Ancient history pottery vessels Paleolithic artifacts found in the
Tekkeköy Caves can be seen in Samsun Archaeology Museum. The earliest layer excavated of the
höyük of Dündartepe revealed a
Chalcolithic settlement. Early
Bronze Age and
Hittite settlements were also found there and at Tekkeköy. Samsun (then known as
Amisos, Greek Αμισός, alternative spelling
Amisus) was settled in about 760–750 BC by Ionians from
Miletus, who established a flourishing trade relationship with the ancient peoples of
Anatolia. The city's ideal combination of fertile ground and shallow waters attracted numerous traders. Amisus was settled by the Ionian
Milesians in the 6th century BC, it is believed that there was significant Greek activity along the coast of the Black Sea, although the archaeological evidence for this is very fragmentary. The only archaeological evidence we have as early as the 6th century is a fragment of
Wild Goat style Greek pottery, in the Louvre.
Persian Period The city was captured by the Persians in 550 BC and became part of the
satrapy of Cappadocia. it was then renamed Peiraeus under
Pericles. A historical tradition from
Theopompus by way of
Strabo has it that the city was originally colonized by the Greeks by a man named
Athenocles. Starting in the 3rd century BC, the city came under the control of Mithridates I, later founder of the
Kingdom of Pontus. The
Amisos treasure may have belonged to one of the kings. Tumuli, containing tombs dated between 300 BC and 30 BC, can be seen at Amisos Hill but unfortunately Toraman Tepe was mostly flattened during construction of the 20th century radar base.
Roman Period The Romans conquered Amisus in 71 BC during the
Third Mithridatic War. and Amisus became part of
Bithynia et Pontus province. Around 46 BC, during the reign of Julius Caesar, Amisus became the capital of Roman Pontus. The estimated population of the city around 150 AD is between 20,000 and 25,000 people, classifying it as a relatively large city for that time. The city functioned as the commercial capital for the province of Pontus; beating its rival
Sinope (now Sinop) due to its position at the head of the trans-Anatolia highway.
Samsun Castle was built on the seaside in 1192; it was demolished between 1909 and 1918.
Early Christianity Though the roots of the city are
Hellenistic, – travel to and from Christian hotbeds like Jerusalem was not uncommon. According to
Josephus, there was large Jewish
diaspora in Asia Minor. Given that the early
evangelist Christians focused on Jewish diaspora communities, and that the Jewish diaspora in Amisus was a geographically accessible group with a mixed heritage group, it is not surprising that Amisus would be an appealing site for evangelist work. The author of 1 Peter 1:1 addresses the Jewish diaspora of the province of Pontus, along with four other provinces: "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God's elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia." (Peter 1:1) As Amisus would have been the largest commercial port-city in the province, it is believed certain that the spread of Christianity in the region would have begun there. His accounts center on his conflicts with the Christians when he served under the
Emperor Trajan and describe early Christian communities, his condemnation of their refusal to renounce their religion, but also describes his tolerance for some Christian practices like Christian charitable societies. Many great early Christian figures had connections to Amisus, including
Caesarea Mazaca,
Gregory the Illuminator (raised as a Christian from 257 CE when he was brought to Amisus) and
Basil the Great (Bishop of the city 330–379 CE). Christian bishops of Amisus include Antonius, who took part in the
Council of Chalcedon in 451; Erythraeus, a signatory of the letter that the bishops of Helenopontus wrote to Emperor
Leo I the Thracian after the killing of Patriarch
Proterius of Alexandria; the late 6th-century bishop Florus, venerated as a saint in the Greek
menologion; and Tiberius, who attended the
Third Council of Constantinople (680), Leo, the
Second Council of Nicaea (787), and Basilius, the
Council of Constantinople of 879. The diocese is no longer mentioned in the Greek
Notitiae Episcopatuum after the 15th century and thereafter the city was considered part of the see of
Amasea. However, some Greek bishops of the 18th and 19th centuries bore the title of Amisus as
titular bishops. In the 13th century the
Franciscans had a convent at Amisus, which became a
Latin bishopric some time before 1345, when its bishop Paulus was transferred to the recently conquered city of
Smyrna and was replaced by the
Dominican Benedict, who was followed by an Italian Armenian called Thomas. No longer a residential diocese, it is today listed by the
Catholic Church as a
titular see.
