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©The Archaeological Settlements of Turkey - TAY Project
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Ephesos |
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For site maps and drawings please click on the picture...  |
For photographs please click on the photo...  |
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Type:
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City |
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Altitude:
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m |
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Region:
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Aegean |
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Province:
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Izmir |
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District:
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Selçuk |
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Village:
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Merkez |
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Investigation Method:
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Excavation |
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Period:
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Archaic Classical Geometric |
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| Location: It is located within the borders of the Selçuk District in Izmir. |
| Geography and Environment: The Hellenistic and Roman settlement of the city rests on the skirts of the Mount Panayir. It was founded next to the gulf where the Küçük Menderes (Kaystros) River spills into the sea [Erdemgil-Büyükkolanci 1991:265]. The recent excavations suggest that the ancient Ephesus was actually located on the Ayasuluk Hill [Büyükkolanci 1998:73-75]. |
| History: |
| Research and Excavation: Survey on the location of the ancient Ephesus was first carried out by O. Benndorf, and the Ayasuluk Hill was first suggested by himself. Later on, based on the ceramics recovered on the western side of the Mount Panayir (Koressos), and dated back to the 8th century BC, Keil suggested that the ancient Ephesus (Koressos) might have been located around the stadium. This point of view suggested by Keil was taken on by Alzinger, and finally by Karwiese [Büyükkolanci 1998:74]. In 1990, the excavations conducted by S. Erdemgil and M. Büyükkolanci yielded intense ceramics, burnt adobe in the section of the Eastern fortification wall near the Citadel, and remains of a wide wall erected with large stone blocks. Analysis on ceramics provided evidence for a prehistoric settlement in the site [Erdemgil-Büyükkolanci 1992:265]. The excavation activities on the Ayasuluk Hill as part of the excavations re-initiated in 1996 under the direction of S. Erdemgil were carried out by M. Büyükkolanci and F. Özen [Büyükkolanci 1998:71]. The excavations on the Basilica of St. Jean and the Ayasuluk Hill were conducted in 2000 again under the direction of Büyükkolanci [Büyükkolanci 2003:237-238]. |
| Stratigraphy: |
| Small Finds: Architectural Remains: The excavations carried out by British archaeologists in the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus yielded presence of 3 building levels underlying the Archaic Artemision. The first building level (Level A) included an altar while there was one naiskos in each of the second (Level B) and third (Level C) levels. Based on the datings of the earliest examples of of the ivory and golden finds recovered under the temple, it was suggested that the first Hellenistic building, the temple belonging to Level A, might have been built during the early 7th century BC. The Archaic Artemision, measuring 55x115 m, is an Ionic temple with a dipteros plan. It is the largest structure in the Hellenistic world and the first of such monumental proportions to be built entirely of marble. According to Pliny, the total number of columns was 127, and of them, 36 in front (west) were decorated with reliefs. The cella was long and narrow while the pronaos was deep. There was a statue of Artemis in the naiskos inside the cella, which was open to the sky, over the ruins of the altar built during the early 7th century BC. The column pedestals and capitals were in canonical style. The columns were 19 m high, twelve times of their lower diameter. 40, 44 or 48 sharp edged shallow grooves were incised on the column shafts. The superstructure consisted of an architrave with three fasciae, a series of dentils decorated with kymations on the upper and lower sections surmounted by a cyma bearing chariot reliefs [Akurgal 2000:327]. The naiskos prior to the Archaic Artemision, i.e the cult structure at Level C, covers an area of 14.63x28.2 m, being enclosed by a temenos wall. According to W. Alzinger, this shrine should have been built during the reign of the tyrant Pythagoras, i.e. during the early 6th century BC [Akurgal 2000:326]. Pottery: The trench 22 S yielded intense number of Byzantine ceramics and very limited number of Orientalizing and Geometric ceramics at a depth of 2 m while the Late Mycenean, Geometric and Archaic Period ceramics were dominant between -2 m and -3.3 m [Büyükkolanci 1997:72]. Furthermore, fine quality crater pieces dating to the first half of the 8th century were found [Büyükkolanci 1998:72-73]. The trench 32 D yielded Mycenean, Protogeometric-Geometric and Archaic potsherds between 0.3 m and 0.8 m [Büyükkolanci 2003:238]. In addition to these ceramics, the ceramics from the 7th-6th century BC recovered at Artemision were published by M. Kerschner [Kerschner 1997:87-225]. Amongst them are Ionian bowls, bird bowls of the East Greek pottery, sherds of the Orientalizing pottery along with sherds of Corintian aryballoses, and sherds of bowls and restricted vessels. The Geometric Period ceramics of Ephesus were partly published by F. Brein. Among them are amphorae, skyphoi and askoi [Brein 1973:721-728]. The excavations conducted by A. Bammer yielded a lot of Corinthian aryballos and alabastron and Orientalizing sherds and bird bowl sherds [Bammer 1984:195, 200, 235, 237, 239 pics. 90, 106, 118, 122-125]. Figurine: Four figurines of Apollo from the Archaic Period were recovered at trench 32 D during the 1993 campaign [Büyükkolanci 2003:238]. Statue/Relief: Among the ivory works recovered under the temple at Level A are ivory statue of a nun dating to the late 7th century BC, ivory statue of a castrated priest from the early 6th century BC, again ivory statue of a nun and a golden figurine from 570-560 BC [Akurgal 2000:216, 217; Bammer 1984:193, 196 pics. 86, 92-93]. These ivory and golden statues had been exposed during the excavations conducted in 1903-05 at Artemision by Hogarth [Hogarth 1908]. Other: The excavations conducted by A. Bammer yielded a lot of bronze fibulae and bronze griffon protomes, heads of terracotta figurines, ivory ornaments and ivory griffon protome and ram as well as golden fibula and ornaments [Bammer 1984:197-199 pics. 95-103]. |
| Remains: |
| Interpretation and Dating: With the prehistoric finds uncovered from 1990, it was proposed that the Ayasuluk Hill can actually be the first settlement at Ephesus, and recent excavations revealed that the settlement on this hill was not restricted only to the Prehistoric Period, and it remained occupied during the Hittite, Mycenean, Geometric and Archaic Periods as well [Büyükkolanci 1998:73]. It appears that the Ayasuluk Hill keeping its main city role until the period of the Lydian King, Croesus, had been abandoned later on [Büyükkolanci 1998:75]. |
