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Human settlement in the area goes back to 8000 BCE. Hittite documents refer to a mountain site of Salawassa in the 14th century BCE and the town spread during the Phrygian and Lydian cultures. Sagalassos was part of the region of Pisidia in the western part of the Taurus mountains . During the Persian period, Pisidia became known for its warlike factions.
Sagalassos was one of the wealthiest cities in Pisidia when Alexander the Great conquered it in 333 BCE on his way to Persia. It had a population of few thousand. After Alexander died, the region became part of territories of Antigonos Monopthalmos , possibly Lysimachos of Thrace , the Seleucids of Syria and the Attalids of Pergamon. Archeological record indicates that locals rapidly adopted Hellenic culture.
Roman Empire absorbed Pisidia after the Attalids and it became part of province of Asia. In 39 BCE it was handed out to Roman client king Galatian Amyntas but after he was killed in 25 BCE, Rome turned Pisidia into the province of Galatia. Under Roman Empire Sagalassos became the important urban center of Pisidia. Contemporary buildings also have Roman character.Around 400For alternate uses, see Number 400. Events First invasion of Italy by Alaric (probable date). The Vandals start their westward trek from Dacia and Hungary (approximate date). Construction (and therefore occupation) at Great Zimbabwe begins (approximate da AD Sagalassos was fortified for defence. EarthquakeAn earthquake is a trembling or shaking movement of the Earth's surface. Earthquakes typically result from the movement of faults, quasi-planar zones of deformation within its uppermost layers. The word earthquake is also widely used to indicate the sourc devastated it in 518Events July 9 Justin becomes Roman emperor September 29 Severus, Patriarch of Antioch is deposed by a synod for his Monophysitism. Paul I is appointed to replace him. Births Deaths July 15 Anastasius I, Roman emperor Flavian II, former Patriarch of Antioc and a plague around 541Events January 1 Flavius Basilius Junior appointed as consul in Constantinople, the last person to hold this office January 2 Earthquake strikes Laodicea. Plague appears in Egypt, spreading the following year to Constantinople. Totila becomes king of the- 543Events The doctrine of apocatastasis is condemned by the Synod of Constantinople. Births Saint Columbanus Deaths Saint Benedict of Nursia, founder of the Benedictine Order of monks 543. halved the local population. Arab raids threatened the town around 640Events May 28 Severinus becomes pope, but dies the same year. December 24 Severinus is succeeded by John IV. Muslims capture Alexandria. Tulga succeeds his father Suinthila as king of the Visigoths. Births Aldhelm, Bible translator Musa bin Nusair, Umayya and after another earthquake destroyed the town in the middle of the 7th century AD, the site was abandoned. Populace probably resettled in the valley. Excavations have found only signs of a fortified monastery, possibly a religious community, which was destroyed in the 12th century. Sagalassos disappeared from the records.
In the following centuries, erosion covered the ruins of Sagalassos and, maybe also due to its location, it was not looted in significant extent.
Explorer Paul Lucas , who was traveling in Turkey on a mission for the court of Louis XIV of France, visited the ruins 1706. After 1824, when British F.Arundell deciphered the name of the site, western travelers begun to visit the ruins. Polish count K. Lanckoronsi produced the first map of Sagalassos. However, the city did not attract much archaeological attention until 1985, when a British-Belgian team led by Stephen Mitchell begun a major survey of the site.