Labraunda
The 2006 Season
The 2006 Team
Preliminary Reports
This year’s campaign took place during the four weeks between June 25 and July 22.
Participating members were the excavation director, Assistant Professor Lars Karlsson and Jesper Blid, M.A., both of Uppsala University , Jenni Hjohlman, PhD, Lovisa Strand, M.A. and archaeologist Göksan Keskin from Stockholm University . Other participants were Professor Pontus Hellström, Uppsala University, architect Thomas Thieme, Göteborg and Assistant Professor Paavo Roos from the University of Lund.
The excavations were visited for a short period by graduate student Ragnar Hedlund, Uppsala, and Dr Olivier Henry, from the University of Bordeaux , France . Finally, Aynur Tosun from the Museum of Antalya participated on behalf of the Turkish Ministry.
The work at Labranda this summer can, like earlier campaigns, be divided into three areas: new excavations, research on earlier excavated material and work related to safeguarding the cultural heritage and increasing the value of the site as an open-air museum for tourism.
The new excavations
Most of the buildings excavated in the period between 1948 and 1960 have still not been published. The renewed work in Labranda, beginning in 2004, has had as a goal to study some of these, especially the Byzantine Church together with the yet to be excavated Roman East Bath, the two andrones, as well as the archaeological remains in the vicinity of the site, such as fortifications and ancient tombs. The East Stoa, partly excavated in 1988-1991, also formed part of this year's campaign.
The Byzantine Church (after a report by Jesper Blid)
The Byzantine Church is one of the few excavated churches in the area and it is very important for our understanding of the spread of Christianity and the establishment of Christian architectural traditions in ancient Karia. The church was examined in a master's thesis presented this spring at Uppsala University by Jesper Blid. The archaeological questions that this thesis raised were the basis for the delimited archaeological excavations carried out in the church this year.
Plan of the Byzantine Church
Our questions were related to the church's original architectural form, particularly with regards to the appearance of the apse, and whether features such as a mosaic floor, an altar and a synthronon , the semicircular seats for the clergy, occurred. Furthermore, there is uncertainty as to the form of the central nave, with regards to the occurrence of internal columns. The presence of an earlier building phase also needed to be ascertained. Finally, the relation between the church and the Roman bath, into which the church clearly was built, required investigation.
Trench 1a
Excavations were initiated in the apse, beginning in 2005, in Trench 1a. Several marble revetment plaques were immediately discovered under the floor as well as fragments of glass vases and window panes. Furthermore, a built structure that had the appearance of a grave was found and from this came a coin now identified by Ragnar Hedlund as a SOL INVICTUS, the Unconquered Sun issue of the emperors Probus or Aurelian from the 280s AD.
Excavation in Trench 1a when finished
During the summer of 2006 the trench in the apse was widened. The excavated floor level consisted of smaller stones that had been laid down to support a marble or mosaic floor, of which no trace was found. This fine marble floor was most likely made with multicoloured marbles and was plundered long ago. When we lifted the stones which had supported the marble floor we came across a thick white layer of mortar which was filled with fragments of fresco and stucco. The fresco fragments were especially difficult to excavate given that we wanted to save as many of them as possible unbroken, for future reconstruction. About a hundred fragments were saved, brushed carefully, sorted after colour, and put into our storerooms. It became clear that the fresco fragments consisted of two layers, one older with typical Roman imperial colours, such as Pompeian red, lion yellow and black. Over this layer a new stucco surface was applied and it was painted with thinner colours of a lighter hue. It seems that the imperial fresco fragments, which are very similar to what can be seen in Pompeii, came from the first building phase of the Roman bath, which has been dated by an inscription to the middle of the 1st century AD. The later layer with its thin lines ought to belong in the late 2nd, or even the 3rd century AD.
Ancient glass and window panes from trench 1a
The reason behind the use of the stucco fragments in the mortar under the floor stones is unclear. When the church was built in the late 4th or early 5th century, these stucco fragments appear to have been taken from the Roman bath in order to strengthen the mortar, instead of producing new lime which is a complicated process: the church employs several spolia , i.e. reused pieces from earlier buildings, as is natural at a site filled with ”pagan” buildings, appropriate for reuse by the Christian population of the area. Our excavations also had intended to look for the foundation walls of the church. However, this deep testing had to be abandoned until next year because of the time-consuming task of collecting the fresco fragments.
