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SUMMARY

In the last decades of the lst Century BCE a building was constructed to the north of the Ephesian >State
Agorac This building is one of the few securely identified prytaneia known from the Greco-Roman world.
An Interpretation of the building as a prytaneion and sanctuary of Hestia Boulaia was already convincingly
argued during the excavations in 1955 and 1956 by E Miltner who in his fast paced excavations reached
the youngest preserved levels of the structure. Besides this widely accepted Identification of the structure
as the seat of the prytaneis and central cult building, which is attested epigraphically, Miltner was also able
to discern different building phases. Despite further intensive study in the early 1960s lead by W. Alzinger
who excavated numerous trenches under floor level and also in the early 1990s by the Efes Müzesi Selçuk,
many questions of usage, appearance, function and relationship to neighboring Ephesian governmental
buildings were still open. The publication of the inscriptions of the prytaneion by D. Knibbe in 1981 con-
siderably expanded our knowledge especially concerning the collegium of Curetes installed in this building;
the architectural and archaeological aspects of this monument had not yet been addressed at the start of
the reexamination of the structure in 2007. A renewed interest and study of the Ephesian prytaneion was
prompted by the unique importance of the building within the city limits and the administrative çenter of
Ephesus as well as the prospect of further insight in an area where basic topographical and chronological
questions remained unanswered. This study therefore includes the fundamental analysis of the architectural
and Stratigraphie finding including the decoration and results of the previous excavations. The following is
a summary of the results:
The 1 170 m2 large prytaneion of Ephesus was constructed in the Augustan period and has a clearly
defined floor plan that was only altered in Late Antiquity: The entrance to the south of the building leads
into the 18,40 * 21,65 m measuring courtyard in the form of a triporticus with 14 reconstructed columns of
Ionic Order. In the çenter of the courtyard a foundation was found that is slightly out of line with the axis of
the building and that from the time of Trajan probably functioned as the basis of the >Great-Artemis< statue.
The imposing Doric façade of the 7,20 * 21,38 m large stoa that is situated to the north of the courtyard
leads into the heart of the prytaneion. The columns of this stoa were restored and set up in the 1960s. The
façade with its six columns in antis and an extended central bay as well as the rectangular hall behind it
comprised the subsequent room ensemble to the north that did not adhere to the central axis and whose
entrances all departed from the main axis. Both the Ionic perisiyle of the courtyard and the Doric hall mark
the axiality of the building that is broken up by the heterogeneous program of rooms to the north. The
unconventional floor plan, as was shown, resulted from the locally limited topographical availability and
the needed assemblage of rooms. The entablature of the overbearing Doric façade was outfitted with geisa
that held the trusses of the roof construction. Therefore the building must be reconstructed with a hip roof
contrary to previous opinions that assumed there to be a tympanum and raking sima according to temple
façades. The Ephesian prytaneion is consequently divested of its unique Status in the series of known pry-
taneia and does not imitate a temple. The large scale Doric architecture of the hall follows in the tradition
of both the Hellenistic, Asian Minor ashlar construction as well as the classicistic traditions of Augustan
architecture. Given that the Doric order is extremely rare in Ephesus as well as the rest of Asia Minor, the
façade of the prytaneion would have been a special feature. Already by the Flavian period no monumental
buildings of the Doric order were being constructed in Ephesus. The choice of an architectural tradition
would have been purposeful in that it not only refers to the Greek motherland but also emphasizes the old
age of this wholly Greek tradition. The 13,47 * 13,41 m large >Hestia Halb to the north-east of the building
could be accessed through the hall. The architectural characteristics of this room are the four double-half
columns in the corners on podia that were crowned by composite capitals and short entablature joining into
the walls of the room, as well as an open masonry arch in the north wall. Between the column podia two-
 
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