Roman-period altar stone found at Ottoman site in Kocaeli

KOCAELİ

A nearly 1,800-year-old altar stone discovered inside the 500-year-old Çoban Mustafa Pasha Complex in the northwestern province of Kocaeli’s Gebze district is shedding light on the region’s layered Roman and Ottoman past.

The complex was commissioned in 1523 by Çoban Mustafa Pasha, a prominent Ottoman statesman who served under Yavuz Sultan Selim and Suleiman the Magnificent. The stone, embedded within the site, has been examined by specialists from the Istanbul Archaeological Museums and Istanbul University’s Department of Latin Language and Literature, who date it to around the early third century A.D.

The inscription on the altar is interpreted as a dedication expressing gratitude to a deity for military victory and dominion, reflecting Roman-era religious practices in Anatolia.

Historian Ahmet Anapalı said the artifact likely dates to around 215 A.D., during the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus, when Roman forces conducted campaigns across the region. He noted that the area between İzmit (ancient Nicomedia) and Gebze was a strategic zone during Roman-Persian conflicts.

Anapalı argues that the stone may have belonged to a pagan temple dedicated to Zeus, possibly linked to a provincial governor named Calistratus and that it may have originally supported a statue before late Roman policies targeting pagan iconography led to its removal.

He added that a six-line Latin inscription beneath the surface references military campaigns and imperial figures, though parts are now damaged and difficult to read.

Researchers are still investigating how the Roman-era artifact became part of the Ottoman-era complex, though they note that reuse of earlier architectural materials was common in Anatolia. The artifact has been submitted for protection status by Türkiye’s cultural heritage authorities.