittite period

During the Hittite period, it was a stop on the road connecting the Mediterranean to Mesopotamia. It was also a religious center. The sanctuary of the Hittite god Teshub was just at the north of the village ^[3]

Roman period

Doliche a small city on the road from Germanicia to Zeugma, famous for its temple of Zeus Dolichenus, identified with Baal.^[4] It struck its own coins from the reign of Marcus Aurelius to Caracalla.^[5]

Ecclesiastical history

Doliche was an episcopal see, suffragan of Hierapolis Bambyce. The names of eight Greek bishops are known: Archelaus, present at the First Council of Nicaea (325), and at the Synod of Antioch (341); Olympius at the Council of Sardica (344); Cyrion at the Council of Seleucia (359); Maris at the First Council of Constantinople (381); Abibus, a Nestorian, in 431, deposed in 434; Athanasius, his successor; Timothy, a correspondent of Theodoret, present at the Synods of Antioch (444) and at the Council of Chalcedon (451); Philoxenus, a nephew of the celebrated Philoxenus of Hierapolis, deposed as a Severian Encratite in 518, reinstated in 533^[5][6][7]

The see figures in the first "Notitia Episcopatuum",^[8] about 840. At a later time, Doliche took the place of Hierapolis as metropolis.^[9] Fourteen Syrian Jacobite Bishops are known from the eighth to ninth century.^[5][10]

Doliche remains a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church.^[5]

References