Ratté, Christopher - Commito, Angela : The Countryside of Aphrodisias, 15, 167 p., 115 col. ill., 21 b/w ill., ISBN : 13-9780990662358, 18.95 € (Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, Ann Arbor 2017)

 
Compte rendu par Francesco D’Andria
 
Nombre de mots : 2711 mots
Publié en ligne le 2022-01-21
Citation: Histara les comptes rendus (ISSN 2100-0700).
Lien: http://histara.sorbonne.fr/cr.php?cr=3193
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          The volume by C. Ratté and A. Commito is a concise and valid work for all those who seek to discover the development, in space and time, of the extraordinary settlement system centred on the polis of Aphrodisias, which lies in the Maeander River Basin, about 150 km east of the Aegean coast of Turkey, in the ancient region of Caria. The book, published in English and Turkish in the series by Kelsey Museum Publications, has an explicitly informative purpose and is aimed not just at scholars but also at the wider public. Indeed, the structure of the work is based on solid scientific knowledge, the fruit of a thorough survey of the territory in question that was the object of a splendid publication in 2012 in the prestigious series dedicated to this city[1].

          In the same way, in the nearby city of Hierapolis in Phrygia, the topographical investigations conducted by the team of the Italian Archaeological Mission led to the publication of the Atlas of the urban and suburban areas[2] and numerous other publications regarding the surveys in the surrounding territory[3]. The scientific edition of these investigations was followed by a small format volume, again by Giuseppe Scardozzi, aimed at the wider public, published by Ege Yayınları in the series of archaeological guides to Hierapolis[4].

          The book on the territory of Aphrodisias opens with an introductory chapter describing the features of the region and its landscapes, centred on the valley of the River Morsynus (the modern Dandalas), dominated by the Baba Dağı massif. In contrast to the widespread identification of this feature with the ancient mount Salbakos, on whose slopes stands Herakleia  Salbake[5], the book equates Baba Dağı with Kadmos, which others identify with Honaz Dağı, the mountain that looms over Colossae and its territory[6]. A brief account of the main historical developments helps to establish a time-line for this region, from Prehistory to the modern day, concluding with the survey project, whose methodological approach is summarily illustrated.

          Chapter 2 (p. 22) describes the phases preceding the foundation of the polis, including the Late Neolithic, the Late Chalcolithic (by which time the hill on which the classical-era Theatre stands was already a point of reference) and the whole of the Bronze Age. After an apparent gap at the end of the second Millennium BC, the occupation of the hill resumed in the sixth century BC, when the region was dominated by the kingdom of Lydia. Of interest with regard to the human presence in the region are the tumuli, correctly framed, especially those of larger dimensions as in Yertepe (p. 25), within the similar phenomenon seen in the area around the capital Sardis, although the latter is characterised by a greater impact on the landscape. In the valley of the Morsynus River, these tumuli reflect “a pre-urban society in which the valley was dominated by an aristocracy of large landowners”. Questions arise however regarding the chronology of some of these tumuli and whether the necropoleis pertaining to the farmsteads and villages of the chora of Aphrodisias had similar funerary monuments in the Roman period as well, as is widely attested in the nearby territory of Hierapolis. Indeed the presence of a “phallos marker” and tumuli of lesser dimensions such as that of Yeşilyurt (11m in diameter) may suggest a dating to the Hellenistic-Roman period, like those of Hierapolis, the diameters of which range from 10 to 13m. The chapters on the territory of Aphrodisias in the Hellenistic and Roman periods (p. 80) make no reference to this presence however: the most frequently attested funerary monuments are of the barrel-vaulted underground chamber type, with marble sarcophagi placed on top. The theme is of particular interest, if we consider that not even in Laodicea do we find tumuli in the necropoleis, unlike nearby Hierapolis where such funerary structures are widely attested in the Hellenistic-Roman period, in both the urban necropolis and the surrounding territory, as landmarks of a distinctive organisation of funerary landscapes and the communities occupying the agricultural areas[7].

