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The buildings of Oinoanda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2013

J. J. Coulton
Affiliation:
Merton College, Oxford

Extract

Oinoanda's chief claim to fame in Classical studies is philosophical, rather than architectural; it is the home of that Diogenes who had the name of a Cynic but Epicurean convictions, which he inscribed, ironically enough, on the walls of a stoa. In fact it was the repeated visits of M. F. Smith in connection with this great philosphical inscription that led to the British Institute of Ankara's survey project at Oinoanda under the direction of A. S. Hall. I am most grateful to Mr Hall for inviting me to participate in the survey and study of some of the city's buildings in 1975, 1977 and 1981, and for his support of my work on the site. We are all indebted to the Directorate of Antiquities at Ankara for permission to work at Oinoanda, and to a succession of most helpful simply representatives for their co-operation.

Most of the city's buildings have simply collapsed where they stood and been left undisturbed since the city's a bandonment, so that it is possible to study their fallen upper parts in some detail; but is should be remembered that the terms of our survey permit do not allow any excavation, and since the lowest part of almost all remain hidden, many question of plan and date remain invitably unanswered.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s). Published online by Cambridge University Press 1983

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References

NOTES

1. Smith, M. F., AS 28 (1978) 3945Google Scholar, gives a brief introduction to the philosophical inscription with previous bibliography. For fragments found since then see Smith, , AS 29 (1979) 6989Google Scholar and Prometheus 8 (1982) 193212Google Scholar. For the topographical survey see Hall, A. S., AS 26 (1976) 191–7Google Scholar, AS 28 (1978) 56Google Scholar, AS 32 (1982) 5Google Scholar. In addition to the normal abbreviations the following are used:

Heberdey-Kalinka Heberdey, R., Kalinka, E., Bericht über zwei Reisen in südwestlichen Kleinasien (Denkschr. Akad. Wien, phil.-hist. Kl. 45, 1896)Google Scholar.

Heilmeyer Heilmeyer, W.-D., Korinthische Normalkapitelle (MDAI (R) Ergh. 16, 1970)Google Scholar.

Lanckoronski Lanckoronski, C. et al. , Städte Pamphyliens und Pisidiens (1890)Google Scholar.

Lycie antique Actes du colloque sur la Lycie antique (Bibl. Inst. Fr. d'Et. Anat. d'Ist. 27, 1980)Google Scholar.

Myra Borchhardt, J., Myra, Eine lykische Metropole (Ist. Forsch. 30, 1975)Google Scholar.

Petersen-von Luschan Petersen, E., von Luschan, F., Reisen in Lykien, Milyas und Kibyratis (1889)Google Scholar.

Texier Texier, C., Description de l'Asie Mineure (1849)Google Scholar.

I am grateful to members of the Philological Society for their comments, many of them embodied in this revised paper. But I deeply felt the sad absence of Hugh Plommer, whose recent death deprived me of much needed criticism.

2. A Lycian tomb was noted by von Luschan near Seki (Seydiler) (Petersen–von Luschan 177). On the general distribution of Lycian tombs see Zahle, J. in Lycie antique 3749Google Scholar.

3. Strabo 13.4.17 (631).

4. This interpretation is more fully presented in AS 32 (1982) 115–31Google Scholar.

5. Inscriptions published by Hall, A. S., AS 27 (1977) 193–7 (SEG 27 (1977) nos. 930-2, 935Google Scholar; Robert, J. and Robert, L., REG 91 (1978) 475–6, no. 462)Google Scholar.

6. Inscriptions published by Heberdey–Kalinka, nos. 77-8.

7. Holleaux, M., Paris, P., BCH 10 (1886) 217, no. 1Google Scholar.

8. A tomb at Gördev Göl some 15 km to the southeast requires payment of fines to Oinoanda (Petersen–von Luschan, 159, no. 187). See also Bean, G. E., Lycian Turkey (1978) 174–5Google Scholar.

