Stratonikeia

Stratonikeia

Türkiye · Muğla

Ancient cityExcavation ongoing
Approximate period1,500 BCE — 2,026 CELate Bronze Age–Republican period; starting date approximate See on the map ↓

In brief

Stratonikeia, at Eskihisar, is a site where ancient buildings are preserved alongside the village fabric of the Ottoman and Republican periods. Excavations investigate roads from different periods and relationships between buildings, as well as the city's public buildings.

What was found?

  • 1Gymnasium

    This is a large complex used for physical education. Its scale shows the extent of public space dedicated to education and sport in the city.

  • 2Bouleuterion inscriptions

    The council building contains Menippos’s calendar and Diocletianus’s maximum price regulation. These provide direct information about the organization of time, goods, and services.

  • 3North city gate and fountain

    This is the monumental entrance arrangement where the road from the sanctuary of Hekate at Lagina reached the city. The combination of gate and fountain shows the convergence of transport and ceremonial use.

  • 4Female statue from West Street

    This is a female statue of the Pudicitia type reused in the foundation of the Byzantine baths. According to researchers, it served an honorific purpose; its original display location is not known with certainty.

  • 5Ottoman stone-paved streets

    These are roads and pavements preserved in the old Eskihisar square and in front of the shops. They document the everyday fabric of the later settlement within the ancient city.

What does it point to?

In Stratonikeia, ancient public buildings and Ottoman streets can be traced within the same settlement. The inscriptions show economic regulations, while reused statues and building stones demonstrate the circulation of materials across periods.

What did it teach us?

  1. Documented the publication of calendar and price regulations on the walls of the council building.
  2. Showed that ancient statues could be used as construction material in Byzantine buildings.
  3. Enabled the ancient city and the later village settlement to be studied together.

Images

Stratonikeia Gymnasium 2026-10-28 00.39.38 1793138343
Controdolled · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Stratonikeia Latrina 2026-10-28 00.39.38 1793137701
Controdolled · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Latest news / selected archive

Research published in 2026 presented a Late Hellenistic female statue found near West Street in 2022 that had been reused in the foundation of a Byzantine bath.

Record

Culture
Carian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Menteşe and Ottoman
First modern dig
1977
Team / historical
Bilal Söğüt; Pamukkale University
Coordinates
37.3131°, 28.0653°

Sources

  1. whc.unesco.org
  2. haber.pau.edu.tr
  3. avesis.hacibayram.edu.tr
  4. Pamukkale Üniversitesi Stratonikeia Kazısı — Bouleuterion
  5. OLBA — Stratonikeia’dan Pudicitia tipi kadın heykeli

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12.000

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