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

该项目的地点和对象是小亚细亚西部(现在的土耳其，伊兹密尔省)的埃菲索斯古城的上阿戈拉。这一地区坐落在环绕城市的两座小山之间的鞍座上。20世纪50年代末至80年代中期，奥地利考古研究所对其进行了更大范围的发掘。当时提出的解释--例如，假定奥古斯坦君主制思想对上阿戈拉的外观产生了纲领性的影响，并将其准独家用于行政管理和帝国崇拜(国家阿戈拉)--仍然具有持续的影响，即使在此期间，相互矛盾的证据已经曝光。这是我们项目的起点：基于对研究现状的批判性重新检查，包括以前挖掘的未发表文献和有目的地指导自己的调查，应该以一种新的方式追踪上阿戈拉的建筑造型。重点将放在希腊主义和早期罗马帝国之间的转变时期，在此期间，上阿戈拉通过纪念性建筑呈现出一个决定性的新面貌。这一过程开始前该地区是什么样子，该地区是如何逐步改建的，改造是以什么样的利益为指导的，中央对它的影响程度如何，将通过详细的调查分析，包括相对和绝对年表、历史和单体建筑的用途变化。同时，考虑到建筑活动的积极影响：它们如何塑造用户和游客对城市空间的感知、行为和行动？因此，试图超越固定在确定的时间地平线上的城市形象的概念和视觉重建。因此，该项目的设计是为了将考古学和古典研究中更多的理论方法与具体的历史问题和田野调查活动结合起来。现场工作包括对西露台墙进行精确的变形施工测量。这座纪念碑，尽管它对上阿戈拉的整个地区具有构成功能，但在以前的研究中几乎没有得到考虑。还将探索靠墙西侧竖立的建筑，因为它们对于重建上阿戈拉和城市其他地区之间的视觉关系同样重要。挖掘工作将在与上阿戈拉南侧接壤的斯托阿王国内进行，范围有限。探测将涉及东南部的螺旋塔和中央寺庙的区域。在这种情况下，总体目标也是通过收集有关大道、入口和通道的信息，为上阿戈拉融入更广泛的城市空间提供新的线索。

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is the starting point for our project: Based on critical re-examination of the current status of research, including unpublished documentation of former excavation and purposefully directed own investigations, the architectural shaping of the Upper Agora shall be traced in a new way.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.