About Teos
Near Sığacık, Teos was an Ionian coastal city opening to Aegean trade through northern and southern harbours. Its sanctuary of Dionysus, association of theatrical artists and links with poets gave it a strong cultural identity. Agora, council house, theatre and cisterns reveal the organisation of public life.
History
Archaeology indicates substantial settlement from the early first millennium BCE. Under Persian pressure in the sixth century BCE, some inhabitants moved to Abdera in Thrace; Teos later regained a role within Ionia. The presence of the Dionysian Artists in Hellenistic times reinforced theatre and music in civic life. The Temple of Dionysus, associated with Hermogenes, is a significant Hellenistic monument. Harbours, sanctuary and public buildings continued under Rome; new structures developed around the southern harbour in late antiquity.
Highlights and principal structures
- Sanctuary and Temple of Dionysus
- Bouleuterion
- Theatre
- Agora
- Hellenistic walls
- Northern and southern harbours
- Roman cistern
Historical period
Archaic–Hellenistic–Roman