The 2008 Season

The 2008 Team

Preliminary Reports

The campaign lasted for five weeks from June 23 to July 25, 2008.

Participants: Assoc. Prof. Lars Karlsson (leader of the project), Prof. Pontus Hellström, Ragnar Hedlund, PhD, and Gunilla Bengtsson, BA, all from Uppsala University, PhD student Jesper Blid, Stockholm University and archaeology student Augustus Lersten, University of London. Also participating were Olivier Henry, PhD from Bordeaux University, France and Koç University in Istanbul, architect and PhD student Ayşe Henry, University of Illinois and Kadir Baran, PhD, Muğla university, Turkey. Representing the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Museums was Mustafa Samur from the Museum of Antalya.

Photo Album...

Foreword

Chronological table

Map of the Sanctuary

Glossary

Photos Albums

The Team

The Sponsors

Events

Contacts

This year the excavations were supported with grants from Åke Wibergs Stiftelse, Magn. Bergvalls Stiftelse, Helge Ax:son Johnsons Stiftelse, Gunvor och Josef Anérs Stiftelse, The Friends of the Swedish Institute in Rome, Stefan Lersten and Maggie Dan-Lersten and The Labranda Society, Sweden.

    This year’s campaign was the fifth since the beginning of the renewed work at Labraunda in 2004. This year we are also celebrating 60 years since Swedish archaeologists first began the excavations at the Karian sanctuary of Zeus Labraundos. The 2008 season was very special, not only because of these celebrations, but above all because of the important finds that our work revealed.

Since 2004, research in Labraunda has been concentrated on three areas that have not previously been the subject of study. These are the surrounding defensive complexes, the large necropoleis, and the sanctuary’s Roman and Byzantine periods. Very important finds have been made that relate to all of these areas.

The most spectacular of these is surely the unusual Roman bath dated to the first half of the 4th century AD. This bath building, built in the shape of a four-leaf clover, a so-called tetraconchos, was discovered as recent as last year by Jesper Blid, but could be excavated first this summer. The excavation site was considered so significant that we decided to cover it with a large metal roof in order to safe-guard and preserve both the excavation results and the building itself.

In the necropolis we excavated another 19 rock-cut tombs. The rich finds from these include a gold ring with a stone identified as jasper and 22 gold appliqués in the shape of rosettes and palmettes, each of which with four holes for fastening onto the shroud of the deceased. Two coins from before 350 B.C. show that the burial belongs in the early Hekatomnid period.

In our excavations at the Akropolis Fortress, we discovered a series of Byzantine buildings, possibly barracks.

As in previous years, we also worked on architectural conservation and other measures to increase the value of the site for tourists. These include plans for a roof over the Roman bath, a wooden fence at the entrance and the installation of new metal shelves in the store rooms.

Finally, this season saw the beginning of the re-excavation of the original monumental staircase leading from the Temple terrace up to the Built Tomb.

THE FORTIFICATIONS: THE ACROPOLIS FORTRESS

Labraunda was protected by advanced defensive fortresses and free-standing towers. The problem is that none of these defensive structures has been dated through archaeological excavations or by associated finds. The need to establish dating criteria is one reason why our excavations at Labraunda are so important. The investigations at the Burgaz fortress last year revealed an impressive series of finds of wine and water vessels as well as whetstones for the sharpening of the soldier’s weapons. A C14 analysis indicated a dating of the Burgaz fortress to the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C. The archaeological finds thus gave us both evidence for the dating and pottery that illustrated the life of the soldiers on duty. Thus it was with great expectations that we initiated this year’s work at the large fortress on the Akropolis, located 100 metres above the temple area.

Fig. 2

   The fortress has 11 towers and measures 127 m in an east-west direction and 95 m in a north-south direction. In the upper northeast corner of the fortress, behind the large chevron-shaped catapult tower, there is an inner fort, which has two towers towards the outer fort. The inner fort measures 51 m in the east-west direction and 19.5 m north-south. The excavation trench was laid out in the southwest corner of the inner fort between the two southern inner towers (Fig. 2). The trench measures 10 m east-west and 6.40 m north-south (Fig. 3). After cleaning the Akropolis Fortress from vegetation in 2004, it was possible to see that the area of the inner fort was completely covered with ruined structures. Many squarish rooms could be identified as the traces found in the fallen masses of rocks.

