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Building Mk 1 at Oenoanda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2012

Extract

The building that forms the subject of the present paper was studied by the writer during the course of the 1977 season of survey at Oenoanda. As no excavation was possible under the terms of the expedition's permit, the study was limited to the upstanding walls, visible foundations, and accessible blocks of fallen masonry, with the result that many details of the architecture have had to remain uncertain. A systematic excavation would resolve most of these uncertainties, because there is every reason to believe that the elements for a near-complete restoration, in both plan and elevation, are lying buried on the site. Such an excavation is, however, unlikely to take place in the near future, and, since the range of buildings in Lycia which have been published in any detail remains small, it has seemed worth while to present the results of the 1977 work forthwith. Building Mk 1 is of added importance in that its function can be identified and the date of at least one of its major phases can be established on epigraphic and other grounds: it is certainly a bath-building and equally certainly achieved its final form in the Severan period.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1981

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References

* This survey could only have been undertaken with the cooperation and assistance of the Directorate-General of Antiquities, Ministry of Culture in Ankara, to whom the writer and his companions owe the greatest debt of gratitude. We had much friendly help from Bay Salih Kütük, Director of the Fethiye Museum, which made our work easier in many ways. Our warm thanks must also be extended to our government representative, Bay Osman Özbek, for all his efforts to ensure the success of our work. The guardian of the site, Bay Mehmet Atçi, was also unfailingly courteous and helpful.

1 Cf. Petersen, E. and von Luschan, F., Reisen in Lykien, Milyas und Kibyratis (1889), p. 180Google Scholar and pl. XXVIII (above). Mk 1 is otherwise unpublished, though it is marked on Spratt's plan, published in 1847, as “C: Hellenic or Roman ruins” (Spratt, T. A. B. and Forbes, E., Travels in Lycia, Milyas and the Cibyratis (1847), i, opp. p. 273)Google Scholar.

2 For the lay-out of the city and for the features referred to subsequently in this paper see the plan Anat. St., xxvi (1976), fig. 2 opp. p. 192. The main buildings have now been named after the letters of the grid shown on that plan.

3 The main elements of uncertainty in the drawing, apart from the pedestal and capital, are the conjunctioning and positioning of the entablature blocks (which divide between the frieze and cornice). I have assumed that the upper moulding of the frieze was set immediately behind the dentils (Fig. 3B), and that a palmette on the frieze and a lion's head on the cornice were set directly above the axis of the column.

4 All pedestals at Oenoanda are in fact of the same type, with a recessed panel in the base fascia echoing another recessed panel in the plinth of the column-base. All are of very similar size.

5 Petersen—von Luschan, loc. cit. For the gymnasium at Termessus Lanckoronski, K. ed., Städte Pamphyliens und Pisidiens, ii (1892), p. 60 f.Google Scholar, pls. XV, XVI.

6 See Delorme, J., Gymnasion (1960), pp. 243–50Google Scholar. Cf. Boethius, A. and Ward-Perkins, J. B., Etruscan and Roman Architecture (1970), pp. 399403Google Scholar.

7 Pinara, : Arch. Anz. 1978, p. 97, fig. 16Google Scholar. Tlos, : Wurster, W., Arch. Anz. 1976, p. 34 f.Google Scholar, figs. 4, 9. Cadyanda, : Benndorf, O. and Niemann, G., Reisen in Lykien und Karien (1884), p. 142Google Scholar and pl. XLIV. Arycanda, Cyaneae and Patara: information from Dr. Wurster. Cf. Apollonia (Wurster, art. cit., p. 43, fig. 18).

8 In Thermae A at Tlos the apse is to the north-west; at Pinara to the east. But in these cases the rooms actually faced respectively north-west and east, so that the orientation of the apse was presumably dictated by the desire to obtain maximum lighting for a hot water basin (cf. Vitr., , De Architectura, v, 10, 4)Google Scholar.

9 Lanckoronski, loc. cit.

10 Cf. Boethius—Ward-Perkins, op. cit., p. 402, comparing the Harbour Baths and East Baths at Ephesus.

11 Cf. n. 7. However, as Dr. Wurster points out to me, the extremely small size of its urban centre makes Apollonia a special case.

12 Cadyanda: Benndorf—Niemann, op. cit., p. 142. Sillyum: Lanckoronski, op. cit., i (1890), fig. 51.

13 Dr. Coulton initially made the valuable comparison between this building and a probable bath-building at Cadyanda (cf. n. 7). Both have rows of holes, of similar size and similarly spaced, in the interior of their walls, perhaps for the fastening of veneering.

14 Cf. n. 7.

15 P-W, ii 1 (1895), col. 362. Cf. Bureth, P., Les titulatures impériales dans les papyrus, les ostraca et les inscriptions d'Égypte (30 a.C-284 p.C.) (1964), pp. 93105 (Severus and Caracalla)Google Scholar.

16 I am deeply indebted to Susan Walker for giving opinions on the style of the Oenoanda material and for showing me photographs of the parallels cited in the text, most of which are unpublished.

