DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4945#0062
Excavations of 1904-5. 51
loose sandy clay removed by Wood from the upper stratum of the Temple site.
This cutting was finished in a fortnight, and thereafter a strip along the
northern half of it was utilised as a cart track. In the middle of the cutting, in
Wood's disturbed earth, occurred a mass of blocks, among which were frag-
ments of a Roman inscription. On October 29th we began at last to sink through
untouched deposit, having reached the original surface on which Wood dumped
his rubbish, and, at 1 -oo depth, found ourselves in mediaeval Turkish remains
represented by a rough wall about one metre high, bedded on earth, and by
many fragments of glazed ware, bronze and bone. Under this, as in the south-
eastern Precinct, lay fluvial deposit containing a few water-worn sherds of blue
glazed ware and broken iron objects in its uppermost layer, but below that
nothing. This deposit proved to be 4* 30 thick. The sections of it on the sides
of the pit showed even alternate strata of fine gravel and black sand; and there
can be no possible doubt it was laid by water. As in the south-east of the
precinct, so here, a stream or flood-torrent must have passed for some centuries
before the period of Turkish occupation. At last, at a depth of 6'85 below the
present level of the plain, a layer of chips, mostly marble, was exposed, below
which lay coarse mud and gravel down to water at 7*85 (25 feet 9 inches).
The stratification was the same all through the cutting. There was no siyn of
building material or pavement, and no small objects of antiquity were found.
The lowest point reached was 4" 72 below the level of the Hellenistic stylobate
(the datum) and 2 ■ 50 below the Croesus stylobate.
If there had been any remains of a large Altar in the area dug by us, we
must have come upon them. As it was, our results were even more negative
than Professor Benndorf's, who, it will be remembered, found a small patch
of pavement to the west of our cutting. But except for that, his lowest strata
and ours were so utterly empty that I venture to conjecture that in reality we
were both digging within the area of the shallow Sacred Port, or of a connecting
canal, which came up to the foot of the facade of the Temple itself. Professor
Benndorf's pavement may have been a fragment of one quay or causeway,1 and
my chips the bedding of another.
1 See Forsck. in Ephesos, i. p. 212. It is there stated that Ilumann believed this pavement to be the foundation
of the Peribolus floor. But, from indications observed elsewhere, we have no reason to suppose the latter to have been
of such massive construction.
11 2
loose sandy clay removed by Wood from the upper stratum of the Temple site.
This cutting was finished in a fortnight, and thereafter a strip along the
northern half of it was utilised as a cart track. In the middle of the cutting, in
Wood's disturbed earth, occurred a mass of blocks, among which were frag-
ments of a Roman inscription. On October 29th we began at last to sink through
untouched deposit, having reached the original surface on which Wood dumped
his rubbish, and, at 1 -oo depth, found ourselves in mediaeval Turkish remains
represented by a rough wall about one metre high, bedded on earth, and by
many fragments of glazed ware, bronze and bone. Under this, as in the south-
eastern Precinct, lay fluvial deposit containing a few water-worn sherds of blue
glazed ware and broken iron objects in its uppermost layer, but below that
nothing. This deposit proved to be 4* 30 thick. The sections of it on the sides
of the pit showed even alternate strata of fine gravel and black sand; and there
can be no possible doubt it was laid by water. As in the south-east of the
precinct, so here, a stream or flood-torrent must have passed for some centuries
before the period of Turkish occupation. At last, at a depth of 6'85 below the
present level of the plain, a layer of chips, mostly marble, was exposed, below
which lay coarse mud and gravel down to water at 7*85 (25 feet 9 inches).
The stratification was the same all through the cutting. There was no siyn of
building material or pavement, and no small objects of antiquity were found.
The lowest point reached was 4" 72 below the level of the Hellenistic stylobate
(the datum) and 2 ■ 50 below the Croesus stylobate.
If there had been any remains of a large Altar in the area dug by us, we
must have come upon them. As it was, our results were even more negative
than Professor Benndorf's, who, it will be remembered, found a small patch
of pavement to the west of our cutting. But except for that, his lowest strata
and ours were so utterly empty that I venture to conjecture that in reality we
were both digging within the area of the shallow Sacred Port, or of a connecting
canal, which came up to the foot of the facade of the Temple itself. Professor
Benndorf's pavement may have been a fragment of one quay or causeway,1 and
my chips the bedding of another.
1 See Forsck. in Ephesos, i. p. 212. It is there stated that Ilumann believed this pavement to be the foundation
of the Peribolus floor. But, from indications observed elsewhere, we have no reason to suppose the latter to have been
of such massive construction.
11 2