The Bouleuterion at Teos, Turkey (Excavation Season 2023) (20 min)

Presenters

Mantha Zarmakoupi, University of Pennsylvania; and Musa Kad?o?lu, University of Ankara

Abstract

This paper presents the results of the second season of the collaboration between the Teos Archaeological Project of Ankara University (2010–) and the Department of the History of Art of the University of Pennsylvania for the excavation and study of the bouleuterion at Teos, which is funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung. Located in the northwest corner of the city’s agora, the bouleuterion has a forecourt, as in the bouleuterion of Miletus and the gerontikon of Nysa. Whereas the plan of the bouleuterion was mostly delineated through the excavations of the Teos Archaeological Project, the triporticus was not excavated till now and the geophysical prospections in this area did not provide a clear image of the area, as it is close to the coast and the humidity of the ground distorted the results. The aim of our collaborative excavation project is to clarify its chronology and function as well as to investigate the chronological development of the bouleuterion. In 2022, we conducted four trenches, with which we located the east edge of and entrance to the triporticus from the street on that side, and found an early Hellenistic mosaic underneath the southwest corner of the triporticus. This season we expanded the trench of the Hellenistic mosaic to better understand its context and chronology, we conducted one trench to locate the northeast corner of the triporticus and one trench at the west side of the bouleuterion to clarify its chronology. An important find resulted from the study of the architectural members of the bouleuterion’s façade. We arranged the architrave blocks based on the ordering letter and managed to read the erased monumental dedicatory inscription on it. The architrave inscription gives us the name of the dedicator of the bouleuterion and dates the building in the second century B.C.E.