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Modern Description: The Tepekale hill, site of a threadbare Byzantine fortress, and the environs of Beyozu were surveyed in 2006-10 by the Avkat Project (Princeton University et al.). Beyözü is probably the ancient site of Euchaita (later Avkat), and seems to have been occupied since prehistoric times – the modern village, which partially occupies the Roman lower city, is dominated by two hills, a bronze age site and what is currently taken to be the location of a Byzantine/Seljuk fortress. During the Roman period it seems to have been a fairly unimportant rural centre. From the third or fourth century it began to gain a reputation as the centre of the cult of St Theodore Tiro (‘the Recruit’), may have been walled in the early 6th century, and raised to the status of a bishopric by Anastasius before 518. From the seventh century, with the Arab Islamic conquest of the eastern Roman provinces and the retreat of the Roman – now Byzantine – frontier into Anatolia , Euchaita became a military base behind the frontier. It remained a provincial centre, although not of major significance except for the cult of its saint, Theodore, until its conquest at the time of the Seljuk occupation of eastern Asia Minor in the later 11th century. Thereafter its importance dwindled, and through most of the Ottoman period it was abandoned, the only habitation being the village below the acropolis or fortress. (Avkat Project
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euchaita
Wikidata ID: Q383825
Trismegistos Geo: 33628
DARE: 29553

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(JBK)

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