Medieval history from Istanbul and arrived in Samsun on 19 May 1919, the date which traditionally marks the beginning of the
Turkish War of Independence Samsun was part of the
Seljuk Empire, the
Sultanate of Rum, the
Empire of Trebizond, and was one of the
Genoese colonies. After the breakup of the Seljuk Empire into
small principalities (beyliks) in the late 13th century, the city was ruled by one of them, the
Isfendiyarids. It was captured from the Isfendiyarids at the end of the 14th century by the rival Ottoman beylik (later the
Ottoman Empire) under sultan
Bayezid I, but was lost again shortly afterwards. The Ottomans permanently conquered the town in the weeks following 11 August 1420. In the later Ottoman period, it became part of the
Sanjak of
Canik (), which was at first part of the
Rûm Eyalet. The land around the town mainly produced
tobacco, with its own type being grown in Samsun, the Samsun-Bafra, which the British described as having "small but very aromatic leaves", and commanding a "high price." The town was connected to the railway system in the second half of the 19th century, and tobacco trade boomed. There was a British consulate in the town from 1837 to 1863.
Modern history Mustafa Kemal Atatürk established the
Turkish national movement against the
Allies in Samsun on May 19, 1919, the date which traditionally marks the beginning of the
Turkish War of Independence. Atatürk, appointed by the Ottoman government as Inspector of the
Ninth Army Troops Inspectorate of the Empire in eastern
Anatolia, left Constantinople aboard the now-famous on May 16 for Samsun. Instead of obeying the orders of the Ottoman government, then under the control of the occupying Allies, he and a number of colleagues declared the beginning of the Turkish national movement. The Allies claimed that the Greek population of Samsun was subject looting by Turkish irregular groups, as noted by representatives of the American
Near East Relief, an Allied organization. The Turkish National Movement became alarmed due to the presence of Greek warships in the vicinity of Samsun and undertook the
deportation which entailed the deportation of 21,000 local Greeks to the interior of Anatolia. By 1920, Samsun's population totaled about 36,000, though this figure declined due to the impacts of war and deportations. Later, in early June 1922, the city was
bombarded by the Allied navy, consisting of American and Greek warships. The Allied bombardment against the Turks was a strategic failure. Following Turkey's victory, the Greek population left for Greece after the 1923
Population Exchange founding villages including Nea Sampsounda in
Preveza,
Greece. After the establishment of the Republic, Samsun was declared a province with five districts
Bafra,
Çarşamba,
Havza,
Terme and
Vezirköprü. Samsun added additional districts in later years. In 1928,
Ladik was established as a district. In 1934, district was
Kavak was established followed by
Alaçam in 1944 which brought the number of districts in
Samsun Province to eight. With the law number 3392 adopted on 19 June 1983
Salıpazarı,
Asarcık,
Ondokuzmayıs and
Tekkeköy districts were established. With the law number 3644 adopted on 9 May 1990,
Ayvacık and
Yakakent two more districts were established. Samsun entered into a period of economic and population recovery in the years after the establishment of the Republic and quickly restored its status as a vital
Black Sea port for Turkey. Reconstruction of Samsun began quickly after the establishment of the
Republic of Turkey. In 1929, the region's first electric power plant began operations. Railway access to the city was established in the early 1950s with service to
Sivas and
Ankara. Major investments in the regions road network were made beginning in the 1960s. In 1975, per law No. 1873,
Ondokuz Mayıs University was established in neighboring
Atakum. The construction of the university was a major development to the region, bringing a highly regarded and well-funded educational institution and state hospital to Samsun. The region was connect by air in 1998 with the construction of
Samsun-Çarşamba Airport 23 km east of the city center. The airport is primarily serviced by
Turkish Airlines with service to
Istanbul Airport and
Ankara Esenboğa Airport but also has international service to
Germany and
Iraq. In 2008, the Metropolitan Municipality opened the 36.5 km
Samsun Tram network which connects
Ondokuz Mayıs University to
Samsun 19 Mayıs Stadium. In 1993, Samsun was established as a
metropolitan municipality by decree of the national government in
Ankara. The decree further enhanced Samsun's status as one of Turkey's largest and most important cities. As Samsun grew, as did its environs. Neighboring Atakum, a suburb to the west of the city center was established in 2008 with the merger of Atakent, Kurupelit, Altınkum, Çatalçam and Taflan towns into one municipality.
Atakum in recent years has become a bedroom community to Samsun and home to much of the region's professional class. Multiple other large developments have further established Samsun as a major urban center. In 2013, Piazza Samsun a 160 store shopping mall, the largest in the Central Black Sea region, opened in the city center. The opening of the mall was followed by the construction of 115 m tall
Sheraton Hotel Samsun. Now the second tallest building in the region, the hotel at the time was the first building in Samsun's history to stand more than 100 m. In 2017,
Samsunspor opened a new 30,000 person stadium in
Tekkeköy.
Gökdelen Towers is now the tallest building in the Samsun region and representative of a recent trend towards high-rise residential housing. Under the leadership of Metropolitan Mayor
Mustafa Demir, the Samsun regional government has undertaken several major transportation and housing development projects in the city center. Projects include the restoration of the Mert River, the construction of the new National Garden, the restoration of Tarihi Şifa Hamamı and the construction of
Samsun Saathane Square. ==Geography==