Trench 2
Trench 2 was put down in the nave of the church in order to investigate the presence of interior columns or evidence for an earlier building phase. Blid had suggested in his master's thesis that the building did not have interior supports and the excavations proved him right. The investigations indicated that the church had a roof carried by the piers bonded with the side walls, but that there were no internal supports. The excavations in Trench 2 showed that the floor in the nave was of the same construction as that earlier studied in the apse. Under the marble flag stones there was a thin layer of red mortar, called cocciopesto , by archaeologists, using an Italian term meaning crushed pieces of pottery. Several pieces of pottery were also discovered in this layer. Under the cocciopesto layer there was a thick layer (ca 15 cm) of smaller gneiss stones of the same type as in the apse. This indicates that the stones in the apse were meant to carry a marble floor, just as in Trench 2. We noted that the stones had been set in long bands separated by neat seams, running perpendicular to the nave of the church.
Trench 2. Note the red cocciopesto mortar layer under the white marble flag stones
Each band of stones may represent a day's work, as the mortar below needed to dry, in the same way as walls in Roman concrete contained bands of tile, which indicate a break in the work. These bands of stones in the church floor fit the size of the marble flag stones above quite well. It is evident that a flexible support for the large marble flags was needed to prevent them from breaking under stress, such as in an earthquake. The division of the floor's surface into bands, equaling the width of the flags, also contributed to strengthening the floor. A similar arrangement with stones in bands was observed at nearby Iasos in an Imperial cult room from the 2nd century AD. This building would also have had a very expensive marble floor on top of the preserved stones. The floor in the church of Labranda is thus constructed using a very sophisticated construction technique, apparently making use of Roman architectural know-how. This indicates that the principles of Roman architecture were still a living tradition when the church was built. It also shows that the church of Labranda was a relatively sophisticated construction. We were all impressed by the minuteness of detail employed in the construction of the floor of the church. The white mortar under the stones in Trench 2 contained, just as in Trench 1a, fragments of stucco and frescoes, but in a lesser amount. Under this white mortar layer we discovered bedrock, but no traces of an earlier phase of the church. The excavation of Trench 2 thus suggests that there was only one building phase of the nave.
Trench 2, the marble flags numbred before being lifted
The most complicated part of the excavation was to penetrate the remaining marble flag-stone layer. The white marble flags are still in situ in the entire nave of the church, while in the apse they were stolen a long time ago, as was said above. However, the flag stones are not all of the same lengths which meant that the trench could not be laid out so that each flag stone could be lifted unbroken. This, however, turned out not to be a problem since the marble flags were already broken at many places. It was only to pick them up in the area of the trench. Since, however, we wished to prepare the marble fragments so that they could be returned to their original positions in the future, all the individual fragments were numbered in their original positions, photographed and finally lifted and put into separate boxes for the storerooms. Someone has said that ”archaeology is destruction”, because for every layer the archaeologist excavates, he destroys the level above. In order to save as much knowledge as possible of the destroyed layers, the archaeologist must take precautions so that someone in the future will be able to restore as much as possible of the original appearance of the destroyed structures. We work with this principle in mind in Labranda.
Trench 3
In the south wall of the church a large door opens up into a room that was not cleared in the early excavations. As Blid has indicated, there is a Roman bath just south of the church and the south wall is a reused wall from the bath building. The function of the southern room, since there is a door between the church and this room, is uncertain, although a baptistery was one suggestion.
Floor mosaic fragments from trench 3
Trench 3 was laid out here just south of the door into the church. This trench excavation became this year's largest since the room was filled with fallen material from the Roman bath. Here we uncovered large amounts of tile, both roof and wall tiles, terracotta water pipes, pottery, but also several pieces of a mosaic floor and two column drums. Furthermore, many amphora handles immersed in mortar or Roman concrete were found. These must have functioned as reinforcements in the concrete of the vaults of the Roman bath building or the church. The excavations of Trench 3 went down to the level of the floor of the church. Here we found traces of hollow bricks mortared onto the wall. These were part of the heating system, the hypocaust, which allowed hot air to circulate from the floor up through the walls. The excavations in Trench 3 had to be interrupted because a large late structure is standing on top of the unexcavated earth in this area. Next year we hope to take down this structure which is partly built of ancient marble pieces. It is of the greatest importance that this excavation can be extended southwards in order to understand the connection between the church and the Roman bath. Interesting results will surely come from this area next year. One of the finds from this trench was a roof tile of imbrex type (cover tile) with a Greek graffito on the inside: SW […] EU […]
Roof tile with Greek graffito from trench 3
Research on excavated material
The East Stoa (after a report by Lovisa Strand)
The East Stoa was partially excavated during the campaigns of 1988-1991. The finds from these excavations, mainly consisting of pottery, but including also bones, metal, charcoal and glass, have been kept in the storerooms. Lovisa Strand initiated the study of the pottery in 2005. In 2006, with the assistance of Jenni Hjohlman, ten boxes of pottery were inventoried containing material from the lower excavation levels.
