Director's Report on the Excavations at Antioch-On-The-Orontes for The
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DIRECTOR'S REPORT ON THE EXCAVATIONS AT ANTIOCH- ON -THE-ORONTES FOR THE SEASON OF 1935 INTRODUCTION A glance at the statistical report will show that the work of the Expedition has been increasing steadily in duration, in the number of excavations made, and in the recording of the buildings and objects un- covered. To meet tho new needs of this expansion of activity it has been necessary to add mombors to the staff and to shift the task of recording and storing of objects to the new field headquartors which were acquired and prepared for occupancy last year. The group photograph of the staff (Fig. 1) shows standing in the rear Mr. Fedeel Saba, Photographer; Mr. Apostolos Athanassiou, Engi- neer and Draftsman; M. Jean Lassus, Assistant Field Director; Professor W. A.. Campbell, Field Director; Mr. D. N. Hilbor, Architect; Mr. w. H. Noble, Cataloguer; and Mr. George Reynolds, .A.ssistant. Seated are ,, Mrs. A. Athe.nassiou, Recorder of pottery and lamps; Miss Margaret Surre, Assistant Architect; Mrs. Fedeel Saba; Mrs. w. A. Campbell, Recorder of photographs; Mme. Joan Lassus; Miss Gladys B3ker, Cataloguer and Numis- matist. seated on the ground arc the daughter and son of the Photogra- phcr, tho son of the Field Director, and tho son of the Assistant Field Director. Thre0 other members of the staff arc not included in the photograph: Adib Ishak, Secretary; William Gad, Mosaicist; and Samaan Totah, Meche.nic and Driver. In addition to the se thero is th,; field staff consisting of Head Reis Berberi, Assistant Hoad Reis r.,;iahmud Karim, and Reis Adil. The campaign of actual excavation started on Saturday, March 16 and continued for 116 days of actual digging in tho field, but the work of r ecording and preserving the buildings and obj ects has been put on a more permanent basis. :Mr. Donald Wilber i s continuing the 2. final drafting and study of the buildings and topography in the new archaeological laboratory in McCormick Hall, Princeton Univcrsi ty. Jhss Gladys Baker is preparing a catalogue of the coins in connection with her graduate work in archaeology at Wellesley College. In Antioch, Lr. Fedeel Saba was employed until November 15 making photographs of mosaic pavements and objects. Mr. Athanassiou is continuing to survey and put on plan all of tho remains of the ancient city left above ground. 1rrs. Athanassiou and Mr. Ishak are engaged in the long task of taking in ventory and checking the catalogued objects preparatory to the division of finds among the contributors. :Mr. William Gad ce:montod mosaic pe.ve ments until December l. In the following accouEt tho excavations are identified by the coordinates (s.g. 15 R) in which they are located on the quadratGd maps of Antioch (Fig. 2) and Daphne (Fig. 3). 3. 13 R The main force of men started to excavate on an important site where a trial tronch the previous spring had revealed an apsidal chamber with a square oxt0rior wall of large , well-laid masonry (Field Report of 1934, pages 17 and 37) . Tho cxcavu.tion of this site had been undertnken because of' tho chancci discovery, previous to the organization of the Committee, of fragments of sculpture and archi tecture which had come to the notice of .M. Prost in his position as Director of Antiquities of tho Sanjak of Aloxandrctte. The sizo of the building, tho depth of the deposit, and thu problem of tho dis posnl. of seepage from ad jacent springs m&d0 a canplote excavation of tho monument impracticablo without buying the l:=md and operating with a larger budget. However, it was hoped thRt an expansion of tho trial exce.vation of last year would give desirable topographical information, and to this end it was decided to explore the limit of the p avement behind the apsidal chamber. It took one crow of me n workins under Reis .Adil practically the entire campaign to clear the twenty feet of earth from a r epresentative section of the paved area (Fig. 4). It crui be seen in tho photograph that the pavement ended transversely against a wall of li.':1.estono blocks which has b0en ripped out by plunderers ; tho longitudinal limits have not yet boon roached. The paving blocks of limestone are a later addition placed ovor a wo rn out mosaic of a very simple geometric design. At a still l ater time two wells were s unk down through both pavements to t ap the seepage water which gradually rose over the earlier r emains as a result of the silting up of the r iver and