Fig. 3

    Large rectangular upright stone blocks could be understood as door jambs, since they often are in pairs. These blocks and traces of walls were measured and drawn onto a plan by our architect Ayşe Henry and the land surveyors from ARI in Milas. A study of the architectural remains of the inner fort is being prepared.

    An excavation area must be sought out carefully; not only must you be sure that it is the site of some structural remains, but it must also be located so that the rocks and earth removed from the trench can be efficiently disposed of. Finally, the area should be chosen with consideration of how it will function when tourists later visit the place. In our case, we chose a place near the inner south fortification wall, above which we could dump the excavation soil, and below which there are no structures. It was also a place easily reached by tourists.

The ruins were covered by large masses of simple uncut rocks, the remains of collapsed buildings (Figs. 4 and 5).

Fig. 6

     The archaeologists had to check every stone before it was removed. Eventually, an irregular, squarish room appeared, surrounded by two corridors (Fig. 6). We continued down to the bottom of the pile of stones, where there was a large amount of roof tiles. These had fallen first and were lying on the floor, covered by the rocks from the walls (Fig. 7).

    The large amount of roof-tile fragments was surprising. The buildings must have been costly and seemed to have been constructed in a systematic way, suggesting significant planning; the roof tiles were not a haphazard collection of different types but seemed to indicate an organized tile production. We found 400 broken pieces of roof tile, of which some different types were saved. One large pan tile could almost be put together to full size (Figs. 8 and 9).

    The completely preserved width measures 49.5 cm, while the preserved length was 63.5 cm, with a part missing. If the ratio between width and length was 2:3 the total length would have been 75 cm. The pan tiles are very large and must have been very heavy on the roof.

Fig. 10

    The interior measures about 2.85 x 2.3 m. The house walls had a thickness of about 63 cm and were built with smaller rocks which were held in place by larger upright rectangular blocks. In the corners there were also larger blocks as well as those in the door jambs (Fig. 11).

Fig. 12

If you turn right from the door of the corridor, you come to two leaning door jambs, which led into an irregular room. The room measures 2.75 m (north-south) by 1.5 m (east-west). It had a rounded northern wall.

FIg. 13

    The room led on to another pair of door jambs, these still standing in situ. The next room was not excavated. In the irregular room we discovered an even layer of fallen roof tiles, which we left in place (Fig. 13). Obviously, these roofs must have fallen at one and the same time, since so many roof tiles were found in place. If the buildings had  fallen little by little, the roof tiles would have been found scattered in many levels, and not as now, concentrated in one layer.

  In the upper layers were found 20 fragments of Byzantine glazed pottery from the 11th and 12th centuries, which shows that the fort was still used in some way in this period (Fig. 14). Some structures were probably quickly rebuilt by people taking shelter up here. In the layers with the fallen roof tiles were found large numbers of fragments of so-called Byzantine white-ware pottery (Fig. 15).

Fig. 14

The pottery clay is white, but many of the vessels showed traces of fire, which indicate that they were vessels for cooking. We found 41 vase bottoms, 34 handle fragments, 2 rim fragments and 310 body sherds (Fig. 16). The vase shapes belong to the period from the 6th to the 8th centuries.

Fig. 17

The wall measures 65 cm in width and the bedrock had been dressed to form setting-beds for the wall blocks. This was clearly a wall from the Late-Classical fortress and in this layer we discovered a 4th-century B.C. black-glaze pottery fragment. The excavation was finished here, since we had discovered the 4th-century B.C. fortress, albeit a very small section. Surprisingly, our excavations had shown that Labraunda also played an important role as a military outpost and protection fort during the troubled times in both the 7th and 8th centuries and in the 11th and 12th centuries. During these periods Anatolia was crisscrossed by first the Arabs and later by Turkish groups. Until now, no remains from these two periods had been discovered in Labraunda.

