Ganos (Greek: Γάνος), now known as Gaziköy,[1] is a neighbourhood of the municipality and district of Şarköy, Tekirdağ Province, Turkey.
[3] It is a historically important town, located on the Sea of Marmara, beneath the namesake Mount Ganos.
[6]: 372 Ganos is already mentioned by the 4th century BCE; according to legend it was founded by settlers in the company of Byzas, founder of Byzantium.
[6]: 370 The 6th-century Synekdemos of Hierokles describe Ganos as a city (polis) in the province of Thrace, as does the De Thematibus of Constantine Porphyrogennetos in the early 10th century.
[4]: 199 By the late 11th century, glazed ceramics were being produced at Ganos, possibly because of a population increase stimulating demand.
[4]: 199 Local ceramic production continued into the Ottoman period, with only a minor interruption in the early 14th century when the Catalan Company's raids damaged the surrounding region.
[6]: 371 The 12th-century Arabic geographer al-Idrisi wrote favorably about the spacious streets and shops of Ganos and Panion.
[6]: 371 In 1264, there was an incursion of Tatars and Bulgarians into eastern Thrace; the emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos was in the region at the time, and he embarked on ship at Ganos to go to Constantinople.
[6]: 371 In late December 1284, church officials from the diocese of Ganos wrote to the emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos and complained that cattle breeders in imperial service in the region between Kallipolis and Ganos were buying up supplies of grain at a cheap price and then reselling it overpriced.
[6]: 371 In October or November 1326, Turkish raiders who had crossed the Propontis from Asia Minor, came and caused devastation in the region between Ganos and Rhaidestos.
[6]: 371 A severe earthquake happened on 6 November 1344, damaging Ganos and the nearby towns of Chora and Marmara.
[6]: 371 Ceramic production was interrupted for a few decades after the Ottoman conquest, but then resumed on a smaller scale, as did wine growing.
[6]: 372 On the eastern outskirts of the town, and on the beach, there are various chunks of marble structures whose function is unclear; these are probably from antiquity or the early Byzantine period.
[6]: 372 There is also a fountain in this area with an Ottoman-era inscription and two large fragments of ancient material, one of which may have originally been part of a sarcophagus lid.
[6]: 373 As of 1999 there were still four allegedly post-Byzantine churches in the viciinity of Ganos, two of which were to the north of the town, which were likely the complexes of H. Paraskeve, H. Konstantinos, H. Elissaios, and H. Kyrillos, which in recent years have been torn down leaving only the foundation walls.
[6]: 373 Several other small churches (parekklesia) include the H. Menas, H. Ioannes Theologos, H. Elissaios, H. Demetrios, Panagia he Elaiousa, H. Aikatherina, and Zoodochos Pege.
[5]: 151 The town had an advantageous location for this trade, since the climate was good for viticulture, there was plenty of clay that could be used to produce the amphorae, and with harbor access for ease of export.
[5]: 151–2 Several shipwrecks in the region around Ganos, sometimes loaded with over 1,000 amphorae at a time, also attest to the importance of the city's wine trade.
[6]: 371 It was consumed in all corners of the empire, as well as internationally: Ganos amphorae have been found at Istanbul and Athens, on Crete and Cyprus, around the coast of Anatolia, and in southern Italy, the Levant, Egypt, and the Black Sea region.
[5]: 152 Although there is an abundance of archaeological evidence, texts do not say anything about the "organization of viticulture" at Ganos, such as who controlled the production of wine and amphorae, or who owned the ships used to transport it.
[5]: 151 Günsenin uses analogy to other documented monastic centers to conclude that the monastery likely played a significant role in the local wine industry.
[4]: 200–1 This evidently continued into the early Ottoman period, as decreased wine production meant less demand for the ceramics.
[4]: 201 In the 19th century, glazed ceramic production at Ganos was "flourishing"; many vessels were shipped to Istanbul, while others were traded further away.