Diokaisareia in Kilikien
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On the southern fringes of the Taurus mountains, in the modern town of Uzuncaburc, lie the ruins of the Hellenistic temple of Zeus-Olbios and of the ancient city of Diocaesarea. The impressive architectural remains reflect the turbulent history of the ancient site. In the Hellenistic period the extra-urban sanctuary was the centre of power of an extensive temple state, while in the early Roman Empire a city was established around the temple that blossomed until the 7th century AD. In 2001-2006 a record of all surface finds and a detailed documentation of buildings were made by an international team of archaeologists, architectural experts and historians. The series of monographs presents individual groups of material and building complexes, so offering an important contribution on the history of settlement in ancient Asia Minor and the development of ancient architecture.
The series will probably consist of five volumes:
Volume I: Norbert Kramer, The Ceramic Survey (2012)
Volume II: Marcello Spanu, The Theatre (2011)
Volume III: Johannes Linnemann, The Necropoleis (2013)
The next volume planned is Volume IV: Detlev Wannagat, The Sanctuary of Zeus-Olbios
- grundlegende Studien zu einem regionalen Machtzentrum Kleinasiens in hellenistisch-römischer Zeit
- detaillierte Bauaufnahmen hervorragend erhaltener Monumentalarchitektur
- exemplarische Darstellungen einzelner Material- und Fundgruppen
This volume presents the results of the ceramic survey in the Roman town of Diokaisareia in Rugged Cilicia (southern Turkey). At the end of the Hellenistic/beginning of the Roman period a new city was founded around the monumental temple of Zeus Olbios which had been the centre of the Olbian temple state in Hellenistic times. Numerous official buildings were constructed, some of which are still preserved today. The survey of ceramics and small finds facilitates a reconstruction of the pre-Hellenistic use of the site, as well as of the history of pre-urban and urban settlement until its end in the early Byzantine period. To this end the study first presents the finds and find categories, as well as their spatial distribution within the town, before analysing the history of the settlement on the basis of this data.
The theatre of Diokaisareia (Cilicia, Asia Minor) has been partially excavated in 1993 by a team of Turkish archaeologists, when a large part of the cavea and part of the scaena have been brought to light. On this occasion many elements of the architectural decoration were uncovered and a significant fragment of the dedicatory inscription was rediscovered. This text allows to date the building during the principate of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, making this theatre the only dated monument so far in Roman Cilicia.
Now the remains have been studied within the German research project directed by Detlev Wannagat. The purpose of the volume is to make a complete survey of the main architectural features of the theatre. Starting from the collation of travellers' notes and photographs, in breadth and detail Marcello Spanu analyses and illustrates all available data. The study provides a detailed survey of the ancient structures and a thorough catalogue of all the preserved architectural elements, accompanied by an accurate graphic and photographic documentation. Starting from these data, the author proposes the reconstruction of the monument, taking into account its main features and its situation within the ancient city's topographic layout. The book offers new light on the researches on Cilicia and on Asia Minor, proposing new hypothesis on architecture of ancient theatres and on architectural decoration history.
Five necropoleis have been identified in the area around Diokaisareia in Rough Cilicia (Turkey). Most of them lie along the roads leading into the polis. Some 750 burials and graves that have been recorded are arranged here by type: sarcophagi, rock graves and funerary monuments. The professions named in the inscriptions go some way to allowing a preliminary reconstruction of life in the city. Only a few graves date to the years before the foundation of the city in the 1st century AD, most of them are from the Roman imperial and early Byzantine periods.
