DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45927#0049
47
3. PHASING AND RECONSTRUCTION
3.1 W. Alzinger’s Theories concerning a Hellenistic Bouleuterion
The discovery during post-war excavations of the city’s Prytaneion and other buildings of a sacro-political
nature along the northern edge of the Upper Agora led to a reinterpretation of this area as “Staatsmarkf’, and
suggested at the same time that the so-called Odeion might in fact have been, at least in an early phase, a Bou-
leuterion, an indispensable component of such ensembles in the Roman East.79 E. Fossel’s close study of the
building, published in 1967,80 seemed to support this theory and soon led to a systematic investigation designed
to locate the pre-Augustan (i. e. Hellenistic) Council House which, as was assumed, would have underlain the
standing high Imperial remains.81 Important to this end was the discovery in a linear series of sondages of the
front wall of a long one-aisled stoa beneath the Augustan Basilica Stoa (pl. 44, 1-2) which could be dated by
ceramic finds from the foundations between 220 and 180 B.C.82 Two trenches revealed “Baufugen” (construc-
tion breaks) in its rear wall, 28.80 m apart, which W. Alzinger took to be the front corners of the early Boul-
euterion abutted by the back wall of the original basilical hall which incorporated it. This would seem to have
represented the first phase of the Ephesian Bouleuterion.83
In his article of 1988,84 Alzinger superimposed on an area plan the square outline of a Hellenistic Council
House which he tied to the construction breaks in the rear wall of the early Stoa (pl. 44, 2). As an architectural
model, he cited the early phase of the Odeion at Gortyn in Crete (pl. 56, I)85 which had almost identical outer
dimensions, and emphasized, as Fossel had done, that the apparent spatial relationship between this early as-
sembly hall and Stoa was characteristic for Hellenistic Bouleuteria in other cities.
Alzinger was certainly correct in insisting that a Bouleuterion pre-dating the Roman one was to be found in
the Civic Agora, and very likely in the same location as the present one. Ephesos was a Greek city and every
Greek city had a boule which needed a permanent meeting place for deliberative assemblies. It is unlikely that
this city should have gone without a Council House between the time that this civic center was laid out under
Augustus and the construction of the high Imperial building at least a century later. We cannot, however, as-
sume, as Alzinger did, that a Bouleuterion dating to the time of Lysimachus remains to be discovered in the
“Staatsmarkf’, since it has not been proved that this was the civic center of Hellenistic Ephesos.86 A fragmen-
tary inscription cut in a block found in 1961 built as spolia into the north wall of the “Hestiasaal” has been cited
quite reasonably as evidence for the existence of an early Bouleuterion. It honored a certain Zopyros, son of
Balagros, who had made alterations to a Bouleuterion or provided furnishings. The inscription has been dated
on paleographic grounds to the 1st century B.C.87 and could thus refer to an Augustan building whose remains
are yet to be identified.
W. Alzinger’s published documentation, however, is not adequate to justify his conclusions. Conspicuously
lacking, for example, is a detailed masonry study demonstrating that the two corners actually belonged to the
same building. Excavation of the orchestra and the central stretch of the pulpitum in 1970 (S 6/1970; pls. 15,
1-2) and again in the orchestra in 1986 (pl. 15, 3) produced three early water channels running in a north-south
direction, in addition to some fragmentary walls whose relationship to one another is unclear.
