Activities for the 2012 campaign (English only):

The Upper Agora (Figure 1) currently is a major focus of activities. Expanded and repaved by four local aristocrats during the reign of Augustus (probably ca AD 0-14), this square was embellished in the years AD 160-180 by the so-called Mid-Antonine Nymphaeum (background), a monumental fountain, erected along the northern edge of it. In 2010 the anastylosis (rebuilding) of this fountain was completed and its function as a fountain restored. During the Hellenistic period this square was the political heart of the city, being the place where the ‘citizens’ of Sagalassos (the so-called Dèmos) gathered to vote laws prepared by the members of the Boulè or senate, who had been elected by them. These senators prepared the laws in a building, the Bouleuterion, dated to the early 1st century BC and located on a higher terrace immediately to the west of the square. In Imperial times, however, the agora, previously accessible from three sides (corners) – except the northwestern one – by means of streets giving out on the square, became closed off by the construction of portico’s on its west, south and east side, and by the construction of two arches dedicated to Claudius in the southwest and southeast corner of the square, and that of a mid-2nd century AD arch in the street leading to the northeast corner of it. The northwest corner must have been closed by a monumental entrance leading to the courtyard of the Bouleuterion. During the reign of Augustus most likely a Doric building, either a portico or already a public fountain, framed the northern edge of the agora, before this structure was replaced by the Mid-Antonine Nymphaeum. Rapidly the square became a showcase for the self-representation of the city and of the members of the local elite. Dozens of honorific statues in bronze or marble, standing on high pedestals, representing emperors, governors or local aristocrats were erected on the square until ca AD 500, when an earthquake toppled and destroyed most of them. After this catastrophe only a few statue bases were left in place in the centre of the square or along its edges, whereas henceforth the lower classed used the square as an open air market. This year the most elaborate of these statue pedestals in the middle of the Upper Agora is being repaired and put back into place by engineer Semih Ercan. The Northwest Honorific Column (Figure 2 and Figure 3) is the subject of one of the ongoing anastylosis projects carried out by the same team. As mentioned below, the South Portico area is being excavated by Dr. Ine Jacobs, whereas the southwestern arch dedicated to the emperor Claudius forms the second anastylosis project (Figure 3) supervised by architect Ebru Torun.