          The foundation of Aphrodisias (p. 39) constituted a potent factor in the transformation of the territory. On the basis of the epigraphical documentation, it can be dated to the immediate aftermath of the treaty known as the Peace of Apamea in 188 BC, in a site that had emerged, however, as the centre of a local cult as early as the sixth century BC. Its urban development should be considered an outgrowth of the intensive urbanisation of the neighbouring Maeander River valley in the Hellenistic period. In this period the territory appears to have been characterised by a dense network of farmsteads and villages, arranged in accordance with a road system based on four main arteries radiating from the city. As in the nearby Lykos valley, on the other side of the Baba Dağı, the main crops were vines and olives, as the numerous presses for the production of oil attest: the survey made it possible to identify 90 points of interest associated with agricultural processing. However, the city’s extraordinary monumental development, with the rise of an architecture and a sculpture whose prestige extended beyond regional boundaries as far as the capital of the Empire, is closely linked to the quarries that supplied the precious raw material. The characteristics of the territory in this period are illustrated by a highly useful series of clearly-drawn thematic maps that provide an immediate representation of the wealth of natural resources and the highly developed infrastructure such as roads and aqueducts (see for example the Map of the Aphrodisias survey region, Fig. 3.29).

          The Late Ancient phases span the period from the mid-fourth to the mid-sixth centuries AD, when the city saw intense economic development. This flourishing of the city was linked to its becoming a provincial capital in the mid-third century and an episcopal see by 325 AD. A break in the dynamics of interaction between the city and its territory was seen however following the construction of the fortifications which enclosed the inhabited area. Immediately outside the walls, the landscape was marked by the presence of churches, which also characterised the suburban and rural areas. A map shows the distribution of these focal points of the new dimension arising from the spread of Christianity (Fig. 4.2). The lucid contribution of Örgü Dalgıç highlights the role of the four suburban churches, of which the West Church constitutes the largest and best preserved specimen. It is built in an area of Imperial-era necropoleis, along an important road leading to the valley of the Maeander. The complex was a place of worship also in the Middle Byzantine period and may be considered a martyrion, to which, with a fair degree of certainty, the inscription conserved in the Aphrodisias Museum dedicated to the holy martyrs Barbara and Anastasia may be attributed. This attribution appears deserving of further study, especially if we consider the recent discovery in the nearby city of Hierapolis of the tomb of the Apostle Philip, in the area of the Roman necropolis on the north-eastern hill, where it formed the centre of a large pilgrimage site dominated by the cupola of the octagonal Martyrion. In Laodicea too, the current author has drawn attention to the church built to a central plan inside the Roman-era necropolis on the main road to the city, proposing to identify it with the martyrion of the bishop Saint Sagaris, who gave his life for the Christian faith in the reign of Marcus Aurelius[8].

          Dalgıç also convincingly proposes to identify the North-east Church of Aphrodisias as a martyrial building. Here, an inscription over the doorway of one of the numerous chamber tombs mentions the bishop Theopropius. The presence on the site of other tombs of the same period logically prompts the author to consider that in the mid-fifth century AD, the North-east Necropolis may have been a preferred site of burial for Aphrodisian Christians (p. 101).

