ROMAN URBAN SPACE FRAMED BY COLONNADES: MEDIATING BETWEEN MYTH, MEMORY AND HISTORY IN EPHESUS A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY PELİN YONCACI IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE JANUARY, 2007 iv Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences __________________________ Prof. Dr. Sencer AYATA Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts. ____________________________ Prof. Dr. Suna GÜVEN Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts. _____________________________ Prof. Dr. Suna GÜVEN Supervisor Examining Committee Members Prof. Dr. Suna GÜVEN (METU, AH) __________________ Assoc. Prof. Dr. D. Burcu Erciyas (METU, SA) __________________ Dr. Namık Erkal (METU, AH) __________________ v Plagiarism I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name: Pelin YONCACI Signature: iii ABSTRACT ROMAN URBAN SPACE FRAMED BY COLONNADES: MEDIATING BETWEEN MYTH, MEMORY AND HISTORY IN EPHESUS YONCACI, Pelin M. A., Department of History of Architecture Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Suna GÜVEN December 2006, 197 pages A multi-layered analysis on the morphological development of Ephesus in relation to the Temple of Artemis and an investigative wandering through the streets of this city in the era of Roman Empire highlights this thesis characterized by a consistent search for the significance of the notion of “urban armature.” From the standpoint of those who lived at that time, special attention is directed toward the colonnaded avenues as well as to their formal and social impacts within the city fabric. The thesis re-reads Ephesus within two main parts; first the urban form in relation to the topographical provision and sacred landscape provided by the site itself; and then from the ground level through a walking trip of the city as it appeared in the second century A.D. Crucial to this visual experience is the semantic quality of the environment at a collective level since the meaning of the experience would be useless without considering the meaning of signs and symbols within the environment. Thus, bounding ancient society and urban space at the phenomenological level, the small trip starts at the harbor and concludes at the Temple of Artemis, the irrefutable symbol of Ephesus and the most revered shrine in Asia Minor. Keywords: Urban armature, Ephesus, urban/social space, street experience, grid, visuality, rhythm. iv ÖZ KOLONADLI ROMA KENT MEKANLARI: EFES’ TE MİT, BELLEK VE TARİH ÜÇGENİNDE BİR DEĞERLENDİRME YONCACI, Pelin Yüksek Lisans, Mimarlık Tarihi Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Prof. Dr. Suna GÜVEN Aralık 2006, 197 sayfa Bu tez, Efes antik kentinin morfolojik yapısının Artemis Tapınağı gözönüne alınarak incelendiği çok katmanlı bir analizi ve yine bu kentin sokaklarında gerçekleştirilen araştırmaya dayalı bir yürüyüşü konu almaktadır. Çalışma boyunca kentsel armatür kavramı sorgulanmıştır. Bu bağlamda, kolonadlı caddeler ve onların fiziki ve toplumsal etkileri üzerinde durulmuştur. Bu çalışma, Efes’i iki alt başlıkta inceler; öncelikle, topografyadan gelen koşullar ve kentin konumundan doğan kutsal değerler ışığında kentin fiziki formu; ve daha sonra da kent sokaklarında M.S. ikinci yüzyılda yapıldığı varsayılan bir yolculuk tasvir edilir. Bu yürüyüş esnasında önemli olan, çevrenin kolektif anlamdaki semantik değeridir, zira yapılı çevrede yeralan işaretlerin ve sembollerin manaları düşünülmeden böyle bir deneyimin anlamı kavranamayacaktır. Bu doğrultuda, toplumu ve kent mekanını olgu- bilimsel olarak bağlayan bu yolculuk, limanda başlayıp, Efes’in reddedilemez sembolü ve Küçük Asya’nın en çok saygı duyulan kutsal yerlerinden biri olan Artemis Tapınağında son bulmaktadır. Anahtar Kelimeler : Kentsel armatür, Efes, Kentsel/sosyal mekan, sokak deneyimi, ızgara, görsellik, ritim. v DEDICATION To my family, vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I express my most sincere appreciation to my supervisor, Prof. Dr. Suna Güven, for her valuable suggestions, guidance, encouragements and insight throughout the study. I am also indebted to Assist. Prof. Dr. Lale Özgenel, Dr. Namık Erkal and Assist. Prof. Dr. Burcu Erciyas for their suggestions and comments. I am grateful to my friends Çağla Caner, Zeynep Eraydın, Aylin Akınlı, Ceren Katipoğlu, Meltem Arı, Esra Çonkır and Emre Arslan for their continuous support and moral boost. I would particularly like to thank Prof. Dr. Ömür Bakırer, who encouraged me during the research and gave her support throughout this study. I express my deepest gratitude to Prof. Dr. Murat Güvenç for his suggestions, support and guidance. Finally, any thank to my family, who have been supporting me all through my life, would be an understatement. