Report_2007

The 2007 Season

The 2007 Team

Preliminary Reports

The campaign lasted for 5 weeks from June, 25 to July, 27, 2007.

Participants: Assoc. Prof. Lars Karlsson (project director), Jesper Blid, MA, Prof. Pontus Hellström, all from Uppsala University, Sandra Karlsson, MA, Göteborg University, archaeology student Augustus Lersten, engineer Krister Berggren and engineer Stefan Thorstensson, all from Stockholm. Also participating were Olivier Henry, PhD from Bordeaux University , France and now at Koç University in Istanbul and Kadir Baran, PhD from Mugla University , Turkey . Representing the Turkish Department of Culture was Nilgün Sinan Sentürk from Ankara.

This year's campaign was the most successful since the archaeological work at Labraunda was resumed in 2001. Advancements were made in all areas of research, i.e. study of the Byzantine Church , the fortification and the necropolis, as well as that of previously excavated material and restoration projects. The results from this year are both impressive and significant: we have received dating evidence for the defensive towers, discovered remains of golden wreaths and other important finds in the tombs. A better understanding of the water channel in the apse of the church has been achieved and, finally through the investigations of Jesper Blid, the discovery of a completely new Byzantine church with attached baptistery.

The Byzantine Church (after a report by Jesper Blid)

The Byzantine Church is one of the earliest known in Karia. The excavations of the church that began in 1953 were never completed and the church is only now being thoroughly studied. The church has a very interesting architecture which points at Syria as its source of inspiration.

Plan of the Byzantine Church with Excavation trenches (J. Blid)

The study of the church and the Late Roman period is being conducted by Jesper Blid. The investigations in the apse of the church were continued and finished this summer. Our goal was to continue the study of the earlier excavated channel in the centre of the apse. For this reason a new trench (Trench 4) was laid out immediately east of and along the choir wall of the church. We wanted to see if the channel continued outside the church. If so, then the structure earlier excavated in the apse must have been a water channel of some kind and not a grave or ossuary as we believed at first. The excavation trench became 1.5 metres deep.

Trench 4 with wall fall of the Church

Our work began by removing a terrace wall that the Swedish expedition had built in 1960 to contain the earth east of the church. We rebuilt the missing section of this wall after the completion of Trench 4. Immediately under top soil we discovered large ashlar blocks which were still lying in the position to the east where they had fallen from the church wall. Nothing datable was found in this material, however. The wall must have collapsed during one of the earthquakes that have periodically shaken Labraunda since antiquity. Labraunda was to a large extent deserted after the early Byzantine period, making archaeological materials from after this time unusual. As of yet the date of the destruction and abandonment of the church is unknown. The material discovered under the fallen wall was, however, Roman and Early Byzantine and it is quite possible that this church was destroyed relatively soon after it was built. Continued investigations may provide a more specific answer. The blocks in the wall fall were drawn and then lifted with our winch so that the lower levels could be exposed. The east wall of the church was followed down another metre, after which a 60-cm high socle was revealed.

The channel was built into this socle level. It was excavated down to bedrock. The channel is about 55 cm deep and 40 cm wide. The channel was connected with the earlier excavated channel in the apse by a hole in the church wall. The channel did not continue straight eastward, as we believed, but turned 90 degrees to the south, running along the church's exterior wall. The excavation followed the channel's course for 1.10 metres.

Fragments from drinking glasses

Crushed fragments of glass were discovered at the bottom of the turn of the channel. We had earlier discovered glass fragments, above all ring bottoms, in the channel inside the apse, but here there were 156 fragments of vase walls, apparently from cups or rather ‘drinking glasses'. The reason for the presence of fragments of glass vessels was a mystery and Trench 1B from 2005, located in the aspe, was extended westward, in an attempt to add to our knowledge of the character of the channel.

The 2005 trench had revealed a well-built ‘channel' structure, which was first thought to be an ossuary since it was located in the centre of the apse. In our extended test probe we discovered to our surprise the mouth of a large terracotta conduit of a type very common in water-rich Labraunda. This water conduit had an east-west orientation and clearly emptied out into the channel.

View of the apse from the east

The water conduits were placed under the line of the marble flagstones of the church floor oriented east-west. The other marble flagstones are oriented north-south (see the plan). In our test probe we also found a large piece of lead ‘packing'. It may have been used as insulation for a water tap. The terracotta conduit was excavated and removed. The conduit had a large 'maintenance hole', which does not exist on earlier examples in Labraunda, but is known from other places. The ‘maintenance hole' seems to have been cut out at a secondary stage of manufacture. The hole was still covered by a fragment of a late terracotta roof tile.

