Archaeological Excavations at the Ionian City of Notion (20 min)

Presenters

Christopher Ratté, University of Michigan

Abstract

The University of Michigan launched a program of archaeological research in cooperation with Brown University at the west Anatolian city of Notion in 2014. In its current state, Notion is a grid-planned town, 35 ha in area, surrounded by extensive fortifications. The first phase of research consisted of archaeological survey, completed in 2018. Study of architectural remains and surface finds suggested that the city as preserved dates largely to the Hellenistic period. Excavations began in partnership with Sinop University in 2022. The first two areas chosen for investigation are the bouleuterion, on the east side of the agora, and a peristyle house, just west of the agora.

The bouleuterion was targeted for excavation both because it is a building of considerable architectural importance and because it is unusually well preserved and can serve as a focal point for future visitors. It is a rectangular structure with a rectilinear seating arrangement, like the (much smaller) bouleuterion at Priene. An important early result of excavation has been to show that the core of the building consists of rammed earth. Both the seats of the auditorium and the pavement of an ambulatory space surrounding the auditorium “floated” on deposits of firmly packed sediment.

Investigation of the houses of the residents of Notion will form the major focus of the excavations. The house chosen for initial investigation is a large (324 m²) peristyle structure; excavation has revealed at least two Hellenistic phases, as well as remains of an earlier building, not oriented to the city grid. Pottery and, most remarkably, a hoard of 50 Persian darics found in association with this building show that it was occupied in the fifth century, dramatically illuminating a period in the history of the city almost totally invisible in the surface finds.

  AIA-8F