Sagalassos

Sagalassos

Türkiye · Burdur

Ancient cityExcavation ongoing
Approximate period400 BCE — 1,250 CEHellenistic, Roman and Byzantine See on the map ↓

In brief

Located on the mountainside above Ağlasun, the city was one of Pisidia's important centers in the Roman period. Large-scale investigations that began in 1990 examine urban life, pottery production and environmental changes together.

What was found?

  • 1Antonine Fountain

    This is a monumental fountain uncovered through excavation and restored. It shows that the city planned its water structures and public spaces together.

  • 2Roman Bath

    This is one of the city's large public buildings. It is a tangible example of Roman-period bathing architecture at Sagalassos.

  • 3Red-slipped pottery

    These are high-quality tablewares produced at Sagalassos. They document a production and export economy based on local clay resources.

  • 4Cremation burial with bent nails

    The remains of the cremated individual are surrounded by deliberately bent nails and sealed with tiles and a layer of lime. According to researchers, this combination of practices may be associated with magical beliefs.

What does it point to?

The monumental buildings and pottery of Sagalassos reveal a city that prospered through production and trade despite its mountainous location. According to researchers, the unusual burial may reflect personal anxieties about death and protective practices.

What did it teach us?

  1. Shows that high-quality clay resources supported large-scale tableware production and export.
  2. Documents that monumental fountains and baths were part of public life in a mountainous city.
  3. Shows that Roman-period burials were not uniform and that different rituals could be practiced within the same society.

Images

Sagalassos Antonine Fountain in 2012 2715
Dosseman · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Sagalassos panorama
Justinianus · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Sagalassos Overview
Ingo Mehling · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Latest news / selected archive

Research published in 2023 documented an unusual Roman cremation burial surrounded by bent nails and sealed with bricks and lime.

Record

Culture
Pisidian, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine
Team / historical
KU Leuven / Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project
Coordinates
37.6781°, 30.5194°

Sources

  1. whc.unesco.org
  2. levantineceramics.org
  3. cambridge.org
  4. research.kuleuven.be
  5. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı — Sagalassos Örenyeri

Nearby excavations


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12.000

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