Lovisa Strand and Jenni Hjohlman drawing pottery
The documentation and cataloguing of the material consisted of drawings and photographs as well as the registration of colour and ware. The forms and motifs of the pots were also described and classified. This project resulted in 209 pottery drawings and the production of a catalogue. Documentation and cataloguing are important tools for the future work of comparing the pottery with published material from other excavation sites, such as nearby Halikarnassos. Since the material is relatively homogenous, comparison with similar contexts from Greece , North Africa and the Levant are also important. Pottery is the best dating tool for all archaeological work and this year's analyses indicate that the stoa functioned from the Late Classical (the 4th century B.C.) to the Late Roman periods (6th-7th century AD). The construction of the East Stoa belongs in the 4th century B.C., a date that is supported by both the pottery and the Hekatomnid building techniques. The pottery from the stoa comes from chronologically mixed contexts and it seems clear that the area was used and reused not only in antiquity but also in more recent times. During the early excavations several chalk ovens were discovered in the sanctuary and one of them was built into the East Stoa. Labranda was also used as summer pasture for the people of Kargicak, who built many small stone houses all over the site. The original pottery contexts have been disturbed by these activities.
Pottery fragments from the East Stoa
The Roman pottery comprises 70% of the catalogued material, while the Late Classical/Hellenistic pottery represents about 30%. The Roman material thus dominates which establishes the use of the sanctuary from the first century AD. This new floruit, after the glorious Hekatomnid phase of the Late Classical period, can be studied in other buildings of the sanctuary, as well. Many buildings were constructed or rebuilt in the Roman period. The fact that the Late Classical material is relatively scarce indicates that the Roman presence at the site was of major importance and has displaced the earlier material. One can assume that Labranda in the Roman period was an important sanctuary both for Rome and for the region of Karia.
Both the Late Classical/ Hellenistic and the Roman pottery consist to a large extent of drinking vessels, larger or smaller bowls, plates and other banqueting vessels. These support the interpretation that the East Stoa was a banqueting stoa with rooms furnished with klinai , the sofas used in ancient formal dining. That the East Stoa had this function shows that there were several types of buildings used in the ritual meals in Labraunda. The andrones were used for the upper hierarchy while the East Stoa may have been for those a little lower in the hierarchy. The absence of vessels for food preparation and kitchen ware, as well as the small number of amphora fragments, indicate that the storing and preparation of the ritual meals did not take place in the stoa. A closer inspection of the pottery will tell us what among this assembly was locally or regionally produced and what was imported from abroad. It will provide information concerning the mechanisms of ancient trade and indications of where the production centres were located.
The fortification complexes
View from Tepesar towards the sanctuary and the fortress on the acropolis
These fortifications are located around the sanctuary but also along the projecting spur of hills in southwest, which is followed by the Holy Road from Mylasa. In 1960 the Swedish excavators initiated the documentation of the fortress on the acropolis and the fort at Tepesar Kale, but the project was left unfinished. An important part of our renewed efforts at Labranda has been to locate and produce drawings and photographs of all these fortifications. There are two reasons for this. First we want a documentation that will secure their preservation for the future. Secondly, this documentation is an important tool in understanding the function of the sanctuary in antiquity and its role in local politics.
The Acropolis Fortress has nine towers and this complex was measured with a total station and drawn completely in 2005. Last year we discovered an additional five free-standing towers below the sanctuary. These forts and towers were then plotted onto the general plan with a total station. In 2006 we started the careful detailed drawing of these structures. They are from the west: Burgaz Kale, Tepesar Kale, Ucalan Kule, Kepez Kule and Harap Kule. It is obvious that these fortifications belong to the same defensive system: all forts (except Burgaz) have a clear view up to the fortress on the acropolis. There is also an open view between the forts. Soldiers located in Burgaz in the west would have had eye-contact with soldiers in Tepesar Kale.
