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Amorium Excavations 1989: the second preliminary report

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

R. M. Harrison et al
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Extract

This was the second season of excavation at Amorium in east Phrygia, and the team worked for five weeks, from 24 July 1989. Our main aim is to trace archaeological changes and developments within the city from Hellenistic times into the Selcuk period. We carried out a general survey of the Upper Town by a regular 25-metre grid, and we also excavated three trenches, one in the Upper Town and two (which we started last year) in the Lower (Fig. 1). A preliminary analysis is underway of the pottery and small finds, which in the Late Roman and Byzantine periods appear mostly of local manufacture. There are some relevant excavation-sites in Asia Minor for study of the Late Roman period, but there is very little research geared to the so-called Dark Ages, especially inland. Amorium is a major site, virtually untouched, and the city offers a rare opportunity to examine an early Byzantine urban landscape. The excavation so far has been very successful, and has highlighted the site's great potential. Next year, we shall try to clarify the chronology, by more intensive excavation of the existing trenches.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 40 , December 1990 , pp. 205 - 218
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1990

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References

1 Harrison, R. M., “Amorium 1987. A Preliminary Survey”, AS 38 (1988), 175–184Google Scholar, and “Amorium 1988. The First Preliminary Excavation”, AS 39 (1989), 167–174Google Scholar.

2 E.g., Ballance, M., Boardman, J., Corbett, S., Hood, S., Excavations in Chios 1952–1955. Byzantine Emporio (The British School of Archaeology at Athens and Thames and Hudson, 1989)Google Scholar; Bass, G. F., van Doorninck, F. H., Yassı Ada, A Seventh-century Byzantine Shipwreck (Texas, 1982)Google Scholar; Hanfmann, G. M. A., Waldbaum, J. C., A Survey of Sardis and the Major Monuments outside the City Walls (Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England)Google Scholar; see also Sardis monographs; Harrison, R. M., Excavations at Saraçhane in Istanbul, Vol. 1 (Princeton and Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1986)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Russell, J., “Transformations in Early Byzantine Urban Life: The Contribution and Limitations of Archaeological Evidence”, The 17th International Byzantine Congress (New York, 1986), 137–154Google Scholar (including Anemurium).

3 Waelkens, M., Dokimeion. Die Werkstatte der repräsantativen Kleinasiatischen Sarkophage. Chronologie und Typologie ihrer Produktion (Berlin, 1982)Google Scholar; Ward-Perkins, J. B., “Nicomedia and the Marble Trade”, PBSR 48 (1980), 23–69Google Scholar, esp. 28–31 including the map of Sidamara; Ferrari, G., Il Commercio dei Sarcofagi Asiatici (Rome, 1966)Google Scholar; also, Fant, J. Clayton, Cavum Antrum Phrygiae (BAR Oxford, 1989)Google Scholar.

4 AS 38 (1988), 180 and 182Google Scholar.

5 MAMA 1 (1900), 230Google Scholar (item 433); Eskişehir Museum, brought from Çifteler.

6 Ward-Perkins, op. cit.

7 The decorated marble at Saraçhane was about 92% Proconnesian, 4% Docimian (about 2,000 fragments), and 4% for the rest (at least ten types).

8 Afyon 1001. For the figure of Tyche cf. SNG von Aulock 3409.

9 Price, M. J. and Trell, B. L., Coins and their Cities. Architecture on the ancient coins of Greece, Rome and Palestine (London, 1977), p. 259Google Scholar.

10 BMC Phrygia p. 56, no. 54.

11 Price and Trell pp. 19–21 discuss the conventions. The building types recorded on coins of Amorium are as follows:

Temple containing statue of Zeus seated: with two column facade (Imhoof-Blumer, F., Kleinasiatische Münzen (Vienna, 1901–1902), p. 199Google Scholar no. 11); with four column facade (BMC Phrygia 36 (pl. 8,2); with four column facade and arcuated lintel (SNG Copenhagen 126). Temple with four column facade containing altar (SNG Copenhagen 123). Temple with facade of four spirally fluted columns, Ionic capitals and containing differing figures (Afyon 1001, BMC Phrygia 54). Temple with facade of six spirally fluted columns (SNG von Aulock 3412–3).

12 Treadgold, W., The Byzantine Revival, A.D. 780–842 (Stanford, 1988)Google Scholar.

13 Greenhalgh, J., Late Roman Pisidia, p. 294 (paragraph shortened by permission). Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1987Google Scholar.