THE TETRACONCHOS EXCAVATION (by Jesper Blid)

Fig. 18

The connection with Christian liturgical furniture made us speculate if possibly the area had been a Christian centre during Late Antiquity. Perhaps the tetraconchos was a baptistery, considering its shape. Next to the East Propylon of Labraunda, a church was erected as early as in the fourth century. It was, however, deserted after only about 150 years of use. We therefore suspect that the Christians of Labraunda chose to erect a new church in the south-western area of the sanctuary along with other necessary buildings. The terrace just south of the tetraconchos, where the ambon was found, is occupied by several low walls, possibly belonging to this not yet confirmed sixth-century church. In order to understand the function and chronology of the area better, we initiated an excavation in the best-preserved structure, i.e. the tetraconchos, whose northern semi-dome is preserved to a height of five metres (Fig. 18).

Fig. 19

    The building is architecturally put together by four horseshoe-shaped apses, in opus quadratum, oriented along the cardinal axes (Fig. 19). The apses encircle a central bay that was covered by a cupola or vault, constructed of ashlar blocks of local granite (Fig. 20). This cupola/vault had collapsed and could easily be studied after the removal of the topsoil (Fig. 21). The construction technique employed is identical to that used in the preserved semi-dome in the northern apse (Fig. 22). The centre is built with six ashlar blocks, placed like spokes in a wheel. Small stones, imbedded in cocciopesto, fill up the triangular spaces between these blocks. In order to reconstruct the part of the central cupola between the centre and the cornice one must again turn to the preserved northern semi-dome. Here, ashlar blocks are placed horizontally, one on top of the other, forming five non-bonded sections.

Fig. 22

The construction method of the semi-dome of the northern apse is to join five independent arches to create two-thirds of a cupola. In the central bay many ashlar blocks of similar dimensions were noted, therefore it feels close at hand to suggest a similar construction there, though it did of course originally cover the entire space of the central bay.

Beneath the fallen cupola (at a level of 67 cm above the floor in the eastern apse) we found pieces of glazed pottery, the so-called Sgraffito Ware, a manufacture of the late 12th century. This find forms the terminus ante quem (the date before which), for the total find sequence. This date might therefore give us an approximate suggestion for the collapse of the superstructure of the tetraconchos. The Ionian city of Ephesos suffered a severe earthquake in the 1360s, which is likely to be the cause for the destruction of the tetraconchos, since the building had, at the time, been without maintenance for one and a half centuries.

Fig. 23

    Approximately 60% of the building was unearthed in 2008. We excavated the central bay and also the northern and eastern apses (Fig. 23). In the eastern apse we found the main entrance to the structure and also a window oriented towards the south. This apse has a well-preserved secondary-made cocciopesto floor that is resting on large bricks (Fig. 24). The floor measures 35 cm in thickness.

Directly on the cocciopesto floor a plate of Late Roman C Ware was found. It has a stamped cross in the tondo and is commonly dated to the late part of the fifth century (Figs. 25 and 26).

Fig. 27

    Another interesting find was a fully preserved murex seashell, probably carried from the sea below Labraunda to give the room a certain exotic touch (Fig. 27).

In the northern apse, which is still preserved to its full height, the strata were disturbed causing a mixture of the chronology of the finds (Fig. 28). It is when reaching the floor level that the untouched stratigraphy appears. Directly on the floor a secondary hearth had been constructed by means of four Byzantine roof tiles put in a square formation. No dateable pottery or small finds were found in the close vicinity of the hearth and thus we must wait for the C14-tests of charcoal to confirm the dating of this stratum. For now, we can only certify that it is post-antique. As mentioned previously, the walls of the semi-domes are constructed of opus quadratum and in the northern apse one can see preserved mortar covering the joints of the ashlar blocks (Fig. 29). This was surely painted with marbling, imitating real marble blocks.

Fig. 30

In the central bay, at the depth of 32 cm above the cocciopesto floor of the eastern apse, we excavated a circular socle or threshold, constituted by two blocks of white marble (Fig. 30). The blocks show traces of anathyrosis, which indicates that there have probably been covering slabs placed on top of them. The marble blocks rest on three 36.5 cm thick granite slabs. Just east of these slabs we continued to excavate beneath the level of the cocciopesto floor of the eastern apse. We there discovered eight brick pilae belonging to a hypocaust (Figs. 31-33).