9. The identification numbers of individual buildings at Oinoanda are based on the grid squares of the site plan.

10. The function of this second open space is uncertain; see Coulton, J. J., AS 32 (1982) 58–9Google Scholar.

11. This is the natural conclusion to draw from the distribution of the fragments of the philosophical inscription (Hall, , AS 26 (1976) 194–6Google Scholar; updated Smith, , Prometheus 8 (1982) 195, fig. 1)Google Scholar.

12. The theatre was studied by de Bernardi Ferrero, D., Teatri classici in Asia Minore II (1969) 8995Google Scholar. However, the date suggested there (second half of first century B.C.) is too early for the theatre's architectural scaenae frons, and the theatre as a whole is as likely to belong to the first or second century A.D.

13. It maybe that earlier houses are all overlaid; but it is worth considering the possibility that the Oinoanda site was the monumental centre for a population living in scattered komai round the plain (for komai see Coulton, , AS 32 (1982) 123)Google Scholar.

14. Bean, , Lycian Turkey 170Google Scholar, notes ‘a new building now in ruins and a number of cisterns or reservoirs’. I recorded a number of rubble footings and a large rock cut cistern on the summit.

15. On its purpose see Coulton, , AS 32 (1982) 57–9Google Scholar.

16. On the building see briefly Coulton, , AS 32 (1982) 122-3, and 115–23Google Scholar on the problems of the identification of the site as Termessos Minor.

17. For a doubtful possibility see Coulton, , AS 32 (1982) 58Google Scholar.

18. There are substantial terrace walls along the east slopes, but they form no continuous line, so cannot be for fortification (cf. Hall, , AS 28 (1978) 5)Google Scholar.

19. R. Bohn in Petersen–von Luschan, 177-8.

20. McNicoll, A. W., Hellenistic Fortifications from the Aegean to the Euphrates (1971) 203–10Google Scholar.

21. I have discussed this building and its date more fully in AS 32 (1982) 4559Google Scholar.

22. The Oinoanda water supply system including its aqueduct is to be treated in a forthcoming study in collaboration with Mr E. Stenton of Brasenose College, Oxford. I was greatly helped in the recording of the system both by him and by Bay Edip Özgür of the Antalya Museum.

23. von Gerkan, A., Griechische Städteanlagen (1924) 8990CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Van Buren, A. W., RE 8A (1955) 472–5Google Scholar; Ward Perkins, J. B., PBSR 23 (1955) 115–23Google Scholar.

24. Graeber, F., Altertümer von Pergamon 1.3 (1913) 368–83Google Scholar; more recently Garbrecht, G., Holtorff, G., Wasserwirtschaftliche Anlagen des antiken Pergamon: die Madaradag-Leitung (Leichtweiss Inst.für Wasserbau, Techn. Univ. Braunschweig. Mitteilungen 37, 1973)Google Scholar.

25. Weber, G., JDAI 13 (1898) 113Google Scholar, 14 (1899) 4-25, 19 (1904) 86-101, 20 (1905) 202-10, esp. 209.

26. Vitr. 8.6.5-6.

27. The outer face of the south wall is shown in Bean, Lycian Turkey pl. 96.

28. Texier III, 192-3, 224, pl. 179; the illustration substantially shortens the aqueduct. The inscription has been recorded by Wörrle, M., referred to by Malinowski, R., Fahlbusch, H. in Wasser im Antiken Hellas (Leichtweiss Inst. für Wasserbau, Techn. Univ. Braunschweig, Mitteilungen 71, 1981) 208Google Scholar.

29. Texier III, 204, 233, pl. 207-8 (the site is wrongly identified as Aperlai, but see Heberdey-Kalinka 17, no. 56). The inscription is IGR III no. 690.

30. The building has not been studied in detail, but the inscription is IGR III no. 659 = TAM II. no. 396.

31. TAM II no. 651; IGR III no. 466.

32. Pre-Flavian baths at Assos: IGR IV no. 257; at Kyme: IGR IV no. 1302; at Miletos: Krischen, F., Milet I.9 (1928) 2847Google Scholar.

