Labraunda 2010. A Preliminary report on the Swedish excavations Olivier Henry, Lars Karlsson, Jesper Blid To cite this version: Olivier Henry, Lars Karlsson, Jesper Blid. Labraunda 2010. A Preliminary report on the Swedish excavations. Opuscula - Annual of the Swedish Institutes at Athens and Rome, 2011, pp.19-67. halshs-00721064 HAL Id: halshs-00721064 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00721064 Submitted on 26 Jul 2012 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. LABRAUNDA 2010 • LARS KARLSSON, JESPER BLID & OLIVIER HENRY • 19 LARS KARLSSON, JESPER BLID & OLIVIER HENRY Labraunda 2010 A preliminary report on the Swedish excavations Abstract excavating the tombs in the necropoleis around the sanctuary The campaign of 2010 continued the work which was initiated and along the Sacred Way. last year. The excavations in the fortress on the Tepesar Hill were This year the work in the fortresses included an extensive completed. The fortress consists of a large, early Hekatomnid tow- excavation in the Tepesar Kale fortress, where the main tower er where two black-gloss vessels indicated a dating of the tower to was dated to the Hekatomnid period and the extensions in about 380–350 BC. In the two additions to the tower, several well- the west and in the south to the 3rd century BC. The trial preserved vessels dating from the 3rd century BC were uncovered. trench from last year in the West Church Complex was ex- The latest fragment was a painted piece from alagynos from around 200 BC, but there were no fragments of Megarian bowls. The test tended into a large excavation trench measuring 9 × 12 m. probe of last year in the West Church Complex was extended to a Here the remains of a colonnade from a church of the 5th larger trench measuring c. 9 × 12 m. Evidence for three major phases century turned out to be the reused colonnade of a Late could be established by J. Blid: (1) a Late Classical stoa; (2) the stoa Classical stoa. In the necropolis, a large excavation area was colonnade is rebuilt into a Christian basilica of the 5th century AD; opened along the modern road (which was the Sacred Way). (3) a Middle Byzantine building of possibly 12th–13th-century In total, Olivier Henry excavated 29 tombs, of which 11 were date. Many marble pieces were retrieved from the marble furniture untouched. The three sections that follow have been written of the church, as well as three sections of white and polychrome mo- by the three respective field directors. saics. During the necropolis excavations 29 tombs were investigated, In the field of marble and architectural conservation we of which 11 were unplundered, in a newly discovered burial ground initiated a new research project on the conservation of mar- dating back to the 5th century BC. Although the tombs of this area ble inscriptions and architectural elements lying in the open were modest in shape and in terms of associated deposits, they pro- air at the site. Conservator Agneta Freccero will, in a future vide a new insight for understanding the history of the necropoleis of Labraunda. Finally, architect Chet Kanra continued working on the report, describe this work. The strengthening of the south plans for the restoration of Andron A, and marble conservator Ag- wall of Andron A was studied by architect Chet Kanra from neta Freccero conducted trial conservation on an Ionic capital from Stockholm and a new project is being planned together with Andron A. Thomas Thieme and Pontus Hellström gathered further a Turkish construction company.1 information for their publication of the andrones. 1 I would like to thank the participants in this year’s campaign: Prof. Introduction Pontus Hellström, Gunilla Bengtsson, MA, and archaeology student Klara Borgström, all from Uppsala University, Lic. Ph. Jesper Blid, The sanctuary of Zeus with the double axe is located in Karia Stockholm University, PhD student Naomi Carless Unwin and archae- in Turkey, 14 kilometres north of Milas, ancient Mylasa (Fig. ology student Augustus Lersten, both from the University of London 1). The excavations here by Uppsala University were initiated and PhD student Baptiste Vergnaud, Université de Bordeaux. Also participating were architect, PhD Thomas Thieme, Chalmers Tech- in 1948, and since 2004 the following three, new research nical University, Göteborg, and architect Chet Kanra, Stockholm, projects are being undertaken: Project director Lars Karlsson Olivier Henry, PhD of Institut Français de l’Etudes Anatoliennes, Istan- is inventorying and excavating