17 Ferrero, D. De Bernardi, Teatri classici in Asia Minore, i (1966), figs. 109–116, 119Google Scholar. On the dating ibid., p. 59 (suggesting the latter part of Severus's reign). Vine-leaf patterns like those used in our architrave soffit, and in one case combined with the same framing cable as ours, occur in the nymphaeum at Laodicea on the Lycus: Des Gagniers, J. and others, Laodicée du Lycos. Le nymphée (1969), fig. 26Google Scholar, pls. XLII (3), XLV (1, 3). The dating of the phases here is difficult, but R. Ginouvès suggests an initial construction at the beginning of the 3rd century.

18 On the building A. M. Mansel, Arch. Anz. 1975, pp. 65–71, figs. 25–30.

19 Mansel, art. cit., pp. 71–4.

20 D. E. Strong, BSR, xxi (1953), p. 148 f.

21 Mansel, A. M., Die Ruinen von Side (1963), pp. 34–8, 53–64 (dating too early)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 E.g. ibid., fig. 48.

23 R. Heberdey and E. Kalinka, Denkschriften der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften [Vienna]. Philosophisch-historische Klasse, xlv (1897), p. 51 (no. 70) (= IGR, iii, 484).

24 Ibid., p. 50 (no. 66) (= IGR, iii, 499).

25 TAM, ii, 905Google Scholar, XIX B, 27–8. Cf. now on Opramoas Anat. St., xxvii (1977), p. 60.

26 J. Keil, in JOAI, xxvii (1932), Beiblatt, cols. 31 ff.; cf. A. C. G. Smith, in Anat. St., xxix (1979), p. 47.

27 Hierapolis theatre: De Bemardi Ferrero, op. cit., i, figs. 99, 100. Termessus: ibid., ii (1969), figs. 14–17.

28 Rice, D. Talbot, ed., The Great Palace of the Byzantine Emperors, ii (1958), pl. 31Google Scholar; cf. Boethius—Ward-Perkins, op. cit., p. 389. For similar work at the opposite end of the Empire cf. the second-century gates and third-century city-walls at Verulamium: , R. E. M. and Wheeler, T. V., Verulamium. A Belgic and two Roman Cities (1936)Google Scholar, pls. LXXX, LXXXII, LXXXIII, LXXXIX, XCI. Dr. Wurster points out to me, however, that the technique does not occur in visible parts of any other Roman buildings in Lycia.

29 Lanckoronski, op. cit., ii, fig. 67.

30 Sagalassus: De Bemardi Ferrero, op. cit., ii, fig. 54. Myra: Petersen—von Luschan, op. cit., pl. VIII. Patara: Antiquities of Ionia, iii (1840), chap 3, pls. XIII, XIV. Mylasa: ibid., ii (1797), pls. XXII, XXIII. Andriake: J. Borchhardt, Myra (1975), pls. 41 A, 44, 45.

31 Ibid., pl. 21A.

32 Ward-Perkins, J. B. in JRS, xxxviii (1948), p. 70Google Scholar.

33 Antiquities of Ionia, iii, chap. 2, pls. XXIII, XXIV.

34 See Merritt, L. Shoe, ‘The geographical distribution of Greek and Roman Ionic bases’, Hesperia, xxxviii (1969), pp. 186204CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. pp. 195–7.

35 Termessus: Lanckoronski, op. cit., ii, fig. 45, pl. VI. Stratonicea: Antiquities of Ionia, ii, pl. XXXVII. Aphrodisias: ibid., iii, chap. 2, pl. XVIII. Hierapolis—Castabia: information from Caroline Williams. The sample is very haphazard and the figures are based on publications rather than autopsy, but they will serve as a rough guide.

36 Antalya: Lanckoronski, op. cit., i, fig. 9. Termessus: ibid., ii, pl. VI. Stratonicea: Antiquities of Ionia, ii, pl. XXXVIII. Hierapolis—Castabia: see previous note.

37 Strong, art. cit. (seen. 20), pp. 131, 134, 135 f.

38 Lanckoronski, op. cit., ii, figs. 45, 76–7, 83–4, 92, 131–2, pls. XXVIII–XXIX. For another example, Petersen—von Luschan, op. cit., figs. 67, 71–2. A first-century Lycian forerunner is the Claudian Augusteum at Sidyma, which combines the Corinthian entablature with Doric columns: Benndorf—Niemann, op. cit., fig. 42.

39 Generally speaking, in Asia Minor at least, the fluting-and-acanthus capital lacks volutes (see e.g. Ward-Perkins, art. cit., p. 69 f.). But composite examples occur at Ephesus (in the Street of the Curetes) in Hadrian's gate at Antalya (Lanckoronski, op. cit., i, fig. 8, pls. VI, VII), and in the skene of the theatre at Myra (Petersen—von Luschan, op. cit., fig. 20).

40 I am again grateful to Susan Walker for her opinion.