Ceramic Research at Ephesos

The Ephesos excavations have developed in recent years into a centre of excellence for research into pottery from the Hellenistic to the Ottoman period. Scientific processing of complexes of finds, and their publication in a context-oriented manner, form the basis of this competence. Building on this, typochronological studies on the precise definition of individual types and wares are created, always in combination with scientific methods. Cultural-historical analyses, often in combination with the framing of questions regarding trade and handicraft, complete the broad spectrum of ceramic research and embed this research into a supra-regional and interdisciplinary context.

 

The team of scholars is comprised of international experts as well as junior researchers, who cover individual thematic areas in the framework of academic scholarship.

 

Contextual Reprocessing

The focal point of research in recent years has been the working up of Terrace House 2, which has provided important new information concerning the ceramic trade of the 1st–3rd centuries A.D. On the basis of studies which have already appeared, it is now possible clearly to comprehend the development of a number of wares, and to characterise the local production as well as the streams of imports. Particularly informative is the material from the so-called destruction horizon, which can be dated to the period between 270–280 A.D. By way of example, this impressively reveals that the tablewares were almost all imported from Africa and from Çandarlı near Pergamon, whereas the regional products – probably due to severe earthquakes – were already broken.

 

Most recently, the chronological period under investigation shifted to the Late Antique and the Byzantine epochs of the city. Find complexes from the so-called Byzantine Palace as well as from the Byzantine residential district in the Harbour Baths, covering a time period from the 5th up to the 11th century A.D., are particularly worthy of attention. The embedding of the ceramic evidence into the stratigraphic context now allows for the first time a precise compartmentalization of the ceramic finds, whereby the majority of the material dates to the 7th century A.D. The high proportion of imported wares such as sigillata, amphorae and cooking wares underscores the manner in which the Byzantine city of Ephesos was connected to existing trade routes, and its importance as a trade centre in the eastern Mediterranean region. The numerous amphoras of widely differing sizes which were produced on site allow the identification of an intensive agricultural production. These most likely were used primarily for the transportation of wine, which was also imported not least to the military camps along the Danubian limes.

 

The processing of the pottery from the Harbour Necropolis must also be mentioned as an ongoing project. Here, a distinction needs to be made between the finds from the actual tombs, the inventory of the tomb buildings as well as the secondary buildings, and that material deriving from the filling layers above the tombs, which therefore can be related to the tombs neither chronologically nor in terms of usage. Roman funerary rituals are manifested here in the presence of cooking- and drinking-vessels as well as oil lamps, which were intended to guarantee a life in the hereafter. This custom is absent from the Late Antique, Christian burials, nevertheless numerous oil lamps are evidence of the commemoration of the dead. Fundamentally to be differentiated from this material is that well-preserved material which was filled in above the tombs, probably as levelling material in the 5th and 6th centuries. The high proportion of imported wares which is documented here – not only sigillata from Foça but also amphorae from diverse regions of the late empire – suggest that this material was comprised of broken trade wares, which were here disposed of.

 

Typochronological Studies

Contextual analyses from the 2nd century A.D. up until the Byzantine period now permit typochronological studies of the individual wares or types. Within the framework of dissertations prepared at the University of Zurich and the University of Salzburg, the Grey Wares as well as the thin-walled ceramics will be subjected to a precise analysis.

 

One research project is devoted to the Eastern Sigillata B (ESB), which was produced in the greater Meander Valley. The goal of this study, which is carried out in cooperation with neighbouring excavations, is an exact definition of this type of ware, including its period of production as well as its radius of distribution.

 

Cultural-historical Analyses

Within the framework of a dissertation thesis, the ceramic spectrum from Pergamon and from Ephesos during the late Hellenistic period is currently being compared. A focal point of the study, which pays attention to the so-called Appliqué Ware, the Lustre Ware, and the White-Ground pottery amongst others, is the question whether originally Pergamene wares were also produced in Ephesos after a particular point in time, and whether they displaced the Pergamene products in the market. Particularly important in this connection are the scientific components by means of petrographic and chemical analyses, which provide clues to the site of manufacture.


Bibliography for Ceramic Research in Ephesos

 

 

Cooperation

Institute for the Study of Ancient Culture at the Austrian Academy of Sciences

 

 

Contact

  • Alice Waldner, Institute for the Study of Ancient Culture at the Austrian Academy of Sciences
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