Tavium

Tavium, or Tavia (Ancient Greek: Τάουιον, romanized: Taouion; Latin: Taouion or Tavium), was the chief city of the Galatian tribe of Trocmi, one of the three Celtic tribes which migrated from the Danube Valley to Galatia in present-day central Turkey in the 3rd century BCE.

One of the few things known about Tavium is that there was metalworking; this is known from coins minted there in the early 1st century that bear the likenesses of Marcus Aurelius and Elagabalus.

Similar to other Celtic towns of the time, the smelting and stamping was done by a small group of artisans working in one or two stone huts.

The site of Tavium is generally believed to be ruins situated close to the village of Büyüknefes (previously known as Nefezköy), in a fertile plain east of the Kızılırmak river (ancient Halys) in Yozgat Province.

Materials from these ruins were used in building the neighbouring town of Yozgat, which also features the remains of a theatre and, possibly, a temple of Jupiter; these have a number of inscriptions, mostly Byzantine.