Tepesar kale, actual state plan wth the division of the tower into four rooms
From Tepesar Kale you can see all the other forts and towers. From the towers further east and below Labranda, like Kepez and Harap there is a clear view back towards Tepesar Kale and the Acropolis Fortress. The sanctuary at Labranda was thus protected by a ring of forts. The forts were not built to prevent the theft of the valuable votive gifts in the sanctuary, which was probably impossible to prevent, but to hold back large armies of soldiers that in the unruly Hellenistic period fought for control over this borderland between the rich coastal area and the mountainous Anatolian inland.
The castle of Burgaz from the southwest; note the headers which project out over the surface of the wall masonry
This enabled Lars Karlsson and Göksan Keskin to measure the structures and produce actual state plans of the forts at Burgaz, Tepesar, Ucalan and Kepez. The Ucalan tower is the closest, located 800 metres from the sanctuary and directly above the Holy Road . From here the soldiers could stop unwanted visitors. The tower is rectangular, measuring 8.85 and 9.40 m on the east and west sides, and 6.90 and 7.10 m on the north and south sides. The tower is divided into two rooms by a partition wall with a preserved door opening.
The next tower, Kepez, is situated 1 300 m southwest of the sanctuary and consists of a square building with a side of 6.95 m, i.e. almost the same size as the Ucalan tower. Then comes Tepesar Kale, which is a large free-standing tower with four interior rooms separated by substantial partition walls. The sides of the fort measure 11.40-11.65 m and it is located 1 900 m southwest of Labranda.
Resored preliminary plan of the fortress at Burgaz Kale
Further southwest of Tepesar is Burgaz, the largest fort which is more like a castle. It is situated 3 000 metres from Labranda and consists of two rectangular buildings connected by a courtyard found between the two buildings. The eastern rectangular building measures 18.8 x 7.45 and consists of three rooms: two catapult towers on either side of an entrance room. In the southwest there is another square catapult tower measuring 7.45 x 7.7 m. Connected with this tower along the western side, there are three rooms in a building measuring 15.10 x 6.20 m. The walls of this building are less substantial with a wall thickness of 0.70 m, while the normal wall width is 1.25 m. These three rooms on the western side probably served as barracks for the soldiers on duty in this fort. The square rooms in northeast, southeast and southwest were defensive towers of an advanced design, all measuring about 7.45 x 7.7 m. The courtyard between the rectangular buildings measures 12 x 8.5 m.
The last tower, called Harap, is located 3 060 m from Labranda in the southwest, and will be measured and drawn in 2007. The fortifications were not built using the same technique. Burgaz and Tepesar are the most well-built of the group and employ blocks sometimes measuring over three metres in length. The walls are built in such a way that there are many headers, blocks laid perpendicularly to the course of the wall and covering the entire thickness of the wall. Important is also the projection of these headers, about 5-10 cm from the surface of the wall. The blocks are often rusticated (having a rough face) on the exterior with drafted margins around the blocks. The forts of Burgaz and Tepesar seem to be more sophisticated than the fortress on the acropolis and they employ a larger number of headers with projecting faces. The blocks used in the towers at Ucalan and Kepez are not ashlar but have polygonal shapes. The blocks are also of a smaller size.
The southeastern corner of Kepez tower with projecting corner stones
Interesting is a well-preserved corner at the Kepez tower where the corner blocks are projecting out over each other like the notched tree-trunks of a log cabin. This is a Hellenistic trait and can be seen in the city walls on Samothrace and in a large terrace wall in nearby Bargylia. The dating of these fortifications is thus far very tentative, but a relative chronological sequence can be reconstructed as follows: The first to be built is the fortress on the acropolis, then they built the forts of Tepesar and Burgaz and finally the towers at Ucalan and Kepez. Two rim fragments of pithoi were discovered at Burgaz and probably belong to large water jars. An excavation in the fortress of Burgaz would reveal interesting evidence for the use of this ”castle”, as well as providing dating material. We intend to investigate this fortress further in 2007.
It is clear that the large forts in Burgaz and Tepesar held permanent garrisons of soldiers, in Burgaz probably an entire company, in Tepesar a platoon, while the two towers at Ucalan and Kepez had groups of about 6-8 people. The headquarters could be expected to be located at the fortress on the acropolis with its nine towers. The Acropolis Fortress has a closed inner fort with clear traces of buildings, probably barracks. Here the rest of the battalion that was assigned to the defence of the Labranda territory should be found.