Our channel was, most probably, a water channel, a construction to be expected in Labraunda with its clear and ice-cold water, and most likely similar to the Byzantine ayazma , a holy water spring with taps that the pilgrim could turn on when he arrived with his drinking glass. This can still be seen in the churches of Zoodochos Pege and Blachernai in Istanbul.

Terracotta conduit in situ

The water became sanctified by passing under the floor of the nave of the church and into the apse. Drinking ice-cold water in a glass vessel is a special feeling and surely the ancients thought the same. The glass fragments we have discovered have extremely thin walls, only about 2- 4 mm. These drinking glasses would have been very fragile and easily broken, which gives one explanation for their presence in the channel. An alternative is to see the fragments as the result of the vessels being crushed and for some reason thrown into the open water channel in the apse. The glass fragments were then carried by the water's flow until caught by the channel's 90 degree turn. Here the glass fragments sunk to the ground where we discovered them 1600 years later. The two coins discovered in the channel, one minted by Emperor Maximianus (A.D. 286-305) and the other a Roman provincial coin from Magnesia-ad-Meandrum, provide tentative assistance in dating the use of channel.

At the end of the campaign an extraordinary architectural structure was discovered. It is in the shape of a tetraconch and is surely a Byzantine baptistery. Jesper Blid has prepared a plan of the current state and a restored plan of this building. In the slope to the south of this structure several fragments of an ambo

(lectern) were found. This indicates that the baptistery was most likely attached to a church (where the ambo would have stood). The ambo is decorated with scrolls of ivy leaves and the type is usually dated to the 6th century A.D.

J. Blid photographing the newly discovered structure

Current state plan and restored plan of the tetraconch (J. Blid)

The fortifications: fortress Burgaz Kale

Like many cities on the coast of Asia Minor , Labraunda was protected by sophisticated fortifications and free-standing forts. The date of their construction is, however, unknown. Scholars have long attempted to place them in the period be- tween the reign of Maussollos (377-351 B.C.) and the late 3rd century B.C. The problem is that none of these fortifications have been directly dated by contextual finds. We are hoping that our research at the Burgaz fortress will fill this gap in our knowledge of the fortification systems and thus make a significant contribution to our understanding of both the architecture and the history of Asia Minor and the larger Hellenistic world.

View of the fort from the east

The excavation trenches were laid out in the area of the fort that was used as barracks, i.e. the rooms in which the soldiers on duty had their living quarters. Thus with great expectations, Lars Karlsson and Augustus Lersten excavated down into the three rooms in the western wing of the fortress. As well as datable pottery, we hoped to find examples of the different types of vessels that were used in the soldiers' daily life. We were rewarded on the first day with the discovery in Room 2 of the base of an Attic black-gloss bowl (krater). It was decorated on the inside with palmettes joined by large circle segments. On the underside was found a Karian graffito, BZIOM, perhaps the name of the soldier (or officer) who owned it, or alternatively the name of the fort.

The base profile and decoration date it to 375-350 B.C. after comparison with similar examples from the Maussolleion in Halikarnassos. The dating thus conforms to the period of Maussollos.

Attic krater base with Karian graffitto

Numerous finds broaden this general dating. A bowl in a thin grey ware was probably a drinking bowl. It dates to the second half of the 4th century. A small water jug, hydria, with three handles (two on the sides for carrying, and one on the neck for pouring) was found almost complete. The form suggests a soldier's water jug, similar in size to the water bottles of modern armies, easy to carry in a leather strap. Furthermore, there were a smaller jug, possibly for wine, and a larger jug for water. Rim fragments were also found from two very large jars (pithoi) in which both liquids such as olive oil and dry foodstuff such as flour, could be stored. These vessel types, which are for daily use, are made of a coarse pottery that is more difficult to date, but they seem to belong in the period from the late 4th to the 3rd century B.C. This dating fits our hypothesis that the fortifications of Labraunda were used primarily from the middle of the 4th century down to about 200 B.C.

Finds from Burgaz fortress

Strangely enough, no terracotta roof tiles were found. Instead, we found numerous fragments of thin sheets of schist. Two of these had rounded corners, and are reminiscent of the schist plate roofs from Värmland in Sweden . It is quite likely that these plates of schist are roof tiles, because schist is very common in the terrain below Labraunda, around the village of Kargicak . This would explain the absence of terracotta roof tiles in our excavations. Finally, we discovered two pieces of hard stone, which had been worn mechanically by another material. These two stones were, in all likelihood, whetstones used for sharpening the soldier's swords.

