DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43877#0269
240
Summary
stepped benches of seats were arranged in an L-shape and in a second building phase laid in brick. They
could accommodate between 100 and 120 people. On the square foundation in the middle of the room stood
an originally marble table where the food of the government banquettes was arranged. A 13,41 * 3,94 m
large room (rooms 2, 3, 4) to the north of the >Hestia Halb was closed off in the late antique/early Byzantine
building phase 3. In the Western rooms 3 and 4 a water reservoir was installed in the building phase 3. To
the west of the >Hestia Halb originally two rooms were located, measuring 7,98 * 6,52 m (room 6, in the
south) and 8,83 * 6,52 m (room 5, in the north). The northern pari of room 5 was divided into two smaller
room sections in Late Antiquity (room 5A and 5B). The extreme rise in elevation from south to north re-
sulted in different levels of usage: The levels of usage in the northern rooms 2, 3 and 4 were partly up to
1,30 m higher than in the neighboring rooms 5 and 6 as well as the >Hestia Halb and were only accessible
by stairs.
After analyzing the Stratigraphie and architectural findings three major building phases could be dis-
cerned in addition to many small repairs. The ascertaining of building periods was complicated by the mas-
sive and mainly insufficiently documented archaeological activity of the 1950s and the 1960s as well as by
the dearth of undisturbed areas needed for the reexamination process. Nonetheless for many areas the histo-
ry of usage of the building could be recovered: The building was constructed in the Augustan period, in the
last decade of the lst Century BCE (building phase 1), in an area that at this point was undeveloped. Merely
terraces were documented in the area of the prytaneion that date to the end of the 3rd Century BCE. An
earlier prytaneion could not be localized within the Augustan precinct; the place of the pre-Augustan pry-
taneion of Ephesus is not unknown to date but its existence must be assumed. In the building phase la that
is dated due to paleographic criteria of the inscription IvE 437 roughly to the lst/2nd Century CE, the Ionic
perisiyle was repaired or completely rebuilt by an unknown donor. Essentially the construction of the Au-
gustan building phase 1 was copied. According to the inscription IvE 1024 shortly after 104 CE the prytanis
Dionysodoros completed further repairs. These repairs are not exactly distinguishable and can hardly be
differentiated from the following building phase 2 that dates to the 2nd quarter of the 3rd Century CE. All of
these repairs indicate large damages to the building that required a great amount of alterations. Foremost
the modifications undertaken in the >Hestia Halb must be mentioned as well as repairs to the walls, the
creation of additional entrances to the hall or also the mounting of a new door in the room 2-4 in the course
of which the arch of the north wall was hidden behind a new marble fronting. The addition of the L-shaped,
brick built benches in the >Hestia Halb, the construction of the >heart columns< as well as the decoration of
the hall with polychrome mosaics can be securely dated to the second building phase. In the middle of the
4th Century CE the building was abandoned as a result of damage through the series of earthquakes in 358
and 368 and never fixed up again. Early, sporadic interdictions of pagan cults under Constantius, especially
the edicts of 354 and 356 CE that demanded the closure of pagan temples, seem to have lead to a natural
extinction of the Institution >prytaneion< in addition to the damage through the earthquakes. An intentional
destruction of the buildings through Christians cannot be confirmed; all assumptions made concerning this
remain solely hypothetical. The conclusion of the history of the prytaneion, a building that in the 4th Century
had long surpassed its peak, is without a doubt the law prohibiting all pagan cult activity through Theo-
dosius I in 391/392 CE. At the very latest the prytaneion lost all its cultic functions through this imperial
ordinance and the holy fire on the hearth of Hestia expired. The Institution had lost its political importance
much earlier - a fate that the other political institutions later shared, i. e. the assembly (δήμος) and the
council (βουλή) whose existence is recorded in Ephesus until the 4th Century but since the time of Trajan
were noticeably deprived of their influence. Already soon after the abandonment of the building a slow but
steady removal of building material began that continued for a long time. The extensive robbing of stones
did not commence until the construction of the >Stoa of the Curetes< and the renovation of the Scholastikia
Baths in the first half of the 6th Century CE in the course of which many architectural elements of the pry-
taneion were used as spolia. Already at the outset of the 5th/6th Century the area north of the >State Agora<
was used as a craftsman quarter with simple housing structures (building phase 3). Evidence for this phase
are the Byzantine constructions over the prytaneion and especially the Installation of a water reservoir in
the rooms 3 and 4 that was in use until the middle of the 7th Century (building phase 3a). The last usage of
the site took place in the last quarter of the 8th Century CE.
