Chalcedon

Chalcedon ( ; ) was an ancient maritime town of Bithynia, in Asia Minor. It was located to the south of Chrysopolis (later known as Scutari, modern Üsküdar) and almost directly opposite Byzantium across the Bosporus strait, in Europe. At present, it is a district of the city of Istanbul named Kadıköy. The substructures of ancient Greek buildings in Chalcedon dating from the 5th century BC are currently being excavated in the area behind the Haydarpaşa railway station, while the remnants of an older Phoenician port have been discovered in the Moda quarter. The artifacts uncovered at Altıyol and other excavation sites are on display at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. Further inland, but still within the borders of the modern Kadıköy district, the Fikirtepe mound (which has disappeared underneath buildings) from the Chalcolithic period (c. 5500 BC), discovered in 1908, contained the oldest-known human settlement in Istanbul for almost a century, until the discovery in 2004 of the Yenikapı settlement from the Neolithic period (c. 6500 BC) on the European side of the city, during the excavation works of the Yenikapı Transfer Center of the Istanbul Metro. The site of Chalcedon is located on a small peninsula on the north coast of the Sea of Marmara, near the mouth of the Bosporus strait.…

Chalcedon ( ; ) was an ancient maritime town of Bithynia, in Asia Minor. It was located to the south of Chrysopolis (later known as Scutari, modern Üsküdar) and almost directly opposite Byzantium across the Bosporus strait, in Europe. At present, it is a district of the city of Istanbul named Kadıköy. The substructures of ancient Greek buildings in Chalcedon dating from the 5th century BC are currently being excavated in the area behind the Haydarpaşa railway station, while the remnants of an older Phoenician port have been discovered in the Moda quarter. The artifacts uncovered at Altıyol and other excavation sites are on display at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. Further inland, but still within the borders of the modern Kadıköy district, the Fikirtepe mound (which has disappeared underneath buildings) from the Chalcolithic period (c. 5500 BC), discovered in 1908, contained the oldest-known human settlement in Istanbul for almost a century, until the discovery in 2004 of the Yenikapı settlement from the Neolithic period (c. 6500 BC) on the European side of the city, during the excavation works of the Yenikapı Transfer Center of the Istanbul Metro. The site of Chalcedon is located on a small peninsula on the north coast of the Sea of Marmara, near the mouth of the Bosporus strait. A stream, called the Chalcis or Chalcedon in antiquity and known today as Kurbağalıdere (meaning "Frog Brook" or literally "Brook with frog(s)" in Turkish), flows into Fenerbahçe Bay. There, Greek colonists from Megara in Attica founded the settlement of Chalcedon in 685 BC, some seventeen years before Byzantium. ==Etymology== The Greek name of the ancient town was derived from its earlier Phoenician name , meaning "New Town", whence Karkhēd(ōn), similar to the names of Carthage and Cartagena which were derived from the same Phoenician name. The mineral chalcedony is named after the city. The original Ancient Greek name Kalkhedon, found on all ancient Greek coins of the town, as well as in the manuscripts of Herodotus's Histories, Xenophon's Hellenica, Arrian's Anabasis, and other works, was in later centuries slightly modified into Khalkedon, which was Latinised as Chalcedon. In his Naturalis historia, Pliny the Elder states that Chalcedon was first named Procerastis, which may have derived from a point of land near it; then it was named Colpusa, probably after the harbour; and finally Caecorum Oppidum, or the "Town of the Blind", which is the translation in Latin of an earlier Greek nickname of the city. According to Herodotus, Chalcedon (established by colonists from Megara c. 685 BC) became known as the "City of the Blind" because the site was so obviously inferior to that of Byzantium (established later by the Megarians, c. 667 BC) on the opposite shore of the Bosporus strait. ==Prehistory== The mound of Fikirtepe has yielded remains dating to the Chalcolithic period (c. 5500–3500 BC) and attests to a continuous settlement since prehistoric times. Phoenicians were active traders in this area. ==Megarian colony== from the 1st century BC Chalcedon originated as a Megarian colony in 685 BC. The colonists from Megara settled on a site that was viewed in antiquity as so obviously inferior to that visible on the opposite shore of the Bosphorus, that the 6th-century BC Persian general Megabazus allegedly remarked that Chalcedon's founders must have been blind. Indeed, Strabo and Pliny relate that the oracle of Apollo told the Athenians and Megarians who founded Byzantium in 657 BC to build their city "opposite to the blind", and that they interpreted "the blind" to mean Chalcedon, the "City of the Blind". Nevertheless, trade thrived in Chalcedon; the town flourished and built many temples, including one to Apollo, which had an oracle. Chalcedonia, the territory dependent upon Chalcedon, stretched up the Anatolian shore of the Bosphorus at least as far as the temple of Zeus Urius, now the site of Yoros Castle, and may have included the north shore of the Gulf of Astacus which extends towards Nicomedia. Important villages in Chalcedonia included Chrysopolis (the modern Üsküdar) and Panteicheion (Pendik). Strabo notes that "a little above the sea" in Chalcedonia lies "the fountain Azaritia, which contains small crocodiles". In its early history Chalcedon shared the fortunes of Byzantium. Later, the 6th-century BC Persian satrap Otanes captured it. The city vacillated for a long while between the Lacedaemonian and the Athenian interests. Darius the Great's bridge of boats, built in 512 BC for his Scythian campaign, extended from Chalcedonia to Thrace. Chalcedon formed a part of the kingdom of Bithynia, whose king Nicomedes willed Bithynia to the Romans upon his death in 74 BC.

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