Myrina

Myrina was a prosperous Aeolian harbor city whose craftspeople produced thousands of terracotta figurines — deities, children's toys, theatrical figures — that served simultaneously as votive offerings, grave goods, and art objects. The city's surface has been almost entirely destroyed, but its invisible legacy fills museum galleries in Paris and Istanbul. The site's founding legend names the Amazon queen Myrina herself.

Myrina is a site whose primary existence is elsewhere. Of the thousands of objects that defined the city's spiritual and artistic life — the Aphrodite figurines placed in women's graves, the Eros and Dionysus figures left as votive offerings, the theatrical masks and children's toys deposited with the dead — almost none remain at the site itself. The Louvre holds the largest collection, acquired through the 1880–1882 French excavations that opened roughly four thousand tombs. Istanbul's Archaeological Museum holds more. What remains at Myrina is a coastal and riparian landscape of occasional ceramic surface finds and the faint topographic traces of a harbor city.

This dispersal is itself theologically resonant for a site associated with the Amazon queen Myrina, whose legendary campaign ranged across North Africa and Asia before founding this settlement. The Amazon tradition at Myrina is not merely mythological decoration: it connects the site to a pan-Aegean network of place-names — Myrina appears also on the island of Lemnos — suggesting an ancient stratum of pre-Greek sacred geography that Greek colonization overlaid.

The contemporary pilgrim to Myrina arrives at the edge of where a city once stood, armed only with the knowledge that what was found here is now curated three thousand kilometers away in Paris — and that the relationship between site and artifact remains unresolved, even after a century and a half of scholarship.

Myrina's foundation is attributed either to the Amazon queen Myrina — who gives her name to the city and whose campaigns are narrated in Diodorus Siculus — or to a figure named Myrinus, said to have established the settlement before the other Aeolian cities were formally founded. The Amazon tradition links Myrina to a network of place-names across the Aegean associated with the same queen: the island capital of Lemnos bears the same name, and the geographical coincidence suggests a stratum of pre-Greek sacred geography rather than coincidental repetition.

Aeolian settlers formalized the city as part of the twelve-city confederation, with Cyme as the league's metropolis. Myrina's harbor position at the mouth of the Koca Çay gave it commercial and navigational advantages, and its terracotta workshops eventually supplied religious objects across the Aegean region.

Pre-Aeolian; Aeolian Greek colonial; Hellenistic terracotta production city; Roman Sebastopolis; Byzantine period; abandoned

Myrina's sacred character expressed itself most fully through objects made to accompany the dead and please the gods — the approximately four thousand terracotta figurines recovered from the necropolis constitute one of the densest concentrations of votive religious material from a single Hellenistic site. The assemblage includes representations of the full Greek pantheon, but Aphrodite and Eros figures dominate female graves, children's toy-figurines appear in children's burials, and theatrical masks suggest that the boundary between sacred and artistic was permeable in Myrinaean piety.

The practice of depositing such objects in graves reflects a belief in the gods' ongoing presence and power in the afterlife — not a philosophical abstraction but a material commitment, expressed in the care and skill of each fired clay figure. These objects were made locally, and Myrina's terracotta workshops constituted a significant production center serving regional religious markets as well as local funerary need.

The Amazon founding tradition — whatever its historical root — aligns Myrina with a pre-Greek Anatolian sacred order in which female sovereignty and divine patronage were intertwined. That the city's name appears both here and at Lemnos, connected to the same legendary queen, suggests this was not a local invention but a shared Aegean cultural memory, perhaps preserving traces of matrilineal religious practices that preceded Greek colonization.

The site's present emptiness carries its own weight: a place so saturated with devotional objects that its absence now speaks as loudly as its former presence.

Aeolian harbor city; center of terracotta figurine production for votive, funerary, and commercial purposes

Pre-Aeolian settlement; Aeolian city formally established before or contemporaneously with neighboring cities; flourished in Hellenistic period as terracotta production center; renamed Sebastopolis in Roman period; above-ground remains largely destroyed by stone robbing; French excavations 1880–1882 removed primary artifact assemblage; Turkish archaeological excavations resumed 2011

The dominant religious practice at Myrina, as documented through the necropolis assemblage, was the deposition of terracotta figurines as both votive offerings at sanctuaries and grave goods for the dead. The figurines represent the full Greek pantheon — Aphrodite, Eros, Dionysus, Athena, Nike — with Aphrodite and Eros figures particularly concentrated in women's and children's graves. This suggests a specific association between these deities and the feminine sphere of domestic piety and afterlife passage. Theatrical masks and seated female figures appear alongside deity representations, indicating that the sacred and artistic were not sharply distinguished in Myrinaean practice. The industry that produced these figurines was itself embedded in the city's economic and religious life — craft and cult intertwined in a way that archaeology makes visible.

No active religious practices at the site. The ongoing Turkish archaeological excavations since 2011, under Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University, constitute the primary active engagement. Museum visitors in Paris and Istanbul encounter the city's devotional life in the Louvre's Myrina terracotta collection and the Istanbul Archaeological Museum holdings.

Come in the morning or late afternoon, when the coastal light is oblique. Walk the agricultural margin between the Öteki and Beriki hills, moving slowly enough to notice the ground's surface — ceramic fragments appear after rain and give a tactile sense of what lies beneath. Spend time at the shoreline where the Koca Çay meets the sea, the threshold terrain that ancient harbor cities consistently chose for their most important liminal activities. If you can visit Paris or Istanbul before or after — the Louvre's collection from this site is one of the finest encounters available with Hellenistic piety. The figurines make more sense having stood at the ground they came from.

