Byzantine Miletus

Byzantine Miletus

New Excavations and investigations into the urban development

Location

View of the necropolis (l.) and the theatre hill (r.), looking out over the silted-up Latmian Gulf towards the Mycale range

Miletus lies on the western coast of Asia Minor in the ancient landscape and Byzantine province of Caria. The ancient city had originally occupied a peninsula in the Latmian gulf. In the course of the second millennium AD, the gulf silted up and became the Maeander plain. This explains why the site is nowadays surrounded by cotton fields rather than by the sea.

History

	The site of the Necropolis church

As early as the Archaic period Miletus figured as a large city, but was conquered and destroyed by the Persians in 494 BC. The ruins visible on the surface today thus stem mainly from Hellenistic and Roman times, when numerous large and sumptuous buildings were erected . The Byzantine era is marked principally by the building of new fortifications, which led to a fundamental alteration in the character of the settlement. The polis became a castrum. The Byzantine fortifications included only a small fraction of the former Roman city and their perimeter was further reduced to defend first - from the seventh century onwards - against the Arabs and then - starting from the 11th century - against the Turks. When the Turkish Emirate of Menteşe finally took control of the town in the 13th century, Miletus flourished once again, because the Emirate conducted its substantial sea trade there. This too came to an end, when the Emirate was crushed by the Ottomans. Miletus was finally reduced to a village of little or no significance.  

Objectives

	Geomagnetic chart and plan of the Necropolis church

The new excavations aim to determine when and how the sprawling ancient polis became a tight Byzantine castrum. On the one hand this change may have occurred during the peaceful early Byzantine period (4th - 6th century AD). In this case it may be linked to some major social and administrative alterations of the time. This would make it likely that those alterations caused economic as well as demographic decline and hence the urban reduction. If on the other hand the city was first reduced in the seventh century or thereafter, no such sociological deductions are possible. During the later age the Arab incursions may have determined the development rather more strongly than anything else. 

History of Research

	The deep trench, reaching below groundwater

The history of Byzantine Miletus appeared to have been settled already a century ago, when T. Wiegand found a dedicatory inscription of a gate from Justinian's time and identified it as the lintel of the Byzantine castrum . It seemed that by the sixth century the once world famous city had shrunk to a small fraction of its former dimensions. C. Foss has voiced some doubt, running along the lines of a distinction between door- and wall-dedications, but that was obviously too subtle to seriously incriminate Wiegand's dating.
More recently, however, solid archaeological evidence has turned up that casts serious doubt on Wiegand's contention that Miletus was reduced to the cramped area inside the Byzantine fortifications by the age of Justinian: B. and W.-D. Niemeier have excavated a shopkeeper's premises that lies outside the castrum and continued in business during the Justinianic period; Furthermore H. Stümpel has undertaken a geophysical survey of an extra urban necropolis and come across a monumental structure there that can be identified as an early Byzantine church. In addition H. Lohmann has surveyed the rural territory of Miletus and found out that it was densely settled during the early Byzantine period and boasted many richly ornate churches of the fifth to sixth centuries. All this does not fit in with a drastic reduction in the size of the city and casts doubt upon Wiegand's interpretation.  

Previous Activities

	Link of a golden chain from the Roman necropolis

The new investigations into Byzantine Miletus were initiated by the discovery of the necropolis church. V. von Graeve started its archaeological exploration in 2003. He had the eastern of two drainage ditches cleaned that cut through the church from north to south. It became clear that the ditch reaches as deep as the floor of the church, and thus the first information on its ground plan was gleaned.  

Current Work

	A frieze block from the Delphinion

In 2006 work at the cemetery chapel continued, and the second drainage ditch was cleared. Regular trenches were also opened in the eastern part of the church, where the investigation of Byzantine strata held priority. Still another trench was excavated to the base level of a Roman necropolis that lay about one meter below the Byzantine church. In addition, a sondage in yet another location was opened in 2006: this to learn more about the courses of the various ring walls of Miletos. This sondage was focused on the so-called "Goths' Wall," the location of which-like that of the cemetery chapel-was evident from the measurements on the geophysical plan. The Goths' Wall represented a renovation in the ancient city walls occasioned by the third-century AD onslaught of Goths that signaled the end of the Pax Romana.In 2006 work at the necropolis church continued. The second drainage ditch was cleaned, too, and regular excavation started in the eastern part of the church. Although the investigation of Byzantine strata held priority one trench was excavated to the ground level of the Roman necropolis that lies about one meter below the Byzantine church.
A second investigation was undertaken to learn more about the various ring walls of Miletus. This excavation was aimed at the city walls of the mid third century, when a Gothic invasion signalled the end of the Pax Romana. These walls represented a renovation of the ancient fortifications and were clearly visible on the geomagnetic chart.  