                           Fig. 31                                                        Fig. 32                                        Fig. 33

Fig. 34

Over forty plates of high quality Late Roman C Ware and African Red Slip Ware (Fig. 35) along with very well preserved common wares and a water flask, so-called ampulla (Fig. 36), were excavated.

In this stratum we also found a broken washing bowl of marble and a piece of the marble cornice decorated with Ionian and Lesbian kymai (Fig. 37).

Fig. 38

    In conclusion then, the tetraconchos was initially constructed as a Late Roman bath. Due to its insignificant size it was with certainty a private establishment, possibly aligned with other non-tempered rooms. The four horseshoe-shaped apses, covering two-thirds of a circle, was surely designed for individual practises. One of the marble washing bowls, that belonged to the edifice, later broke and was reused in a filling of the second phase, when the suspensura was rebuilt in the early medieval period. One certain evidence that the material under the floor is a filling placed at a specific time, is the homogenous chronology it displays. The problem is still to determine the function of the building during its second phase; only the cocciopesto floor of the eastern apse is well preserved. However, if we recapitulate the initial part of this report, if a newly erected church actually occupied the terrace just south of the tetraconchos at the beginning of the sixth century, it fits chronologically well with the reshaping of the tetraconchos. Could the tetraconchos have been a part of that Christian complex from the beginning of the sixth century? Future excavations will surely gives us the answer to that question. 

The excavations being very important, there was a wish to preserve the archaeological levels. Consequently it was decided to protect the building with a metal roof, which will be described below.

THE NECROPOLIS EXCAVATIONS (by Olivier Henry)

    We concentrated this year’s work on two areas located south and southwest of the Stadion (Fig. 39). The objectives were the same as last year: first, to conduct a survey in order to complete the map of the necropolis, this was conducted by architect Ayşe Henry and the survey company ARI of Milas; secondly, to carry on the systematic excavations of the tombs.

Fig. 39

Fig. 40

    Although we did not find any intact tombs, not less than 19 new burials (T62 to T80) could be added to the map, bringing the total amount of known graves to 80 (Fig. 40). All of the new tombs belong to the ‘simple rock-cut pit’ type, i.e. a simple rectangular pit carved in the rocky soil and covered by a series of slabs buried under a thin layer of soil.

    The most interesting point of these new discoveries is the high density of the graves. Southwest of the Stadion we discovered seventeen tombs (only one of them was already known) placed close to each other. The surface occupied by these burials does not exceed 450 m2. Up until now the map of the necropolis only showed isolated or small groups of burials consisting of three to four graves. This year’s results clearly indicate that areas with high density of burials must have been common and that many more tombs are to be discovered around the sanctuary. Furthermore, the fact that these new tombs belong to the same ‘simple rock-cut pit’ type reveals that this kind of tomb might be more widespread and more frequently represented in the necropolis than we first thought.

This year we excavated 19 tombs: two rock-cut sarcophagi and seventeen of the nineteen new tombs, bringing the total amount of excavated tombs to 41.

Rock-cut sarcophagi

    One of the rock-cut sarcophagi (T14) is located along the road leading to the Stadion. It has an unusual shape as the rock is cut with two rectangular, twin, pits (Fig. 41). Its lid has disappeared and there is no trace of it. The material found in this tomb was relatively poor, including many fragments of roof tiles, one pithos fragment and part of a local jug rim. The material can be dated to the Roman period, but does not offer a more precise dating.

Fig. 41

Fig. 42

On the top of the lid there is a rectangular shelf, which is pierced in the centre by a socket. The lid also carries two projecting bosses on all four sides. The material discovered in that grave was rich and numerous. Beside the usual fragments of big pots, roof tiles and pithoi, we found a large amount of fine-ware ceramics, including small cups (Fig. 43), a glass bead and a bronze coin. The latter was unfortunately lying in the mud collected in the pit and could not be read. On the other hand, the fine wares provided us with a precise chronological sequence, starting in the late Hellenistic period and finishing at the end of the 2nd century AD.

The amount and the variety of the finds indicate many phases in the use of the tomb. This point is supported by the large amount of human bones found during the excavation. We could safely distinguish at least three different burials: one cremation, an adult and a young man/woman. The bones have been brought to Uppsala University for a full analysis by anthropologist Anne Ingvarsson-Sundstrom.

