ABSTRACT
Let me approach the main theme of this volume through one of the many case studies presented in its chapters. At the entrance of Adıyaman University (south-central Turkey), an extensive modern complex dedicated to scientific research and teaching, are two massive stone copies of enormous elaborately sculptured stone heads, the originals of which can be found at the nearby ruins of Nemrut Dağı (Lennart Wouter Kruijer and Miguel John Versluys, this volume). Nemrut Dağı is a ‘tomb-sanctuary’. It was probably built around 50 bce, as a place of worship within the late Hellenistic kingdom of Commagene. Displaying “styles, iconographies and religious concepts” deriving from the “Greek and Hellenistic Mediterranean, Armenia, the Persian world and Rome”, Nemrut Dağı bears witness to a pre-Islamic history of the region. On the basis of its ‘Greek’ characteristics, scholars have often understood Nemrut Dağı as part of a wave of ‘Hellenisation’ that would have changed the Near East from ‘Oriental’ into ‘Greek’. Similarly, and in contradiction, the ruins also figure in competing academic narratives that argue for the indigenous, Anatolian character of the site. The ancient origins of the impressive and elaborate statues attract global tourism, providing the site with a further role in defining the ancient and mixed cultural roots of the region. Although the ruins nowadays lack a formal religious function, they continue to inspire contemporary mysticism, as is evident from their recent emergence in a well-received Netflix series (notably in Turkey) foregrounding the sanctuary’s ancient past. Last, given its pre-Islamic origins, to some, Nemrut Dağı represents nothing less than idolatry. Between the copies of the statues at the driveway of the university, their ancient roots, the appeal of the site to global tourism, and its associations with contemporary mysticism, what does Nemrut Dağı stand for today? How are its distinct significances and interpretations premised on the particular locality, while at the same time embedded in notions that operate at a much higher level of abstraction?
