DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.66553#0596
IX. 1 Concluding Remarks and Summary
595
cultural significance of this area of the city for its inhabitants, and to trace the essential features
of the social praxis performed here. Starting from the spatial and content-related connections
of the buildings of this area to each other, we investigated the role that the domus played with
regard to the identity formation and cultural memory of the urban and possibly provincial Com-
munity, as well as to the political legitimation of the elites.
As the new explorations reveal, from the first half or the mid-2nd Century B.C. for a period
of more than seven hundred years, the urban area above the Theatre grew into a quarter that
was conspicuous in the urban landscape of Ephesos in many respects. Up until the late 4th Cen-
tury A.D., monumental building measures took place that consistently borrowed aspects from
Contemporary palace architecture. Architectural evidence and archaeological finds provide evi-
dence of an exceptionally prestigious usage of the area, even up until the 6th Century at least.
Particularly extensive building Programmes, possibly indicative of larger-scale urban planning
concepts, were carried out in the 2nd Century B.C. and in the 2nd Century A.D., according to the
current state of knowledge.
Around the large Doric colonnaded court in the north of the building, an imposing peristyle
house was erected in approximately the mid-2nd Century B.C. Its architectonic configuration
and location within the city clearly point to Contemporary Hellenistic palace architecture. In
order to be able to construct the building, which was at least 2,400 m2 in size, on unfavourable
topographic conditions, the terrain on the west slope of the Panayirdag had to be artificially ter-
raced with the aid of new techniques for its substructure. From its construction period the plan
of the house followed a planning grid that can be reconstructed for the urban area around the
Theatre on the basis of the newly acquired data. By all appearances, the first stone theatre of
the city, constructed in the second quarter of the 2nd Century B.C., also was aligned to the same
System, so that it seems plausible that the planning grid was conceived at the latest at the date
of construction of the Theatre. Moreover, the middle axis of the oldest peristyle house referred
to the eastern end of the harbour Street, later known as the Arkadiane, at the foot of the hill.
These observations allow the assumption that a concisely planned urban architectural concept
was applied at the Western slope of the Panayirdag in the course of the first half of the 2nd Cen-
tury B.C. Fürther investigations into the history of development of the Hellenistic harbour and
its communication with the city appear, in this light, to be a particular desideratum for future
research on the urban development of Ephesos. The monumental design of the west slope of the
Panayirdag, the development of which shaped the view of the city from the sea to a great extent,
doubtless had significant ramifications for the appearance of the city. This pertained especially
to the peristyle house above the Theatre, due to its exposed location.
The ornamented structural elements of the oldest peristyle house, the substructure technique
employed, and the architectural-typological proximity to Palace V on the acropolis of Pergamon,
in combination with the ceramic finds from the Contemporary backfill of the terrace, allow the
assumption that the structure was built during the period of Pergamene supremacy over the city
between 188 and 133 B.C. As an important harbour and trading city of the Pergamene kingdom,
and as a religious centre of outstanding importance, Ephesos enjoyed the particular attention of
the Attalid rulers. The palatial features of the peristyle house above the Theatre, in conjunction
with its date, suggest that the urban house was the seat of a Pergamene administrative official.
The permanent presence of a Pergamene strategos in Ephesos, who administered a rönog from
here, is attested via inscriptions dating to the rule of Eumenes II. Even if an unequivocal iden-
tification cannot be made due to a lack of unambiguous epigraphic evidence, also in light of
the subsequent history of building and usage such a hypothesis appears attractive. Indeed, the
topographic conditions were different from those at Pergamon itself, yet nevertheless the location
at the summit of the city, a location that had close visual connections not only with the Theatre
but likely also with important sites of memory such as the neighbouring Hellenistic socle monu-
ment, allows conceptual similarities between the urban area on the Panayirdag and the acropolis
of the Attalid Capital and residential city to be recognised. If the proposed interpretation as the
Attalid administrative residence is correct, the palatial complex of the 2nd Century B.C. might be
595
cultural significance of this area of the city for its inhabitants, and to trace the essential features
of the social praxis performed here. Starting from the spatial and content-related connections
of the buildings of this area to each other, we investigated the role that the domus played with
regard to the identity formation and cultural memory of the urban and possibly provincial Com-
munity, as well as to the political legitimation of the elites.