79 See above chap. 1 for the history of research on the Bouleuterion.
80 Fossel 1967, 72-81.
81 Alzinger 1988, 21-29.
82 According to amphora handles and lamps from Sondage 8/72, Mitsopoulos-Leon - Lang-Auinger 2007, 6.
83 Alzinger 1988, 23 figs. 4. 5.
84 Alzinger 1988, 21-29.
85 See below chap. 7.4.
86 Scherrer 2001, 61-68.
87 Eichler 1962, 41: Hellenistic; IvE 740B: undated; Alzinger 1988, 23: 1st century B.C.
3. PHASING AND RECONSTRUCTION
3.1 W. Alzinger’s Theories concerning a Hellenistic Bouleuterion
The discovery during post-war excavations of the city’s Prytaneion and other buildings of a sacro-political
nature along the northern edge of the Upper Agora led to a reinterpretation of this area as “Staatsmarkf’, and
suggested at the same time that the so-called Odeion might in fact have been, at least in an early phase, a Bou-
leuterion, an indispensable component of such ensembles in the Roman East.79 E. Fossel’s close study of the
building, published in 1967,80 seemed to support this theory and soon led to a systematic investigation designed
to locate the pre-Augustan (i. e. Hellenistic) Council House which, as was assumed, would have underlain the
standing high Imperial remains.81 Important to this end was the discovery in a linear series of sondages of the
front wall of a long one-aisled stoa beneath the Augustan Basilica Stoa (pl. 44, 1-2) which could be dated by
ceramic finds from the foundations between 220 and 180 B.C.82 Two trenches revealed “Baufugen” (construc-
tion breaks) in its rear wall, 28.80 m apart, which W. Alzinger took to be the front corners of the early Boul-
euterion abutted by the back wall of the original basilical hall which incorporated it. This would seem to have
represented the first phase of the Ephesian Bouleuterion.83
In his article of 1988,84 Alzinger superimposed on an area plan the square outline of a Hellenistic Council
House which he tied to the construction breaks in the rear wall of the early Stoa (pl. 44, 2). As an architectural
model, he cited the early phase of the Odeion at Gortyn in Crete (pl. 56, I)85 which had almost identical outer
dimensions, and emphasized, as Fossel had done, that the apparent spatial relationship between this early as-
sembly hall and Stoa was characteristic for Hellenistic Bouleuteria in other cities.
Alzinger was certainly correct in insisting that a Bouleuterion pre-dating the Roman one was to be found in
the Civic Agora, and very likely in the same location as the present one. Ephesos was a Greek city and every
Greek city had a boule which needed a permanent meeting place for deliberative assemblies. It is unlikely that
this city should have gone without a Council House between the time that this civic center was laid out under
Augustus and the construction of the high Imperial building at least a century later. We cannot, however, as-
sume, as Alzinger did, that a Bouleuterion dating to the time of Lysimachus remains to be discovered in the
“Staatsmarkf’, since it has not been proved that this was the civic center of Hellenistic Ephesos.86 A fragmen-
tary inscription cut in a block found in 1961 built as spolia into the north wall of the “Hestiasaal” has been cited
quite reasonably as evidence for the existence of an early Bouleuterion. It honored a certain Zopyros, son of
Balagros, who had made alterations to a Bouleuterion or provided furnishings. The inscription has been dated
on paleographic grounds to the 1st century B.C.87 and could thus refer to an Augustan building whose remains
are yet to be identified.
W. Alzinger’s published documentation, however, is not adequate to justify his conclusions. Conspicuously
lacking, for example, is a detailed masonry study demonstrating that the two corners actually belonged to the
same building. Excavation of the orchestra and the central stretch of the pulpitum in 1970 (S 6/1970; pls. 15,
1-2) and again in the orchestra in 1986 (pl. 15, 3) produced three early water channels running in a north-south
direction, in addition to some fragmentary walls whose relationship to one another is unclear.
79 See above chap. 1 for the history of research on the Bouleuterion.
80 Fossel 1967, 72-81.
81 Alzinger 1988, 21-29.
82 According to amphora handles and lamps from Sondage 8/72, Mitsopoulos-Leon - Lang-Auinger 2007, 6.
83 Alzinger 1988, 23 figs. 4. 5.
84 Alzinger 1988, 21-29.
85 See below chap. 7.4.
86 Scherrer 2001, 61-68.
87 Eichler 1962, 41: Hellenistic; IvE 740B: undated; Alzinger 1988, 23: 1st century B.C.
