The Rock-Carved Tumulus of Nikon in Tisna

Tisna, one of the lesser-known ancient cities of the Aeolis region, has been studied in detail since 2018. The first studies carried out in the region since the end of the 19th century localized the region in the Kocakale Tepe - Sarıkale Tepe - Mantar Tepe triangle as Tisna. It is understood that the center of the city is Sarıkale Tepe. The name Tisna first appears on the coins of the 4th century BC in the region. From the Roman era, the city is called Titanus. One of the most important features of the city is that it is surrounded by necropoleis. There are different types of tombs in the necropoleis, especially located on the southern and western slopes. One of these tomb types is the Tumuli. However, as a result of our investigation, it was understood that these tumuli had a different structure from the classic tumuli. We named this type of tomb, in which a rock tomb is covered with a masonry hill, the Rock-Carved Tumulus. The subject of this article is Nikon's rock-carved tumulus, which is understood to be one of such tombs in the region. Our evaluations on the tomb, which has a unique feature in terms of construction technique, indicate that it must belong to the Late Classical period, perhaps to the early 4th century.