Simple pits (Fig. 44)

Fig. 44

    Although all these tombs reflect the same conceptional scheme, we noticed a large variation in their dimensions. The pits vary in width from 24 cm to 48 cm, and in length from 1.50 m to 2.00 m. The pottery found in the pits was surprisingly rich, considering the fact that all of them were plundered. Nonetheless, it seems that the robbers did not complete the excavation of the tombs, and this allowed us to discover some material still in situ (Fig. 45).

Fig. 46

As a result, we collected many fine pieces, including not only high-quality fragments of 5th- and 4th-century black-glaze pottery, but also complete vessels, such as an amphoriskos, unguentaria and water jugs (Fig. 46). One of the tombs was particularly generous, as it offered a rich collection of jewelry, comprising a set of 22 golden dress-decoration pieces with 10 rosettes and 12 complex leaf motifs (Fig. 47), a long necklace showing jasper beads alternating with crafted golden granulated cylinders (Fig. 48), and a ring made of a large jasper stone held by thick golden tubes (Fig. 49). In the same grave we also found two silver coins, probably minted by the Karian city of Kasolaba and dated in the period of 400-350 B.C.

                    Fig. 47                                                                      Fig. 48                                                                                    Fig. 49

   

    Following the analysis of the material, it appeared that the ‘simple rock-cut pit’ tombs have been conceived and used during two distinct periods: first in the 5th to the 4th centuries B.C. and then in the Roman period. At least three of the 4th-century tombs have been cleaned up (just a few fragments of Classical pottery were found) and reused during the Roman period. An important point to be made concerns the clear difference in quality of the buried goods in these tombs. While the 4th-century material offers very fine examples of pottery and a rich set of jewelry, the Roman material is quite poor: it seems that the social status of people buried in such tombs decreased dramatically. This shift might indicate that the tombs of the ‘simple rock-cut pit’ type formed the usual burial form in the Classical period; while in Roman times rich people preferred to reuse the Hellenistic rock-cut sarcophagi, leaving the simple rock-cut pit graves to the poorest individuals.

PUBLICATION WORK

    The above-mentioned three projects will be presented in separate volumes in the series called Labraunda, Swedish Excavations and Researches, published by the Swedish Institute in Istanbul. The publications will be (1) The Fortifications of Labraunda; (2) Labraunda in Late Antiquity; and (3) The Necropolis of Labraunda. For the publication of Andron A and Andron B, Pontus Hellström this year made supplementary studies of the buildings and completed the documentation of walls and marbles with additional drawings, photographs and descriptions.

MEASURES FOR SAFE-GUARDING THE SITE AS WELL AS INCREASING ITS VALUE FOR VISITORS

Fig. 50

    We have also planned the erection of a metal roof over the very exciting remains of the Roman bath building, the tetraconchos, which was uncovered this year. In order to create as little disturbance as possible to the ruins we intend to build the roof on four 10 x 10 cm large legs, placed into the ground outside and in between the four apses of the building. The roof will then extend over the space of these apses. The roof sections will be carried on metal crosspieces soldered into the four legs. This will be done in order to have only four supports on the ground (instead of four further legs as our blacksmith proposed). The roof cover is a corrugated sheet-metal. Since Labraunda is known for its heavy winter and spring rains we plan to build this roof as soon as possible to preserve not only the sensible excavation baulks from the excavation trenches and the finds still therein, but also the building itself, with its still-standing vault over the north apse.

Fig. 51

    The new wooden fence that we erected two years ago showed itself to be too low. Local cows are able to climb over it and enter the archaeological zone. We had to build a new and higher section at the entrance. Instead of the two levels of round wooden members the new fence has three horizontal levels of round wooden logs, in this way increasing the height of the fence (Fig. 51). The old fence, which was in a good state of preservation, was re-erected on the other side of the parking area, thus, together with the new fence enclosing the parking space in an attractive way.

Fig. 52

    This work showed itself to be very difficult. Several very large blocks were blocking the passage and lots of soil had to be removed. We realized that the time at our disposal allowed us only to take this excavation half-way up the slope and finish it with a temporary staircase leading up to the right (Figs. 52 and 53).

  

       

Lars Karlsson

Department of Archaeology and Ancient History

Uppsala University

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