Aphrodisias

Aphrodisias

Türkiye · Aydın

Ancient cityExcavation ongoingUNESCO · 2017
Approximate period4,500 BCE — 1,200 CEHellenistic, Roman and Late Antiquity See on the map ↓

In brief

The city near Geyre is known for its marble quarries and sculpture production. Excavations provide detailed information about temples, public buildings, houses and workshops.

What was found?

  • 1Temple of Aphrodite

    The temple, one of the city's principal sacred buildings, was later converted into a cathedral. The building allows religious change to be traced through existing architecture.

  • 2Sebasteion

    This is a cult complex dedicated to Augustus and the emperors of the Iulius-Claudius dynasty. It shows the combination of Hellenistic, Roman and local artistic traditions within the same structure.

  • 3Marble statues and sculpture workshop

    The statues and the systematically excavated workshop document both the products and the working environment of marble production. They provide strong evidence for understanding the technical skills of local craftspeople.

  • 4Inscriptions on the theatre's Archive Wall

    Official documents concerning the city's status within the Roman Empire are preserved on the wall. They allow the city's political position to be examined directly through written sources.

  • 5Head of Zeus carved on an architectural console

    The bearded marble head found in 2024 is a high-relief part of an architectural console, rather than a freestanding statue. During cleaning, traces of brown paint were identified on the neck and black paint in the hair.

What does it point to?

The marble quarries, workshop and statues indicate the decisive place of stoneworking in the economy of Afrodisias. Cult buildings and inscriptions also show the relationship that local beliefs established with the Roman imperial order.

What did it teach us?

  1. Made it possible to examine Roman-period marble sculpture production through evidence extending from the quarry to the workshop and finished work.
  2. Documented the city's status within the empire through official inscriptions.
  3. Showed the effect of religious change on architecture through the temple's conversion into a cathedral.
  4. Added new evidence for the use of color in marble architectural decoration through pigments on the head of Zeus.

Images

Aphrodisias - Temple of Aphrodite 07
Bernard Gagnon · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Aphrodisias Sebasteion 4360
Dosseman · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Mercury, Rome, Parco archeologico del Colosseo, 2nd half of 2nd century AD, Aphrodisias-ly
Daderot · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Ancient Greece Marble Funerary Stele of Antipatros son of Aphrodisias of Askalon. Inscript
Gary Todd from Xinzheng, China · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

Latest news / selected archive

In 2024, a monumental marble head of Zeus, also preserving traces of paint, was found in the area west of the North Temenos House.

Record

Culture
Carian, Greek and Roman
First modern dig
1904
Team / historical
Bert Smith / Aphrodisias Excavations
Coordinates
37.7083°, 28.7236°

Sources

  1. whc.unesco.org
  2. whc.unesco.org
  3. whc.unesco.org
  4. aphrodisias-excavations.com
  5. biaa.ac.uk

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