Standing at Myrina requires a particular kind of imaginative patience. The above-ground remains are sparse — stone robbing over centuries removed most of the architectural fabric, and the 1880–1882 French excavations that yielded the terracotta thousands were conducted before modern stratigraphic methods. What the landscape offers is not ruins but ground: the same coastal shelf, at the mouth of the Koca Çay river, where the harbor once stood.

Walk the perimeter of the site — identifiable through a combination of local knowledge and the faint topographic irregularities of the Öteki and Beriki hills — and notice the ceramic fragments that appear at the surface after rain. Each fragment is a trace of the manufacturing and devotional culture that made this city notable. The coastal setting, where river meets sea, has a quality of threshold that the ancient world consistently recognized as significant: liminal terrain between flowing and still water, between land and ocean.

The knowledge that the Louvre's Salle des Antiquités Grecques holds perhaps the finest Hellenistic terracotta collection in the world — assembled almost entirely from this ground — creates a peculiar overlay on the experience of standing here. What the museum has made beautiful and organized, the site offers as earth, wind, and the occasional ceramic shard. Neither is wrong; both are partial.

Recent excavations since 2011 have begun mapping the city's urban topography, and seasonal dig activity brings new finds to the surface within cordoned areas. Outside excavation season, the landscape is open and unmediated.

The site is identifiable north of Aliağa near the Kalabasari/Sandarlik area. Approach by car, park near the area of Öteki Hill. Walk the shoreline and agricultural margin to orient yourself to the harbor's former position. Ceramic surface finds are more common after winter rains.

Myrina is assessed differently by archaeologists studying material culture, historians of the Amazon tradition, and those drawn to the ethics of nineteenth-century excavation and museum collecting.

The scholarly significance of Myrina rests almost entirely on its terracotta assemblage — among the largest and finest Hellenistic figurine collections from any single site. The 1880–1882 Pottier and Reinach excavations, conducted under the auspices of the French School at Athens, opened thousands of tombs in conditions that would not meet modern standards of stratigraphic documentation. The primary publication (Figurines de Terre Cuite) remains a foundational text for Hellenistic terracotta studies. Contemporary Turkish excavations since 2011 are working to map the urban topography that the earlier campaigns disrupted.

The Amazon tradition at Myrina is denser than is sometimes acknowledged. The same name appears at Lemnos, in ancient literary geography (Diodorus Siculus), and in the topographic traces of the Aeolian coast, suggesting that 'Amazon' was not merely a Greek term for foreign women warriors but a persistent Aegean cultural category connected to specific places and pre-colonial sacred authority. Myrina's position in this network gives the site a significance that extends beyond its archaeological finds.

The density of Aphrodite and Eros figurines in female graves has been interpreted by some scholars as evidence of a distinctive feminine-divine orientation in Myrinaean funerary piety — a city where love, desire, and sacred protection for women were materially enacted at the moment of death. This reading gives Myrina a particular resonance for those interested in the sacred feminine in the Hellenistic world.

The main sanctuary precinct of Myrina has not been definitively located or excavated. The specific cult practices that generated the figurine demand — whether primarily domestic, sanctuary-based, or funerary — remain unclear. The relationship between Myrina's figurine industry and specific local cult beliefs, as opposed to regional trade patterns, is incompletely understood.

Located north of Aliağa in İzmir Province, in the Kalabasari/Sandarlik area. Accessible by car from Aliağa (follow roads toward the river mouth north of town). Bus from İzmir to Aliağa, then taxi. No formal parking area. Mobile phone signal generally available near Aliağa; may weaken toward the site. Nearest emergency services and supplies: Aliağa town.

Aliağa town (approx. 5 km south) offers basic accommodation. İzmir city provides the full range of options and is the practical base for visiting the Aeolian sites.

Open agricultural landscape; no formal admission, no facilities. Treat as an unenclosed heritage site.

No specific requirements. Practical outdoor clothing; waterproof footwear recommended in wet seasons.

Permitted in open areas outside active excavation cordons.

None associated with the site.

Active excavation areas are off-limits during dig seasons (typically spring and summer). Do not collect surface ceramics or disturb the ground.

Continue through the atlas by country, tradition, site type, or a focused search that combines this place’s strongest context.

Sacred places within a half-day’s reach. Pilgrims often visit them together: walk one, stay for the other.

Cyme

Aliağa, İzmir, Aegean Region, Turkey

8.6 km away

Çandarlı Castle

Dikili / Çandarlı, İzmir Province, Aegean Region, Turkey

10.7 km away

Aigai

Turkey

20.0 km away

Foça Castle

Foça, İzmir, Aegean Region, Turkey

25.8 km away

Sources consulted when researching this page. Independent verification by readers is welcome.

1. 01Archaeological Excavation for Ancient City in Aliağa District of İzmir — AYBU — Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt Universityhigh-reliability
2. 02History, Trade, and the Terracottas — Expedition Magazine — Penn Museumhigh-reliability
3. 03Myrina Antik Kenti (Aliağa-İzmir) Çevresinde Paleocoğrafya Araştırmalarıhigh-reliability
4. 04Myrina (Aeolis) - Wikipedia — Wikipedia contributors
5. 05Myrina (Sebastopolis) Ancient City Aliağa / İzmir — Visit İzmir
6. 06Category: Terracotta figurines from Myrina — Wikimedia Commons — Wikimedia contributors