          In the following chapters the authors ponder the development of the city and its territory in the subsequent centuries, referred to as the Dark Ages (mid-seventh to eight centuries AD) and the Middle Byzantine period (ninth to eleventh centuries AD). These chapters tackle a crucial issue for understanding the transition in Asia Minor from the classical to the medieval city. For the Dark Ages however, it is difficult to recognise the settlement contexts. Indeed, the results of the investigations in the territory of Aphrodisias have not detected reliable traces of a presence in the countryside during this period, unlike the surveys conducted in other areas of Asia Minor, such as Balboura and Galatia, where the occupation of the territory seems to have continued uninterrupted even during the Dark Ages[9]. According to the authors, in Aphrodisias this phenomenon might have a variety of causes, including increased mortality and migration. They wonder whether this was due to a local catastrophe, such as an earthquake, plague, or foreign invasion. However, they acknowledge (p. 116) that “Our survey did not reveal evidence of habitation in the countryside in the seventh to ninth centuries, though our lack of understanding of the ceramics of this period may make the picture appear darker than it truly was”. It should in fact be considered that in numerous classical cities of Anatolia, excavation strategies in past decades were aimed at highlighting Roman-era monuments and works of art, and the Dark-Age levels, together with the few traces of Dark-Age buildings, were probably not given due consideration and were thus not adequately documented. Fortunately, more recent excavations and the rise of the stratigraphic method have made it possible to partly fill in these gaps and to recognise with greater certainty the “guide fossils”, mainly ceramics, relating to this period. Indeed, in the excavation of the houses of Insula 104 in Hierapolis it was possible to recognise the contexts, datable to the 7^th and 8^th centuries AD, which overlay the collapsed late-Roman structures; in the subsequent Middle Byzantine period, these contexts would form a new, clearly recognisable settlement that no longer took account of the rigid grid layout that had characterised the Hellenistic-Roman period[10].

          In the Middle Byzantine period, the territory of Aphrodisias also appears to have been characterised by the widespread presence of churches and chapels (Fig. 4.2), together with isolated buildings on the distant hills north of Yenikőy near Ören and on the South-west Plateau. The city itself, which in this period was called Stauropolis (City of the Cross) and was the seat of the metropolitan bishopric of Caria, saw renewed prosperity. The authors speak of dense occupation, especially in the area between the hill of the Theatre and the Cathedral, in which “the small community must have been somewhat vibrant” (p. 114). Of particular interest is the presence of olive and also wine presses inside the settlement, such as the one discovered against the back wall of the Bouleuterion (p. 115). The Bishop’s Palace was also a centre for the collection, processing and distribution of agricultural products. The same situation is seen in Hierapolis, where previous readings had associated the Middle Byzantine phase with a period of slow decline and radical processes of “ruralisation”. In contrast, recent research has revealed a complex and elaborate settlement framework, albeit quite different from the urban setting of the classical period. In the Phrygian city, the size and complexity of the area occupied by dwellings, corresponding to about 32 hectares, and above all the presence of equipment for the production of oil in the various districts suggest a settlement assimilable to the urban model of the agro-town, in which many of the houses must have been farms where agricultural implements were stored. Crops were transported to the settlement and agricultural products were processed and stored in the houses. The agricultural surpluses could then be used to enhance the status of the town and its inhabitants[11].

          Chapter 6 (p. 121) provides a brief presentation of the transformations affecting this territory from the Seljuq conquest until the start of the excavations in the early 20^th century, first under the direction of P. Gaudin (1904-5) and then in the years 1937-38 by an Italian team, which led to the recognition of the local school of sculpture (M. Squarciapino). The systematic research, launched in 1961 by Kenan Erim of New York University, continues to yield extraordinary results. The volume concludes with a reflection on the future of the region around Aphrodisias, in which the protection of the landscape and the environment is now an urgent necessity in view of the development of sustainable tourism that can benefit from the growing awareness of the value of this exceptional historic and natural heritage. Lastly, the authors propose (p. 137) 11 itineraries by which to experience the area, following the Morsynus River until the slopes of the Avdan Dağı massif and the South-west Plateau, providing opportunities to visit the famous marble quarries. They also indicate paths leading to the peak of the Baba Dağı, from where the panorama includes the Maeander and Lykos valleys and the white cliffs of Pamukkale.

          The publication by C. Ratté and A. Commito represents an excellent product, testament to the high scientific level of the Aphrodisias team and its capacity for communicating the results of their research to the wider public, with a measured and precise language and accompanying graphic and photographic material of great quality: a commendable example of the sort of public archaeology that alone can generate awareness and respect for Cultural Heritage.

Éditeurs : Lorenz E. Baumer, Université de Genève ; Jan Blanc, Université de Genève ; Christian Heck, Université Lille III ; François Queyrel, École pratique des Hautes Études, Paris
Site conçu par Lorenz Baumer et François Queyrel et réalisé par Lorenz Baumer, 2006/7