in the defensive complexes lo- bul, Anne Marie Carstens, University of Copenhagen, and conservator, cated around the sanctuary, Jesper Blid is studying the sanctu- PhD Agneta Freccero, Göteborg. The Labraunda Second Director Suat Ateşlier of Aydιn University, Turkey, took excellent care of the excava- ary in Late Antiquity and conducting excavations in the West tions during my absence. Representing the Turkish Ministry of Culture Church Complex and Olivier Henry is documenting and and Museums was Zerrin Akdoğan and Melek Çanga, both from the Licensed to <[email protected]> 20 • LARS KARLSSON, JESPER BLID & OLIVIER HENRY • LABRAUNDA 2010 Fig. 1. View of the Temple of Zeus and Andron A from the northeast. The hill in the background is Tepesar. The fortresses. Tepesar Kale publication by Alfred Westholm.4 The name Tepesar is a con- (BY L. KARLSSON) traction of Tepe Hisar meaning the “hill with the fortress”, and the conspicuous ruins must have suggested to people that a There are five free-standing towers and forts around the Sanc- major castle once stood here. The hill is the highest and most tuary of Labraunda. In 2007, we excavated and documented prominent after the Labraunda acropolis hilltop, and it is the the Burgaz Kale fortress.2 During 2008–2009 we investigated perfect place for a defensive structure (see Fig. 1). The view the inner fort of the Acropolis Fortress as well as the small from the fortress is completely clear in all directions. The view tower at Ucalan Kule.3 This year we worked at Tepesar Kale towards the Sanctuary of Labraunda, located 1783 metres and in 2011 we hope to investigate the towers of Kepez Kule from the tower is superb as is the view down towards Mylasa, and Harap Kule. the Sacred Way and the fortress of Burgaz Kale, located one Tepesar Kale is the only free-standing tower that was kilometre further southwest (see Fig. 2). The central tower is mentioned with a preliminary drawing in the first Labraunda built on a level of 591 metres above sea-level, compared to the Temple of Zeus which is located 650 m above sea-level. The defensive complex at Tepesar Kale consists of a main Ministry of Culture and Museums in Ankara. The campaign lasted central tower connected to later added extensions in the west for two months from August 16 to October 15, 2010. The excavations and the south (Figs. 3–4). The central tower is built of very were supported with grants from The Royal Swedish Academy of Let- ters, History and Antiquities, The Department of Archaeology and An- large ashlar blocks, which measure 50 cm in height and are cient History, Uppsala University, Åke Wiberg’s Stiftelse, Helge Ax:son sometimes over 3 metres in length. The measurements of the Johnson’s Stiftelse, Gunvor and Josef Anér’s Stiftelse, Stiftelsen Harald tower are: 11.52 (east side) × 11.50 (south), 11.40 (north) and Tonny Hagendahl’s minnesfond, Stefan Lersten and Maggie Dan- Lersten, and The Labranda Society, Sweden. 2 See Karlsson 2008. 3 See Karlsson 2009 and Karlsson 2010. 4 Labraunda I:2, 13f. and fig. 3. Licensed to <[email protected]> LABRAUNDA 2010 • LARS KARLSSON, JESPER BLID & OLIVIER HENRY • 21 Fig. 2. Diagram indicating the distances of the forts from the Sanctuary of Labraunda. Licensed to <[email protected]> 22 • LARS KARLSSON, JESPER BLID & OLIVIER HENRY • LABRAUNDA 2010 Fig. 3. Excavation plan of Tepesar Kale 2010. By L. Karlsson. and 11.65 (west). It is divided into four inner rooms (Rooms west of the central tower and was probably connected with it 1a–d) with very large cross-walls (Fig. 5). The inner rooms by means of a bridge, as there are no setting beds for blocks measure on average 3.90 × 3.90 m. The preserved height of in-between the buildings. The west tower extension measures the tower is five masonry courses, i.e. 2.5 metres. The masonry 9.91 m in length (E–W) and 9.2 m in width (N–S) (Figs. consists of a header-and-stretcher technique (Fig. 6). At the 8–9). It has a central room and three smaller rooms bordering corners there are double headers in every second course, a it in the west and in the south (Rooms 2a–d). In the recon- building technique that is typical for Hekatomnid structures5 struction drawing we have put a roof over the central room, (Fig. 7). while the smaller surrounding rooms are made into battle- The later added extensions to the tower project out in the ments at the level of the roof (see Fig. 4). Many roof-tiles were west and the south. The west extension is located 7.75 metres found in the area but no tile fall can be said to be in situ.