33. Ling, R. J., AS 21 (1981) 3146Google Scholar, with epigraphic appendix by A. S. Hall, 47-53.

34. The closest parallel in overall effect (arched façade on plain podium) is the Lower Gymnasium at Termessos in Pisida (Lanckoronski II 60-1, 103-5). For the date (early third century A.D.) see the founder's inscriptions, TAM III.1 nos. 21, 57-8, 121-3.

35. IGR III no. 739. xix. B. 27-8. On Opramoas see Heberdey, R., Opramoas, Inschriften vom Heroon zu Rhodiapolis (1897)Google Scholar.

36. Ling is non-committal (AS 31 (1981) 43), but cites as a parallel to the string courses a moulding in the theatre at Myra (Myra, pl. 21 a), which was also built or repaired with help from Opramoas. Contrast the greater elaboration of the Severan facade of the Lower Gymnasium at Termessos (above n. 28).

37. The agora and its porticoes will be discussed in greater detail in a forthcoming study.

38. IGR III no. 483. The arch and its inscriptions require further investigation.

39. Crema, L., MonAL 38 (19391940) 293, fig. 59Google Scholar, Ling, , AS 31 (1981) 45Google Scholar.

40. Heilmeyer 87, pl. 22.4 (Mylasa), pl. 29.3 (Attaleia), Bammer, A., JOEAI 52 (19781980) 89, fig. 22 (Ephesos)Google Scholar; Ward-Perkins, J. B., JRS 38 (1948) 67 n.29Google Scholar.

41. Heilmeyer 98, 169, pl. 32.1; Naumann, R., Kantar, S. in Kleinasien und Byzanz (Ist. Forsch. 17, 1950) 82, 109, pl. 24a, 28cGoogle Scholar.

42. Society of Dilettanti, Antiquities of Ionia III (1840) Ch. 2, pl. 26Google Scholar, Texier III, pl. 154, 156; for the date see Türk Arkeoloji Dergisi 19.1 (1970) 62Google Scholar.

43. Forschungen in Ephesos I (1906) 152, fig. 86Google Scholar; for the date see Alzinger, W., Augusteische Architektur in Ephesos (1974) 3840Google Scholar.

44. IGR III no. 484, Hall, A. S., JHS 99 (1979) 163, no. 5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

45. So R. Cagnat (above n. 38), Heberdey–Kalinka 51, LSJ s.v. βουκονιστήριον, Robert, L., Gladiateurs dans l'Orient grec2 (1971) 316 n. 4Google Scholar.

46. Such personifications of Sun and Moon are comparatively common, and do not have very specific religious significance. Compare two altars from the Lebanon (Cumont, F., Syria 8 (1927) 163–8)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, on the second of which the supposed bull's head on the left side is more probably a bust of the Moon with a crescent rising from the shoulders.

47. A terminus post quem is given by inscriptions built into the wall (Hall, A. S., AS 26 (1976) 196)Google Scholar. A number of other Lycian cities contracted into circuits of reduced length under the Late Empire (Harrison, R. M., Yayla 1 (1977) 1015Google Scholar, Lycie antique 110; Wurster, W. W., Wörrle, M., AA (1978) 97–8Google Scholar, Wurster, W. W. in Lycie antique 36Google Scholar.

48. Compare the numerous Lycian churches of about this size published by Harrison, R. M.. AS 13 (1963) 126–45Google Scholar; two others in Metzger, H., RA (1966) 102, 109–11Google Scholar, Sodini, J.-P. in Lycie antique 120, fig. 1Google Scholar.

49. E.g. on a hilltop above Ovacik, 45 km. east of Elmali (Petersen–von Luschan, 164 – a monastery; Harrison, R. M. in Lycie antique 112Google Scholar, fig. 2 – too insubstantial for a fort?). The location of the complex at Oinoanda strongly suggests a fort.

50. Blocks from the stone water main were re-used in the quarter south of the Late Roman Wall, and a number of re-used Doric entablature blocks may come from the porticoes of the Esplanade, which were certainly modified at about this time.

51. An exception is the systematic removal of the Late-Antonine-Severan portico capitals, the most portable and decorative elements.