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM ........................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT.............................................................................................. iv ÖZ.......................................................................................................... v DEDICATION........................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...............................................................................vii LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................... ix CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION................................................................................. 1 1.1. Reading an urban text from the ancient era..................................... 1 1.2. Urban Armatures: Direction, Linkage, Hierarchy............................... 6 1.3. Imperial armature manifested: Ephesus.......................................... 8 2. URBIS EPHESIA............................................................................... 10 2.1. Archaic topography as a background ............................................ 10 2.2. Legendary Ephesus .................................................................... 13 2.3. Croesus’ city ............................................................................. 15 2.4. Hellenistic Ephesus: Arsinoeia ..................................................... 18 2.5. Roman Ephesus: Asian Metropolis ................................................ 22 2.5.1. Search for a place for the “divine” emperor ............................. 25 2.5.2. Inauguration of Imperial Architecture in Ephesus ..................... 28 2.5.3. “Twice Neokoros:” . of Artemis and of the Sebastoi............... 32 2.5.4. From Hadrian to Byzantine times ........................................... 35 2.6. The city plan of Ephesus ............................................................. 38 2.7. Implications of the “dual” grid system........................................... 44 3. CIVITAS EPHESIA ............................................................................ 50 3.1. Sailing to Ephesus ..................................................................... 50 3.2. Walking through the Arcadiane .................................................... 60 3.3. Experiencing the Theater Plaza and approaching the Triodos............ 71 3.4. Observing the Triodos and its quarter ........................................... 83 3.5. Mediating in-between: exploring the Embolos ................................ 92 3.6. Contemplating the Square of Domitian........................................ 104 4. CONCLUSION................................................................................ 114 APPENDICES 1. Colonnaded Avenues: Origins, Examples and Debates.................... 121 REFERENCES ....................................................................................... 126 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. 1 Diagram of an outdoor room, “an urban box”........................... 135 Figure 1. 2 The Jerusalem street colonnades depicted in the Madaba mosaic, with the sidewalks roofed.......................................... 135 Figure 1. 3 “Urban box” superimposed on the colonnaded avenue............... 136 Figure 1. 4 Ephesus, view from the Curetes Street (author) ...................... 136 Figure 2. 1 Natural Harbor in the Ephesian bay ........................................ 137 Figure 2. 2 The movement of the coastline from 2000 B.C. to the Byzantine era ..................................................................... 137 Figure 2. 3 Rock shrine: niches for votive reliefs and a Meter relief from Hellenistic times.................................................................. 138 Figure 2. 4 The ring road used as a cemetery encircling the entire Panayırdağ ......................................................................... 138 Figure 2. 5 Early archaic settlement around the Ayasoluk hill ..................... 139 Figure 2. 6 Ionian Ephesus.................................................................... 141 Figure 2. 7 Croesus’ city of Ephesus ....................................................... 142 Figure 2. 8 Bammer’s attempts to reconstruct the grid around Temple of Artemis.............................................................................