Methods

	The right-hand panel of the stairs to the ambo

All the objects under excavation have been found in the course of the foregoing geophysical survey. The geomagnetic chart reveals the outlines of the structures in every case sufficiently well to make any large scale excavation unnecessary. Relatively small, but carefully laid out trenches were sufficient to address the various objectives of the investigation. Further more, in the case of the necropolis church much destruction of archaeological evidence could be avoided by the preliminary cleaning of the two drainage ditches, which was equivalent to a surface survey.  

Results

	The mid third century walls

The excavation of the mid third century walls demonstrates that that part of the ancient circuit was indeed refortified in the third century. This proofs that the ancient circuit was used to its full extent in the third century. No reduction in size had yet set in, as has previously been assumed by some.
The necropolis church was a large transept-basilica. The entire building complex covered some 2000 square meter . Its western part, where one would expect an atrium, is tilted a few degrees to the south from the orientation of the basilica, a discrepancy still to be explained. The church was erected immediately above Roman graves, causing destruction to some. Architectural members from the ancient Delphinium were found reused in the construction of the basilica, including frieze blocks from the Roman colonnades, as well as Hellenistic wall blocks inscribed with lists of new citizens. The Delphinium, one of the oldest sanctuaries in the centre of Miletus, had obviously been pulled down to reuse its parts in the building of the necropolis church. The flat profile of the imported ambo slap suggests a date well into the sixth century. The size and splendour as well as the location of the new church far outside the Byzantine fortifications make it seem unlikely that the latter were standing already. In the sixth century there was still no threat that necessitated a circuit of walls that would have been stifling the city's as yet considerable vitality.  

Cooperation

The investigation of Byzantine Miletus takes place within the wider framework and partakes of the numerous cooperations of the Bochum based Miletus Excavations headed by Prof. Dr. Volkmar von Graeve:
Prof. Dr. Helmut Brückner, Institut für Geographie, Philipps-Universität Marburg
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Günther, München
Dr. Alexander Herda, Berlin
Prof. Dr. Manfred Kunter, Gießen
Dr. Henriette Manhart, Staatssammlung für Anthropologie und Paläoanatomie München
Dr. Harald Stümpel, Institut für Geowissenschaften, Christian Albrechts-Universtität Kiel
Dr. Bernhard Weiß, Staatliche Museen Berlin - Münzkabinett
 

Contact

Dr. Philipp Niewöhner

Byzantinische Archäologie
Telefon: + 90-(0)212-393 76 23
Telefax: + 90 - (0)212-393 76 40
Email: niewoehner@istanbul.dainst.org

Sponsors

The expenses of 2006 and 2007 are met by the Gerda Henkel-Stiftung.  

Bibliography

T. Wiegand, Fünfter vorläufiger Bericht über die von den Königlichen Museen in Milet unternommenen Ausgrabungen, in: Sitzungsberichte der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-historische Klasse 1906 VIII (1906) 249-265, 257.
C. Foss, Archaeology and the "Twenty Cities" of Byzantine Asia Minor, AJA 81, 1977, 469-486, 478. Repr. in: ders., History and Archeology of Byzantine Asia Minor (1990) II.
H. Lohmann, Survey in der Chora von Milet. Vorbericht über die Kampagnen der Jahre 1990, 1992 und 1993, AA 1995, 293-328, 323-328; ders., Survey in der Chora von Milet. Vorbericht über die Kampagnen der Jahre 1996 und 1997, AA 1999, 439-473, 465.
P. Niewöhner, Archäologie und die "Dunklen Jahrhunderte" im byzantinischen Anatolien, in: J. Henning (Hrsg.), Post-Roman Towns and Trade in Europe, Byzantium and the Near East. New Methods of Structural, Comparative and Scientific Analysis in Archaeology II Between Byzantium and the Occident (2007, im Druck).
P. Niewöhner, Die große Friedhofskirche von Milet. Vorbericht über die Ausgrabung einer neu entdeckten Transeptbasilika, Mitteilungen zur Christlichen Archäologie 13, 2007, im Druck.
P. Niewöhner, Byzantinische Steinmetzarbeiten aus dem Umland von Milet, Anatolia and its Vicinity in Middle Ages 1, 2007, im Druck.
Zur Baugeschichte des byzantinischen Milets s. W. Müller-Wiener, Die "Große Kirche" (sog. Bischofskirche) in Milet, IstMitt 23/24, 1973/1974, 131-134; ders., Michaelskirche und Dionysos-Tempel. Baubefunde und Phasengliederung, IstMitt 27, 1977, 94-103; ders., Rundkirche bei der Süd-Mauer [von Milet], IstMitt 31, 1981, 96-99.
Zur Kunstgeschichte des byzantinischen Milets s. O. Feld, Zur kunstgeschichtlichen Stellung der "Großen Kirche", IstMitt 23/24, 1973/1974, 135-137; ders., Bautypus und Ausstattung der Michaelskirche, IstMitt 27/28, 1977/78, 117-125; ders., Eine Kirche für Maria in Miletos, in: C. Striker (Hrsg.), Architectural Studies in Memory of Richard Krautheimer (2001) 67-70.