DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4615#0046
44 MODERN DISCOVERIES AT ANCIENT EPHESUS.
The whole is surrounded by a guilloche border. This
mosaic is now in the British Museum.
From the position and character of the building in
which this mosaic was found, I concluded that I was
now not far from the site of the temple, and I sunk a
great number of trial-holes to the south and east of it.
The ground naturally sloped downward towards the sea,
and therefore my trial-holes were necessarily deeper as
I worked on eastwards, till, at a depth of nearly twenty
feet, I at length found the Greek pavement I had been
searching for. It consisted of two layers, the upper
one nine inches thick of white marble,, the lower one of
rough stone fifteen inches thick; upon the small patch
first found rested two fragments of one of the large
sculptured columns. This discovery was made on
December 31, 1869. As the next day happened to
be the first of the feast of Bairam, I had the greatest
difficulty in persuading the man who struck upon the
pavement to remain on that day for a few hours in the
morning; but he uncovered sufficient to convince me
that I had really found the site of the temple, and it
was thankfully welcomed by me as an acceptable New
Year's gift.
It was now in my power to concentrate my force
upon the opening up of the whole site. In due time,
interesting portions of the temple came in view; one of
the first being the remains of the anta at the south-west
angle of the temple, some portions of the cella walls,
and by a happy chance the foundation and base of one
of the outer columns of the peristyle on the south side,
and a great number of drums of columns.
After I had been at work a few months, and had laid
The whole is surrounded by a guilloche border. This
mosaic is now in the British Museum.
From the position and character of the building in
which this mosaic was found, I concluded that I was
now not far from the site of the temple, and I sunk a
great number of trial-holes to the south and east of it.
The ground naturally sloped downward towards the sea,
and therefore my trial-holes were necessarily deeper as
I worked on eastwards, till, at a depth of nearly twenty
feet, I at length found the Greek pavement I had been
searching for. It consisted of two layers, the upper
one nine inches thick of white marble,, the lower one of
rough stone fifteen inches thick; upon the small patch
first found rested two fragments of one of the large
sculptured columns. This discovery was made on
December 31, 1869. As the next day happened to
be the first of the feast of Bairam, I had the greatest
difficulty in persuading the man who struck upon the
pavement to remain on that day for a few hours in the
morning; but he uncovered sufficient to convince me
that I had really found the site of the temple, and it
was thankfully welcomed by me as an acceptable New
Year's gift.
It was now in my power to concentrate my force
upon the opening up of the whole site. In due time,
interesting portions of the temple came in view; one of
the first being the remains of the anta at the south-west
angle of the temple, some portions of the cella walls,
and by a happy chance the foundation and base of one
of the outer columns of the peristyle on the south side,
and a great number of drums of columns.
After I had been at work a few months, and had laid