As the new explorations reveal, from the first half or the mid-2nd Century B.C. for a period
of more than seven hundred years, the urban area above the Theatre grew into a quarter that
was conspicuous in the urban landscape of Ephesos in many respects. Up until the late 4th Cen-
tury A.D., monumental building measures took place that consistently borrowed aspects from
Contemporary palace architecture. Architectural evidence and archaeological finds provide evi-
dence of an exceptionally prestigious usage of the area, even up until the 6th Century at least.
Particularly extensive building Programmes, possibly indicative of larger-scale urban planning
concepts, were carried out in the 2nd Century B.C. and in the 2nd Century A.D., according to the
current state of knowledge.
Around the large Doric colonnaded court in the north of the building, an imposing peristyle
house was erected in approximately the mid-2nd Century B.C. Its architectonic configuration
and location within the city clearly point to Contemporary Hellenistic palace architecture. In
order to be able to construct the building, which was at least 2,400 m2 in size, on unfavourable
topographic conditions, the terrain on the west slope of the Panayirdag had to be artificially ter-
raced with the aid of new techniques for its substructure. From its construction period the plan
of the house followed a planning grid that can be reconstructed for the urban area around the
Theatre on the basis of the newly acquired data. By all appearances, the first stone theatre of
the city, constructed in the second quarter of the 2nd Century B.C., also was aligned to the same
System, so that it seems plausible that the planning grid was conceived at the latest at the date
of construction of the Theatre. Moreover, the middle axis of the oldest peristyle house referred
to the eastern end of the harbour Street, later known as the Arkadiane, at the foot of the hill.
These observations allow the assumption that a concisely planned urban architectural concept
was applied at the Western slope of the Panayirdag in the course of the first half of the 2nd Cen-
tury B.C. Fürther investigations into the history of development of the Hellenistic harbour and
its communication with the city appear, in this light, to be a particular desideratum for future
research on the urban development of Ephesos. The monumental design of the west slope of the
Panayirdag, the development of which shaped the view of the city from the sea to a great extent,
doubtless had significant ramifications for the appearance of the city. This pertained especially
to the peristyle house above the Theatre, due to its exposed location.
The ornamented structural elements of the oldest peristyle house, the substructure technique
employed, and the architectural-typological proximity to Palace V on the acropolis of Pergamon,
in combination with the ceramic finds from the Contemporary backfill of the terrace, allow the
assumption that the structure was built during the period of Pergamene supremacy over the city
between 188 and 133 B.C. As an important harbour and trading city of the Pergamene kingdom,
and as a religious centre of outstanding importance, Ephesos enjoyed the particular attention of
the Attalid rulers. The palatial features of the peristyle house above the Theatre, in conjunction
with its date, suggest that the urban house was the seat of a Pergamene administrative official.
The permanent presence of a Pergamene strategos in Ephesos, who administered a rönog from
here, is attested via inscriptions dating to the rule of Eumenes II. Even if an unequivocal iden-
tification cannot be made due to a lack of unambiguous epigraphic evidence, also in light of
the subsequent history of building and usage such a hypothesis appears attractive. Indeed, the
topographic conditions were different from those at Pergamon itself, yet nevertheless the location
at the summit of the city, a location that had close visual connections not only with the Theatre
but likely also with important sites of memory such as the neighbouring Hellenistic socle monu-
ment, allows conceptual similarities between the urban area on the Panayirdag and the acropolis
of the Attalid Capital and residential city to be recognised. If the proposed interpretation as the
Attalid administrative residence is correct, the palatial complex of the 2nd Century B.C. might be