The rock-cut tombs (by Olivier Henry)

A new chapter of the excavations and research at Labraunda was opened this year with the investigation of the necropolis associated with the sanctuary. It was conducted by Olivier Henry, who defended his PhD dissertation in 2005 on Karian tombs.

O. Henry excavating tombs

The study of the necropolis of Labraunda is not new; it was begun early on in 1949 when Paul Åström began recording the tombs around the sanctuary. Although this work was never completed, no less than 39 graves were recorded at that time. Research was resumed in 2005 by Lars Karlsson. A recount of the grave structures resulted in 52, including most of the tombs known from Åström's first survey (some of them seem to have been destroyed, notably when the road leading from Milas to Labraunda was enlarged in 1960). Considering both the quantitative and qualitative richness of this necropolis, as well as the ongoing destruction of the tombs from the modern road construction and plunderers, L. Karlsson decided to put an emphasis on the study of the necropolis.

View of tomb 4

Three points make this necropolis remarkable. First of all, this is the only early necropolis (from the mid-5th century B.C.) known in Asia Minor to be closely and exclusively associated with a sanctuary, as opposed to an urban context. Secondly, the burial activity is uninterrupted, covering a period starting with the early Classical period, lasting until the Late Roman and Early Byzantine times. Finally, it is one of the few well preserved necropoleis, with no modern dwellings on or around the site. Thus it was decided that the necropolis of Labraunda should be extensively studied and published in a new volume of the Swedish Excavations and Research at Labraunda (published by the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul). The publication will be divided into two parts: the first will be a technical and structural analysis of the monuments (including architecture, craftsmanship, topography, chronology, etc.); the second will be a discussion on the cultic activity, the burial customs and the historical development of the sanctuary based on the evidence from the tombs.

The necropolis occupies a wide area following the sacred way leading from Mylasa to Labraunda and on to Alinda. The first graves are located at the foot of the mountain and the last ones several kilometres north of the sanctuary along the road toward Alinda. In order to offer a comprehensive study of the necropolis the investigations in 2007 included both a systematic survey and an excavation of the funerary structures. The total number of recorded graves is now 61. This year we excavated 22 graves: 18 rock-cut sarcophagi, 3 simple pits and one rock-cut chamber tomb. Although most of them were plundered (only one of the tombs was found untouched), the material that we collected was surprisingly abundant and of high quality. It includes in some cases fragments of bones and from all sites terracotta as well as fragments of stone, metal and glass.

Bones

The bones are few in number. Fragments were found in only five tombs. Two reasons can explain this limited amount of bone remains: first, the soil around the sanctuary, containing gneiss, is very acid. Once the tomb has been robbed and left opened nothing prevents the soil from entering inside the grave. In such cases the bones may have disintegrated . Second, the sherds found in many of the graves indicate that the burial customs included both inhumation and cremation. In all cases the remains that have been collected will be the object of an anthropological study by Anne Ingvarsson-Sundström of Uppsala University , as well as a C14 chronological analysis.

Pottery and burial customs

A first study of the pottery indicates a long period of use for the necropolis, from the 5th century B.C. until the Late Roman period. The time span includes both a continual creation of new tombs and a reuse of older structures. A change in burial customs seems to be indicated when comparing the graves from different periods, with a shift from inhumation in the Classical and Hellenistic times to a majority of cremation tombs during the Roman period.

Lithic material

The lithic material was one of the main surprises of this year. It includes white and yellow egg-shaped stones as well as fragments of very high quality rock crystal. The tradition of burying an egg-shaped stone together with the dead is known in the ancient world, but mostly in Italy , as a symbol of rejuvenation. Concerning the rock-crystal pieces, no other explanation than a local burial custom can be provided at this point.

Metallic finds

The metallic finds include nails, probably for a wooden coffin placed in the rock-cut pit, bronze coins (one very beautiful example of a 3rd-century B.C. Mylasan production), pieces of a 5th-century silver phiale and, finally, in two of the graves (one from the 5th century B.C., the other from the 2nd century B.C.), some leaves of gold belonging to the funerary diadem of the dead.

Burial wreath in gold

Glass

The glass fragments belong to different periods but come from the same unguentarium vessel shape: the earliest is a 5th-century Phoenician multicoloured sand-cast glass, the latest are part of some simple white type of Roman glass.

In situ finds

In three cases materials were found in situ: (1) in the untouched dromos of a plundered rock-cut chambered tomb: a 2nd century B.C. amphoriskos placed against the door of the chamber as a votive deposit; (2) at the bottom of a simple rock-cut pit: 4 unguentaria, one small cup and one amphoriskos, all of them from the 4th century B.C.; (3) Finally, in a child grave found intact: a skyphos dated in the 4th century B.C.

