Preliminary Report on Excavations at Şar, Comana Cappadociae, in 1967

The site of Comana Cappadociae lies, according to Strabo (XII. 2. 3.), in a deep and narrow valley of the Antitaurus, on both banks of the river Sarus. That this description is aptly fitted by the ruins at the village of Şar, in the valley of the Göksu or Sarız çay, in the kaza of Mağara (in 1967 renamed Tufanbeyli), at the northernmost point of the vilayet of Adana, was soon noted by visitors (Plates XLIV a, b, XLV a). The best evidence for the location of Comana is given by the Tabula Peutingeriana and by the Itineraria Antoniniana, both of which show the city to be on the direct route from Caesareia (Kayseri) to Melitene (Eski Malatya). The Tabula Peutingeriana shows that the traveller had to cross a range of mountains as he approached Comana from the west, as now one can approach Şar by the direct route across the Antitaurus. The Itineraria Antoniniana (210.5–211.4) give a distance of 154 Roman miles between Melitene and Comana, while a milestone in the village at Şar, of the great series belonging to that road, bears the number 157. This close correspondence makes it certain that the ruins at Şar are those of the classical Comana, even without the cumulative circumstantial evidence of the inscriptions. The relationship of the Hittite Kummanni, and Kizzuwatna, with Comana is of course another problem which, regrettably, remains unsolved.