DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45927#0028
26
1. EXCAVATION HISTORY AND STATE OF RESEARCH
large blocks which had fallen onto the stage, apparently from the scaenae frons. The lower eleven rows of seats
with their lion paw protomes are described as having been found in perfect condition, although a lithograph
shows them roughly as they are today (pl. 4, I).5 His reconstructed plan6 (pl. 4, 2) is essentially accurate with
the exception of the arrangement of the buttresses and the addition of two doorways at the top of the cavea.
His placing of a colonnade above the seating is reasonable considering what was known about Roman theaters
at the time and the fragments of red granite columns which he discovered in the debris, although this feature
must now be rejected.7
Most important was Wood’s discovery on the stage and in the orchestra of many fragments belonging to
thin marble slabs that bore dated letters written by the emperors Antoninus Pius and Hadrian to the people
of Ephesos.8 Named in the Antonine inscriptions was a certain Publius Vedius Antoninus, “under [whose]
auspices,” wrote Wood, “were erected, either wholly or in part, the Odeum and other public buildings in that
quarter of the city.”9
Wood’s excavations in the Odeion also produced a number of fragmentary statues, apparently part of the
building’s sculptural decoration. Most significant is the lower half of an over-life-size figure found “near the
central doorway”, identified as Lucius Verus by an inscription on its plinth.10 A number of other statues are
briefly mentioned including a torso of Silenus and the figure of the Muse Erato,* 11 both illustrated with litho-
graphs.12 The latter went down in a shipwreck on its way to England along with the upper half of the Lucius
Verus statue and was recovered later much damaged by the sea. Both the Silenus and the lower half of the
Lucius Verus statue reached London and are currently in the collection of the British Museum.
More informative, perhaps, than his publication is a collection of several hundred letters which Wood wrote
to officials of the Museum during his years at Ephesos informing them of his progress. This archive, exploited
only recently by A. Kalinowski and H. Taeuber,13 contains two groups of letters written concurrently. The first,
housed in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, is addressed to C. T. Newton, then keeper of that
department. Those of the second group, now in the Museum’s Central Archives, were written to A. Panizzi,
Principal Librarian until 1866, and then to his successor J. Winter Jones. The letters are especially important in
that they give a more detailed account of sculptural and inscriptional finds, and confirm the recent suggestion
of K. Fittschen that the building’s scaenae frons contained an Antonine Imperial portrait gallery.14
The Odeion came under scientific scrutiny for the first time in 1908 as a direct result of the interest raised by
a bull’s head capital which J. T. Wood had discovered in front of the building. Excavations under the auspices
of the Austrian Archaeological Institute carried out in this area by R. Heberdey and W. Wilberg during the fall
campaign15 uncovered additional capitals and it could be determined that they belonged to a colonnaded hall
(so-called Stierkopfhalle) which fronted the Odeion and extended for an unknown distance in both directions.16
Wilberg published a diagrammatic plan showing the entire Odeion (pl. 5, 1), newly cleaned, which corrected
some of Wood’s errors; the upper doorways were eliminated and the exposed buttresses shown in their correct
5 Wood 1877, opposite p. 62. This is clearly a copy of a photograph. Wood 1877, 62-63 complains about the depredations of tourists
who carried away as souvenirs not only pieces of sculpture but “fragments of marble from the seats and cornices” broken off with
hammers and chisels.
6 Wood 1877, opposite p. 52.
7 For this notion cf. also Bier 1999, 11-12; Meinel 1980, 123; Riorden 1996, 104: “This type of roofed gallery usually occurs only
in roofless theatre structures”.
8 See below chap. 8.
9 Wood 1877, 44-46. The letters received their first publication in a section entitled “Inscriptions from Odeum” appended to the
back of the book.
10 Wood 1877, 47. See below chap. 9 sculp. 1.1.
11 See below chap. 9 sculp. 2.1 and 2.2.
12 Wood 1877, 49-51.
13 Kalinowski - Taeuber 2001, 351-357.
14 Fittschen 1999, 130. See below chap. 9, for Fittschen’s reconstruction and the contribution of Kalinowski and Taeuber. That the
scaenae frons included members of the imperial family was noted by J. Keil, cf. Keil 1955a, 566-567 (Vedius 3), and Balty 1991,
514.
15 The excavations in and in front of the Bouleuterion began on September 7 and concluded on November 11. Wilberg’s field note-
books, now housed in the archive of the Austrian Archaeological Institute, Vienna, contain much information about the structure
and design of the building.