Unguentaria in situ in tomb 59

Although less than a third of the necropolis was studied this year, the results have been more than encouraging. They have already provided a wealth of information concerning not only the architecture of the graves and their typological development from the 5th century B.C. to the 2nd century A.D., but also the burial customs and practices both at the time of the interment and later cultic activity.

Other investigations

The South Bath was cleaned as part of our investigations into Labraunda's Roman period. This bath structure had been partly excavated in earlier campaigns but had never been studied nor had an architectural plan been drawn. Jesper Blid measured the building and produced a new plan. The bath is located at the southern edge of the sanctuary's lowest platform. It must have had an exposed position in the sharply sloping terrain.

Plan of the south bath (J. Blid)

The south wall of the bath has thus largely collapsed, with further sections at risk of falling. The wall revealed a jog in the middle of its course. This served as a centuries-old path entering Labraunda, and it was also here that the Swedish archaeologists arranged an entrance to the excavated area in 1960.

A very large block projected out, giving the jog its shape. It lacked support however and threatened to fall over. We filled this hole and another hole in the wall further down with two ashlar blocks which were lying in situ in front of the wall. These blocks were then raised up and put to their original positions.

Projecting blocks before and after restoration

Another two blocks were also put back into their original positions in the wall, five metres east of the jog. The south wall of the South Bath is now sturdy and complete. During this clean-up pottery was retrieved, illustrating the history of Labraunda: here were a Classical oil lamp, a red-figure krater-rim fragment, Roman terra sigillata pottery, a medieval brown-glazed sherd (13th century) and a blue-painted, glazed fragment from Iznik/ Kütahya of the 17/18th centuries. The most interesting discovery was a small column fragment of marble with a dedication to Zeus Labraundos.

Finds from the south bath

The preserved sections of the Sacred Way , which can be seen along the Milas-Labraunda road from 1960, were studied, cleaned and photographed by Kadir Baran. The work with the cleaning and registering of the pottery from the East Stoa was continued by Sandra Karlsson. Pontus Hellström measured and drew blocks for the publication of the two Andron buildings.

A cleaned section of the sacred way

Restoration work and measures taken to increase the value of the site for visitors

The restoration project of Andron A, supported by the Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, continued this year with a visit to

Labraunda by the two engineers Krister Berggren and Stefan Thorstensson of Stockholm. Their analysis will be presented in the autumn. Several ways of strengthening the 9-metre high south wall of the building were discussed, among them, fixing strong metal bars to contain the outward pressure of the wall. The south wall of the South Bath was strengthened and partly rebuilt, as was mentioned above.

Engineers K. Berggren and S. Thorstensson in front of Andron A

Furthermore, three column drums were re-erected. They had been erected by the Swedes in 1960 but had been knocked over, viz. two column drums in Andron C and one column in Building L at the entrance.

Restoration of Andron C columns

The Labranda Society produced seven new information signs which were put up at the following buildings: the East Stoa, the Byzantine Church , the Spring, the Built Tomb and finally, three signs at the Akropolis fortification. In order to invite visitors up to the Akropolis fortress we placed one information sign down in Labraunda with an arrow indicating the way up. The next sign was placed at the gate of the fortress with its two towers and the third sign at the catapult bastion on top of the Akropolis. Augustus Lersten arranged a path up to the Akropolis and along the well-preserved ring wall. The path was marked with specially made plastic arrows. Finally, our carpenter built two wooden gates at the entrance to the site and at the northern exit, in order to prevent wild boars from entering the excavated area with their destructive (unauthorized) digging.

New information sign at the Akropolis fort

Finally, our excavation house was replastered and new furniture added, paid by the Labranda Society. The excavation director wishes to thank the participants and sponsors who all contributed to the success of this year's work, as well as Prof. Lana Troy for improving the text of this English version.

Interior of the restored excavation house

The Swedish excavations of Labraunda are the subject of a new guidebook. It has been written by the former project director, Professor Pontus Hellström and includes the latest research, many plans, descriptions of the buildings and an account of how Labraunda was discovered in the 19th century. The book is published in a Turkish, English and Swedish versions and can be ordered from Ege Yayinlari in Istanbul at

www.zerobooksonline.com

The excavations this year were supported by Åke Wiberg's Foundation, Magn. Bergvall's Foundation, Gunvor and Josef Anér's Foundation, Maggie and Stefan Lersten and the Labranda Society. The Andron A restoration project is supported by the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities. The project is very grateful for these supports, without which a successful campaign would not have been possible.