Summary
stepped benches of seats were arranged in an L-shape and in a second building phase laid in brick. They
could accommodate between 100 and 120 people. On the square foundation in the middle of the room stood
an originally marble table where the food of the government banquettes was arranged. A 13,41 * 3,94 m
large room (rooms 2, 3, 4) to the north of the >Hestia Halb was closed off in the late antique/early Byzantine
building phase 3. In the Western rooms 3 and 4 a water reservoir was installed in the building phase 3. To
the west of the >Hestia Halb originally two rooms were located, measuring 7,98 * 6,52 m (room 6, in the
south) and 8,83 * 6,52 m (room 5, in the north). The northern pari of room 5 was divided into two smaller
room sections in Late Antiquity (room 5A and 5B). The extreme rise in elevation from south to north re-
sulted in different levels of usage: The levels of usage in the northern rooms 2, 3 and 4 were partly up to
1,30 m higher than in the neighboring rooms 5 and 6 as well as the >Hestia Halb and were only accessible
by stairs.
After analyzing the Stratigraphie and architectural findings three major building phases could be dis-
cerned in addition to many small repairs. The ascertaining of building periods was complicated by the mas-
sive and mainly insufficiently documented archaeological activity of the 1950s and the 1960s as well as by
the dearth of undisturbed areas needed for the reexamination process. Nonetheless for many areas the histo-
ry of usage of the building could be recovered: The building was constructed in the Augustan period, in the
last decade of the lst Century BCE (building phase 1), in an area that at this point was undeveloped. Merely
terraces were documented in the area of the prytaneion that date to the end of the 3rd Century BCE. An
earlier prytaneion could not be localized within the Augustan precinct; the place of the pre-Augustan pry-
taneion of Ephesus is not unknown to date but its existence must be assumed. In the building phase la that
is dated due to paleographic criteria of the inscription IvE 437 roughly to the lst/2nd Century CE, the Ionic
perisiyle was repaired or completely rebuilt by an unknown donor. Essentially the construction of the Au-
gustan building phase 1 was copied. According to the inscription IvE 1024 shortly after 104 CE the prytanis
Dionysodoros completed further repairs. These repairs are not exactly distinguishable and can hardly be
differentiated from the following building phase 2 that dates to the 2nd quarter of the 3rd Century CE. All of
these repairs indicate large damages to the building that required a great amount of alterations. Foremost
the modifications undertaken in the >Hestia Halb must be mentioned as well as repairs to the walls, the
creation of additional entrances to the hall or also the mounting of a new door in the room 2-4 in the course
of which the arch of the north wall was hidden behind a new marble fronting. The addition of the L-shaped,
brick built benches in the >Hestia Halb, the construction of the >heart columns< as well as the decoration of
the hall with polychrome mosaics can be securely dated to the second building phase. In the middle of the
4th Century CE the building was abandoned as a result of damage through the series of earthquakes in 358
and 368 and never fixed up again. Early, sporadic interdictions of pagan cults under Constantius, especially
the edicts of 354 and 356 CE that demanded the closure of pagan temples, seem to have lead to a natural
extinction of the Institution >prytaneion< in addition to the damage through the earthquakes. An intentional
destruction of the buildings through Christians cannot be confirmed; all assumptions made concerning this
remain solely hypothetical. The conclusion of the history of the prytaneion, a building that in the 4th Century
had long surpassed its peak, is without a doubt the law prohibiting all pagan cult activity through Theo-
dosius I in 391/392 CE. At the very latest the prytaneion lost all its cultic functions through this imperial
ordinance and the holy fire on the hearth of Hestia expired. The Institution had lost its political importance
much earlier - a fate that the other political institutions later shared, i. e. the assembly (δήμος) and the
council (βουλή) whose existence is recorded in Ephesus until the 4th Century but since the time of Trajan
were noticeably deprived of their influence. Already soon after the abandonment of the building a slow but
steady removal of building material began that continued for a long time. The extensive robbing of stones
did not commence until the construction of the >Stoa of the Curetes< and the renovation of the Scholastikia
Baths in the first half of the 6th Century CE in the course of which many architectural elements of the pry-
taneion were used as spolia. Already at the outset of the 5th/6th Century the area north of the >State Agora<
was used as a craftsman quarter with simple housing structures (building phase 3). Evidence for this phase
are the Byzantine constructions over the prytaneion and especially the Installation of a water reservoir in
the rooms 3 and 4 that was in use until the middle of the 7th Century (building phase 3a). The last usage of
the site took place in the last quarter of the 8th Century CE.
