The Upper Agora at Ephesos: Design and Change of Urban Space between Hellenism and the Roman Empire

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Location and object of the project is the Upper Agora of the ancient city of Ephesos in Western Asia Minor (modern Turkey, Province of Izmir). This area is situated on a saddle between two hills framing the city. It was excavated in larger parts by the Austrian Archaeological Institute between the end of the 1950s and the middle of the 1980s. The interpretations which were proposed at that time - postulating, for instance, a programmatic impact of Augustan monarchic ideology on the appearance of the Upper Agora and its quasi exclusive use for purposes of administration and imperial cult (state agora) - have still continuing effects, even though in the meantime conflicting evidence has come to light. This is the starting point for our project: Based on critical re-examination of the current status of research, including unpublished documentation of former excavation and purposefully directed own investigations, the architectural shaping of the Upper Agora shall be traced in a new way. The focus will be on the period of change between Hellenism and the early Roman Empire, during which the Upper Agora assumed a decisively new aspect by means of monumental buildings. What the area looked like before this process started, how the area was remodelled step by step, what kind of interests guided the transformation and to which measure it was influenced by central authorities, will be analysed through detailed investigations on relative as well as absolute chronology, on the history and the change of use that was made of single buildings. At the same time, the active impact of building activities is taken into consideration: How did they shape the perception, the behaviour and the actions of users and visitors to the urban space? Thus an attempt is made to go beyond conceptual and visual reconstructions of urban images which are fixed in determined temporal horizons. Therefore, the project is laid out for combining concerns of more theoretical approaches within archaeology and classical studies with a concrete historical problem and fieldwork activities. Fieldwork activities include a deformation precise construction survey of the western terrace wall. This monument, despite the constitutive function it had for the entire area of the Upper Agora, has received only little consideration in former research. The buildings erected against the western side of the wall will be explored, too, as they are equally important for the reconstruction of visual relations between the Upper Agora and the rest of the city area. Excavations will take place in limited extent in the realm of the stoa which bounded the Upper Agora on its southern side. Soundings will concern the zone of the southeastern propylon and of the central temple. General aim, also in this case, is to shed new light on the integration of the Upper Agora into the wider urban space, by gathering information about thoroughfares, entrances and passages.