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Amorium 1988: The First Preliminary Excavation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

R. M. Harrison
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Extract

The site of Amorium was surveyed in 1987, and the Turkish authorities kindly issued a permit for excavation in 1988. Our purpose was to study the site from the late Hellenistic period to the Medieval, in particular its growth, development and change from a small Roman town to the Late Roman and Early Byzantine city, which was destroyed by the Arabs in 838. After Constantinople and Thessalonica, this was probably the third city of the Byzantine Empire, and thus the first in Asia Minor (W. Treadgold, The Byzantine Revival 780–842 (1988), 41).

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 39 , December 1989 , pp. 167 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1989

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References

1 Harrison, R. M., “Amorium 1987”, AS 38 (1988) 175–84Google Scholar; QVI Araştırma Sonucları Toplantısı (1988), 191–200Google Scholar. We shall hope to do annual reports each year, and the first book should appear in about five years time.

2 Harrison, R. M., Bulletin of British Byzantine Studies 15 (1989), 15–16Google Scholar.

3 Our base was the village of Hisarköy in Amorium. We employed up to 42 workmen, and there were ten staff: Prof. R. M. Harrison, Dr. D. Welsby, Mr. G. R. J. Lawson, Dr. H. Dodge, Mr. U. Hoşgören (official representative, who is in the Museum at Afyon), Mrs. E. A. H. Harrison, Miss I. Fıratlı, Mr. R. Brunner-Ellis, Mr. J. M. Harrison, and Mr. M. Gillings. The following kindly made grants: The Craven Committee, Lincoln College, The British Academy, Polly Peck International PLC, The British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, The Society of Antiquaries of London, Koç Holding AŞ, The Meyerstein Trust, The Grocers' Company, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom Trust, All Souls College, The Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies, and the Denis Buxton Trust. We spent £10,975, including travel and some post-excavation, and we excavated in August for three weeks. Grateful thanks are due to Mr. and Mrs. M. Öztürk, Mr. J. Crow, Dr. D. H. French and Dr. C. S. Lightfoot (The British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara), and the British Ambassador and Lady Daunt, for assistance in various ways. We also extend our gratitude to Mr. A. Akat for the grant of the permit. We are grateful again to Mr. A. Topbaş, director of the Museum at Afyon.

4 Cf. Theophanes, , Chronographia, ed. de Boor, C. (Leipzig, 1883), 388Google Scholar; Turtledove, H., The Chronicle of Theophanes (Philadelphia, 1982), 83Google Scholar.

5 Cf. Theophanes (ed. de Boor), 415; Turtledove, 106.

6 Cf. Vasiliev, A. A., Byzance et les Arabes I (Brussels, 1935), 161Google Scholar.

7 Cf. Vasiliev, op. cit., 165.

8 Theophanes (ed. de Boor), 388; Leo Diac. (ed. C. B. Hase, Bonn, 1828), 170. Texts include a fifteenth century Byzantine short epic (201 verses); cf. Hunger, H. et al. , Geschichte der Textüberlieferung I (Zurich, 1961), 473Google Scholar; Destunis, G., Άσμα τοῦ Άρμούρη (St. Petersburg, 1877), 1–22Google Scholar.

9 Mr. P. M. Fraser helped me with these first two inscriptions.

10 There was a triangular tower, too, on the northern slope.

11 We began a geophysical survey of the large structure, but unfortunately the instrument broke down on the third day. It is hoped that this exercise can be continued in a later year.

12 Prof.J. W. Hayes looked at photographs and kindly suggested its possible date.

13 Cf. Coulton, J. J., “Oinoanda: The Doric Building (Mk 2)”, AS XXXII (1982), 49–59Google Scholar.

14 Dr.Morton, A. H., School of Oriental and African Studies, London UniversityGoogle Scholar, kindly contributed this.

15 Mr. J. Crow assisted me with this object. Cf. Haldon, J. F. “The Byzantine Crossbow?”, Univ. of Birmingham Historical Journal XII no. 2 (1970) 155–7Google Scholar.

16 Mrs. H. W. Brown in the Ashmolean Museum has kindly helped me.

17 Mango, C., Byzantium (London, 1980), 60–87Google Scholar. Prof. Mango, who knows the site, has been most helpful.