Tavium Ancient City

Tavium (also known as Tavia), located within the boundaries of Büyüknefes village about 40 km west of Yozgat city centre, served as the capital and trading centre of the Trocmi, one of three Celtic tribes that migrated from the Danube valley into central Anatolia during the 3rd century BCE. Positioned at the crossing of major trade corridors, the city remained an important stopping place on caravan routes well into the Roman period. Although traces of earlier Hittite and Phrygian settlement have been found, continuous occupation intensified under the Galatians from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE; overall, evidence spanning the Chalcolithic Age through the Islamic period shows the site was successively inhabited by Hittites, Cimmerians, Persians, Celts, Greeks, Romans, Seljuk Turks and Ottoman Turks. Copper, tin, iron and silver mined from the surrounding mountains fed a well-developed local metalworking economy. Ancient sources record that the city was home to a colossal bronze statue of Zeus, venerated by the Galatian population. Since 1997, surface surveys directed by Prof. Karl Strobel and Christoph Gerber of Klagenfurt University, Austria, have continued to reveal the many historical layers of Tavium.