KALE-İ TAVAS (TABAE ANTİK KENTİ) ÖREN YERİ VE KAVAKLIPINAR MEVKİİ KALE-İ TAVAS MEZARLIĞI KAZILARI
Authors: BEYAZIT Mustafa , CANSEVEN Meryem 
Published: November 2023

This study covers the evaluations of the history of the Kale-i Tavas city which was an undisrupted settlement spanning from prehistoric times until the 1950s of the Republican Period, of its transformation into a Turkish-Islamic city and the excavation findings. Located 1,5 km on the southwest of the Kale province of Denizli, the city has sustained its importance due to its location as a gateway connecting the costal and inner regions since its foundation until the time of its relocation. Being situated on a naturally fortified rock structure has made the city which was referred to as Tabae, Taba, Tabas and Tabenon in ancient sources which meant “rock” a center of attraction in every period. Even though there is no certain information about its foundation, it is understood that it was a place of continues settlement from prehistoric ages. Found on the south of the Tabai (Tavas) Plain, the city was the soul settlement amongst other cities in the plain to mint silver coins. Information on the pre-Alexander period of the Ancient City of Tabae is limited. The city had gained the status of “polis” during the rule of the Seleucids and continued to main its importance during the Roman Era. Tabae which had sent representatives to councils during the Byzantine Era was transformed into a Turkish-Islamic city in the 12th Century after the Turkish conquest of the region. The city which had been alternating between the Menteshe Principality and the Ottoman rules for a certain time finally became Ottoman territory in 1424. Based on the information given by the travelers about the Turkish- Islamic period of Kale-i Tavas, it is understood that Kale-i Tavas had been a prospering city with its Turkish-Islamic structures surrounded by city walls. Kale-i Tavas, which had been within the borders of the Menteshe Sanjak until 1887, was bound to Denizli after this date and continued its existences until the decision of its relocation due to the threat of landslide in 1954 during the Republic Period. With the excavations the have been uninterruptedly carried out since 2007, many findings that will shed light on the past of the Ancient City of Kale-i Tavas (Tabae) have been unearth. Among the excavation findings are statue fragments all dating to the Roman Era, ceramic artifacts belonging to various different civilizations spanning from the Bronze Age to the 1960s and coins pertaining to the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Turkish-Islamic periods. As was considered a part of Kale-i Tavas’s history, the cemetery had also been included in the excavation activities since 2015. Three groups of gravestones have been identified in the Kale-i Tavas Cemetery which constitutes one of the most important Turkish-Islamic cemeteries with its more than 3000 headstones which include tombstones that continue the Central Asian tradition, inscribed tombstones dating to the Ottoman Era and headstones that carry the Ottoman tradition even though it had been made during the Republic Period. For more detailed information, please refer to the Extended Abstract at the end of the text