Archaeology

W.J. Hamilton came to the region passing over the Sultan Mountains and observed the aqueducts, bath, and great basilica. His notes were published as “Researches in Asia Minor, Pontus, Armenia” in 1842. He was followed at different periods by many famous explorers of the 19th century such as Tchihatcheff, Laborde, Ritter, Richter, but none of them have the power of Arundell's detailed study, until Ramsay.

The famous researcher W.M. Ramsay, who devoted 50 years of his life to the historical geography of Asia Minor, made his first journey to Anatolia in 1880. Together with J.R.S. Sterret he embarked on two journeys studying inscriptions which provided detailed historical information. On both journeys they visited Antioch. In the same period Weber concentrated his studies on aqueducts: the water system was examined and the monumental fountain was identified. The outcomes of Ramsay's studies up to 1905 were published in 1907 as The cities of St.Paul. Their influence on his Life and Thought.

In 1911 Ramsay and his wife, W.M. Calder and M.M. Hardie made camp in Antioch and studies were started systematically. Calder and Hardie explored the Sanctuary of Men Askaenos which is on Karakuyu Hill 5 km to the southeast of Antioch. The following year, excavations were made under the direction of Ramsay and were supported by Princeton University. During these excavations up to 1914, some important buildings were excavated in and around the city. In 1914 one of the breathtaking finds of archaeology, the ”Res Gestae Divi Augusti”, appeared as fragments in front of the Imperial Sanctuary. After a compulsory break during the Great War, Ramsay returned in 1923.

In 1924 a major expedition was mounted by F W Kelsey of the University of Michigan which included Ramsay.

The excavations were under the direction of D.M. Robinson and, employing at times over 200 men from Yalvac, the Great Basilica, Tiberia Platea, Propylon and monumental western gate were exposed. Then after only one year of excavation the work of the Michigan group ceased, the result of the bitter quarrel between Ramsay and Robinson.

The only person who might have had the authority to resolve matters was Kelsey, and he died in 1927. Ramsay visited again between 1925 and 1927 but without any major results. No further studies were made until the 1960s. During this long interval many of the architectural blocks from these major buildings were used by the natives for the construction of modern Yalvaç and by the early 1960s, when Yalvaç Museum was about to be built, Antioch had become buried again.

In 1962 a detailed survey was made by M.H. Ballance and A. Frazer. K. Tuchelt came to the city in 1976 and caused some new arguments about the Imperial Sanctuary. Stephen Mitchell and Marc Waelkens conducted a survey and documentation of Antioch between 1982–3. Using their discoveries and drawing from earlier studies, especially those of the University of Michigan in 1924, they subsequently brought together all the available information about the city, supported with new finds, in a book entitled ”Pisidian Antioch” (1998).

Today's Antioch is studied by Dr. Mehmet Taşlıalan, Director of Yalvaç Museum (1979–2002), and Tekin Bayram, Mayor of Yalvaç. Mr. Taşlıalan obtained his Ph.D. thesis on the Imperial Sanctuary and described the building known as the Great Basilica as the Church of St.Paul.

Acropolis and fortifications

The city, like other Hellenistic colonies, was founded on a hill for ease of defence. The steep valley of the River Anthius in the east provides a perfect defence. On the other slopes the acropolis goes up smoothly in terraces and reaches a height of 60 meters above the plain. It is not known whether the bastions of semi-circular plan which can be seen in the West continue in other parts of the defence walls.

The city is surrounded by re-used blocks made of mainly grey local limestone. The massive blocked wall structure of the earlier phases are different the from the mortared Byzantine-Early Christian walls. No clear evidence of defence towers has yet been found. Curved semi-circular walls in the south and north would have made it easier to defend the fortifications. The defence system, when the masonry of the walls is considered, is very similar to the neighbouring colonies Cremna, Sagalassos and even Aphrodisias in Caria. Most of the walls and defence system are from the 4th century AD. Other buried entrances and fortifications datable back to the Hellenistic period will no doubt come to light as excavations continue.

The acropolis was a defended space to which natives retreated during wartime or invasion: houses and farms however, were outside the walls. Especially in the west and east, on the slopes going down to the plain the remains of houses have been found. The location of the necropolis is not known, but pieces of sarcophagi, Phrygian door-tombstones and funeral inscriptions in the walls of the houses in the modern Kızılca Quarter are indications that the necropolis should be looked for there.

City plan

Most of the city has not been excavated and questions like, for example, the relationship between the Theatre and the Cardo Maximus cannot yet be fully explained. There is much which is still buried under the hills in the potential excavation area of 800 by 1000 meters. Electromagnetic studies in recent years have shown that the Hippodamic plan with streets at right-angles was applied successfully like at Priene and Miletos. The city was divided by the streets into quarters (vicus, plural vici). The names of the following vici are known from inscriptions: Venerius, Velabrus, Aediculus, Patricius, Cermalus, Salutaris and Tuscus, but their extent has yet to be established.

One of the two principal streets is the Decumanus Maximus which starts from the Western City Gate and it is 90+320 m long. The other is the Cardo Maximus which is 400 m. long and it starts from the Nympheum and crosses the Decumanus c. 70 m south of the Tiberia Platea. On both sides of the streets are ruins dating back to the 1st–2nd centuries A.D. The name Platea is used for large areas of street-squares surrounded by shops and porticos. In the eastern Roman provinces, the platea became colonaded streets. The discovery of monumental buildings and especially of several nympheums on both sides of these two colonaded main streets prove that this was something which occurred in Antioch also.