the blocking of drainage systems in the abpJldoned areas. Tho structure to the spectator's lBft of the 4. plundered wall also had e. r;10sc.ic floor of a more .complicate;d geo metric design; on it & minor cross weil of reused mnsonry was built in a subsequent period of habitation. To the right in tho fore ground is the hole marking the ~osition of the destroyed exterior wall of tho apsidal chmnber. The brick foundation of a square room projects into tho pavsd o.rea at the; ond of tho excavated section to the right. Tho dirt and debris removed f'rom this section had been so thoroughly churned up by plunderers that no stratified record of the later history of the site was prosorved. Sh0rds of the period of the EJ&ly Roman empire were found with thoso of the Byzillltino and Muslim spochs; but in genoral it is certain that the original con structions were made in tho early years of our era, ana that sub sequent wonr and destruction caused rebuildings on tho original plan up to the period of Justininn; after that the building deteri orated grRdunlly into f'. plund.ered ruin. Small fragments of marble statuary nnd c. bnse of e marble stn.tuo with ths f·.::s t still attached wore found in the d8'bris, HnC:. nlso n piece of arc:t:i. tcctural mould ing carved with tho egg and do.rt motif and painted red and bluo and gilded. It was the origin~l intention to follow this pavement longitudinally to the southwest toward tho present Ale:ppo road to find its juncture with a mein thoroughfar6, and to tho northeast toward the river whore it appears to 0nd in f', very large mound under which may lie an importnnt ancient ruin. By keeping tho excavation wide enough to include its transverse limits between the v;2.lls of 5. the tno large buildings, it might have been possible to locate t wo insulne of the ancient town vJhich contained buildings of monumental proportions. But this progrom proved to be too 2.mbit ious for the budget of a s inglo c nrnpaign b 'Jcnuse of the; exptinse invol VEJd. in the outlay for l a nd, l ebor, trees nnd refilling. Nevertheless it re mnins n very promising site for development on a large scale. 6. 15 R During the winter one of our v;orkmcn roported to Mr. Ishak, Secretery of the Expedition, that he hnd uncovered the edge of e. mosaic pavement Hhilo digging for roots on tho lower slope of Mount staurin. On the first day of excavation a smell force of men under Reis Mahmud were taken to tho place and by evening they had uncovered n mosnic representation of a sea goddess with fish around her, and an adjacent pnnel v1ith figures in oblong frames. Aside from the interest of tha mosaics their position on the slope of Mt. Staurin was important proof thnt hero, at least, a section of ono of tho nnciont terraces of the mountain side was still preserved. It had been tho assumption of most explorers or visitors to the site in former years that the terraced sections of ths ancient city had been destroyed by erosion. Consequently it seemed desirable to uncover this section of a presorved terrace to see what VJas actually left ns an indication for further ex cavations along the slopes of both Mt. Staurin and Mt. Silpius. For this purpose the land was leased, the nren for the dump was determined, the light railway was laid und a larger crow bogan to dig away the slope of the mountain above tho mosaic pevements. Soon after the excavation began, tho top of a heavy revet ment wall was reached. This was constructed in the method of the late Hellenistic period ui th square masses of rl'_1!l:Jle: and. concrete alternately placed between blocks of quRdrated limestone; a drain tile ran through the csnter of the rubblo and concrete sections to cnrry off excessive seEpnge. The wall could be followed for a distance sufficient to 7. establish the fact that it ·E-n.s the retaining wall of one of the high- est terraces of Mt. Staurin. After recording and. removing some late graves, drains and walls , the whole mosaic pavement , of which we had seen only the outer section, was uncovered. While this vrns beinc cleaned the workmen were shifted to the south to uncover the rest of the building in that direction. In the surface debris there were t;;o lime kilns and a well (Fig. 5) as discouraging witnesses to the former wealth of the site in marble. Under these was t he southern end of the building we wer e excavating . A general v i ew of this excavatE:d area shows three rooms in an arrangement which sugge sts the sort of private dining places which were maintaim,d by mon of means apart from their hom0s (Fig.