The andrones and the tombs
Hellström and Thieme reconstructing the temple entablature
The festivities for Zeus Labraundos included ritual meals, where the most important guests and the royal family lay at the tables in these costly andrones. No classical sanctuary has equally well-preserved banqueting halls of this monumental type. Hellström also inventoried the inscriptions preserved in situ in Labranda during this campaign. During the 1970s the Turkish authorities moved a large number of inscriptions and other marble fragments to the museum in Bodrum without registering many of them or making inventory lists of the moved pieces. We are now attempting to assemble the marble fragments both in Labranda and in the museum of Bodrum . It is clear that the large forts in Burgaz and Tepesar held permanent garrisons of soldiers, in Burgaz probably an entire company, in Tepesar a platoon, while the two towers at Ucalan and Kepez had groups of about 6-8 people. The headquarters could be expected to be located at the fortress on the acropolis with its nine towers. The Acropolis Fortress has a closed inner fort with clear traces of buildings, probably barracks. Here the rest of the battalion that was assigned to the defence of the Labranda territory should be found.
Henry explaining Karian tombs at Labraunda
It was decided that he would join the campaign next year and finish the study of the graves in a new volume entitled The Necropolis of Labranda . Included in this volume will also be the study by Paavo Roos of the Built Tomb and seven rock cut chamber tombs. Roos participated this year in the work at Labranda.
Finally, Göksan Keskin continued her work on the publication of the terracotta figurines from the excavations of Labranda.
Interventions related to safe-guarding the cultural heritage and increasing the value of the site for tourism
The new metal shelves in the storerooms
We also erected a new fence at the entrance to Labranda. This was done in order to make it easier for visitors to follow the path passing our new information signs, but also to prevent animals and local cows from passing up here and soiling the area. The new fence, made entirely of wood, with no iron nails, is very attractive.
The new wooden fence at the entrance to the site
It is modeled on the wooden fence around the ancient tumuli at Old Uppsala in Sweden . Furthermore, we also asked our carpenter to make three tables with benches, which are now placed at the resting place in the excavated area. In order to explain for visitors the construction of the entablature of the temple, Hellström and Thieme arranged a section of the temple's architecture with the original parts in the western area of the temple.
The new wooden ceiling in the expedition house
Finally, we have been able to restore our two old shepard's houses in Labranda. Before the Swedes came to Labranda houses of this type were used by the villagers of Kargicak who brought their live-stock up here for summer pasturage, with its rich springs and cool breezes. The Swedish expedition has bought two of these houses, but unfortunately, we have not been able to use them for the past two years because the roofs have fallen in. With the support of Uppsala University 's Hellgren's Foundation for the maintenance of the cultural and natural heritage we were able to replace the roof with new wooden beams and rafters, and produce new wooden doors and window shutters, as well as strengthening the stone walls, which were on the verge of caving in (Fig. 30). The floor will be covered by new terracotta tiles. Next summer we plan to use the two houses again, both for the overnight stays but also as a library and storeroom for the more sensitive excavation tools and drawing materials.
Appendix
Professor Axel W. Persson came to Labranda in 1948 hoping to find archaeological evidence for the Bronze Age: No material older than the middle of the 7th century B.C. was recognized in the early excavations. But this year, during our cleaning of the fort at Burgaz, a symbol consisting of a ring with dots was discovered cut into the rock surface.
The Hittite-Luwian hieroglyph (?) near Burgaz kale
The ring is about 15 cm in diameter, perfectly carved and completely soft if one follows it with the finger. The ring is not completely round but one side is interrupted by five dots. It is possible that this is a Hittite-Luwian hieroglyph. Recently, Hittite-Luwian hieroglyphs have been recorded from Suratkaya, located only about 15 km northwest of Labranda. This may be the evidence for the Bronze Age that Axel W. Persson came to Labranda to find!
A close-up of the rock-cut sign, which ressembles a bear foot
Lars Karlsson
The excavations were financed by the Åke Wibergs Stiftelse, Helge Ax:son Johnsons Stiftelse, Magn Bergvalls Stiftelse, Gunvor och Josef Anérs Stiftelse and E Hellgren 's Foundation for the maintenance of the cultural and natural heritage. The project is very grateful for this support, without which a successful campaign would not have been possible.
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