16 Wilberg 1909, 207-214.
1. EXCAVATION HISTORY AND STATE OF RESEARCH
large blocks which had fallen onto the stage, apparently from the scaenae frons. The lower eleven rows of seats
with their lion paw protomes are described as having been found in perfect condition, although a lithograph
shows them roughly as they are today (pl. 4, I).5 His reconstructed plan6 (pl. 4, 2) is essentially accurate with
the exception of the arrangement of the buttresses and the addition of two doorways at the top of the cavea.
His placing of a colonnade above the seating is reasonable considering what was known about Roman theaters
at the time and the fragments of red granite columns which he discovered in the debris, although this feature
must now be rejected.7
Most important was Wood’s discovery on the stage and in the orchestra of many fragments belonging to
thin marble slabs that bore dated letters written by the emperors Antoninus Pius and Hadrian to the people
of Ephesos.8 Named in the Antonine inscriptions was a certain Publius Vedius Antoninus, “under [whose]
auspices,” wrote Wood, “were erected, either wholly or in part, the Odeum and other public buildings in that
quarter of the city.”9
Wood’s excavations in the Odeion also produced a number of fragmentary statues, apparently part of the
building’s sculptural decoration. Most significant is the lower half of an over-life-size figure found “near the
central doorway”, identified as Lucius Verus by an inscription on its plinth.10 A number of other statues are
briefly mentioned including a torso of Silenus and the figure of the Muse Erato,* 11 both illustrated with litho-
graphs.12 The latter went down in a shipwreck on its way to England along with the upper half of the Lucius
Verus statue and was recovered later much damaged by the sea. Both the Silenus and the lower half of the
Lucius Verus statue reached London and are currently in the collection of the British Museum.
More informative, perhaps, than his publication is a collection of several hundred letters which Wood wrote
to officials of the Museum during his years at Ephesos informing them of his progress. This archive, exploited
only recently by A. Kalinowski and H. Taeuber,13 contains two groups of letters written concurrently. The first,
housed in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, is addressed to C. T. Newton, then keeper of that
department. Those of the second group, now in the Museum’s Central Archives, were written to A. Panizzi,
Principal Librarian until 1866, and then to his successor J. Winter Jones. The letters are especially important in
that they give a more detailed account of sculptural and inscriptional finds, and confirm the recent suggestion
of K. Fittschen that the building’s scaenae frons contained an Antonine Imperial portrait gallery.14
The Odeion came under scientific scrutiny for the first time in 1908 as a direct result of the interest raised by
a bull’s head capital which J. T. Wood had discovered in front of the building. Excavations under the auspices
of the Austrian Archaeological Institute carried out in this area by R. Heberdey and W. Wilberg during the fall
campaign15 uncovered additional capitals and it could be determined that they belonged to a colonnaded hall
(so-called Stierkopfhalle) which fronted the Odeion and extended for an unknown distance in both directions.16
Wilberg published a diagrammatic plan showing the entire Odeion (pl. 5, 1), newly cleaned, which corrected
some of Wood’s errors; the upper doorways were eliminated and the exposed buttresses shown in their correct
5 Wood 1877, opposite p. 62. This is clearly a copy of a photograph. Wood 1877, 62-63 complains about the depredations of tourists
who carried away as souvenirs not only pieces of sculpture but “fragments of marble from the seats and cornices” broken off with
hammers and chisels.
6 Wood 1877, opposite p. 52.
7 For this notion cf. also Bier 1999, 11-12; Meinel 1980, 123; Riorden 1996, 104: “This type of roofed gallery usually occurs only
in roofless theatre structures”.
8 See below chap. 8.
9 Wood 1877, 44-46. The letters received their first publication in a section entitled “Inscriptions from Odeum” appended to the
back of the book.
10 Wood 1877, 47. See below chap. 9 sculp. 1.1.
11 See below chap. 9 sculp. 2.1 and 2.2.
12 Wood 1877, 49-51.
13 Kalinowski - Taeuber 2001, 351-357.
14 Fittschen 1999, 130. See below chap. 9, for Fittschen’s reconstruction and the contribution of Kalinowski and Taeuber. That the
scaenae frons included members of the imperial family was noted by J. Keil, cf. Keil 1955a, 566-567 (Vedius 3), and Balty 1991,
514.
15 The excavations in and in front of the Bouleuterion began on September 7 and concluded on November 11. Wilberg’s field note-
books, now housed in the archive of the Austrian Archaeological Institute, Vienna, contain much information about the structure
and design of the building.
16 Wilberg 1909, 207-214.
