a necropolis through the centuries - rome

8/18/2019 A Necropolis Through the Centuries - Rome

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A R K E O L O G I S K T I D S S K R I F T

Nicolay – Nr 114 • 2011Løssalg kr 50,-

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A R K E O L O G I S K T I D S S K R I F T

Nicolay – Nr 114 • 2011Løssalg kr 50,-

Feltnummer

innhold Nr 114 • 2011

Utgitt av arkeologistudenter ved IAKH,Universitetet i Oslo.

Redaktør: Irmelin AxelsenRedaksjon: Hilde Melgaard, Mari Dyrstad

Hartvigsen, Jani Causevic, Jan KristianHellan, Eirik Røe, Håvard Kilhavn,Heidi Berg og Niklas Arentz Brænd

Abonnement 2011: NOK 150,- Abonnement kan tegnes ved skriftlig henvendelse til:NICOLAY-arkeologisk tidsskrift, IAKH,Postboks 1019 Blindern, 0315 OSLOEller med e-post til:[email protected]

Hjemmeside: www.nicolaytidsskrift.noKontonummer: 1720 22 35549ISSN 0332 / 8937

Copyright: Nicolay Ettertrykk tillatt når kilden oppgis.

Grafisk formgivning og trykk:BK Gruppen, Sandefjord

Trykket på miljøvennlig papir.Opplag: 750

Utgitt med støtte av Kulturstyret vedStudentsamskipnaden i Oslo.

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www.nicolaytidsskrift.no

Forsidebilde: Fritidsykkerne Erik Erland

Holmen og Øyvind Arnesen oppdager

en last med kvernsteiner

delvis skjult av sand, stein og tare i sjøen

utenfor Brekkestø ved Lillesand i 2009

(09260085) (foto: Pål Nymoen)

Axel Mjærum

En trinnøks med merker av historien –Noen detaljer om et funn fraStokke i Vestfold. 5

Camilla Wenn

A Necropolis through the Centuries –Roman and Byzantine Tombs in theEast Necropolis of Hierapolis, Turkey. 13

Inger Eggen, Stine Melvold, Per Persson

og Gaute Reitan

I Egil Mikkelsens fotspor – steinalder-undersøkelser langs en ny jernbane. 21

Johan E. Arntzen

En ”palisadehaug” fra yngre jernalderi Nord-Norge? 33

Knut Fossdal Eskeland og Jo-Simon Frøshaug Stokke

The Hellenic-Norwegian Excavations atTegea 2010: en kort oppdatering. 43

Bernt-Johnny Bertheussen

Fra felt i Finnmark – Nyregistrering avchertbrudd i Melsvik, Alta kommune. 49

Jakob Johansson

Utgrävning inom bostadshus iThem Nedre 42/1 , Tønsberg. 57

Pål Nymoen

Kun for den smarte skippers regning?Skipsvrak med omsettelig ballast:på sporet av kvernstein, kleber ogbrynehandelen fra Norge ca 800 – 1800 65

Heidi Berg og Jan Kristian HellanFelt, forskning og formidling - et intervjumed Unn Pedersen 77


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Hierapolis and the excavation project have

been thoroughly presented earlier (see e.g. Ahrens et al. 2008; Bortheim & Sund 2008,

2009; Wenn et al. 2010), suffice it here to sum

up briefly. Hierapolis was a town situated in

ancient Frygia, populated at least from the 3rd

century BC until the 13th century AD. It was

famous in Antiquity for its pagan Apollo oracle,

reknowned in the Byzantine period for the

Christian martyrion of Phillip, and well-known

then as now for the natural springs that havecovered the hillside below the ancient town

with spectacular travertine formations (see e.g.

Arthur 2006; D’Andria 2003; D’Andria et al.2008). A group of Italian universities have since

1957 conducted excavations in the ancient

town, and from 2007 the University of Oslo

has been part of the project, investigating the

East Necropolis.

The 2010 campaign – an overviewIn 2010 the Norwegian team consisted of field

director Sven Ahrens (post.doc. IAKH), assis-tant field director Camilla Cecilie Wenn

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A Necropolis through theCenturies – Roman andByzantine Tombs in the

East Necropolis ofHierapolis, Turkey

Camilla Wenn (cand. philol., UiO)

As a result of the 2008 and 2009 excavation campaigns, the Hierapolis project could last year

present rather unexpected Byzantine contexts in what was to all other purposes a Roman

tomb. One year, and one more excavation campaign has passed, and we now have a wider

grasp of the Byzantine contexts, and also know a little more about the Roman inhabitantsof Hierapolis. Previous presentations in Nicolay have focused on the challenges and methods of

excavating one tomb in particular, tomb 42 (C92). However, this tomb is not our only

research object, and thus we hope to still be able to interest the readers with the results from

other investigations in the 2009 and 2010 campaigns, as well as the progress in tomb 42.


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(cand.philol.), field assistants Eva Marie Sund

(MA) and Kjetil Bortheim (MA-student

IAKH), GIS surveyor David Hill (PhD-stu-

dent KHM), GIS assistant Linn Trude Lieng

(MA-student, IAKH), osteo-archaeologist

Helene Russ (MA), archaeologist and draughts-man Bjørn-Håkon Eketuft Rygh (cand.philol.),

conservationist Anne Håbu (KHM) and DNA

biologist Vidar Kaspersen (PhD-student,

Institute of Biology). In addition we had much

help from our six Turkish workers, Halil

Ibrahim Kacer, Akin Karademir, Hüseyin

Tahta, Mehmet Seriyildiz, Gani Bozkurt and

Ibrahim Kacer. The 2010 campaign was fun-

ded by Småforskmidler/University of Oslo,

H.R. Astrup and Stiftelsen Thomas Fearnley,

Heddy og Nils Astrup.

As in 2009, several areas were investigated

simultaneously, and the excavations continued

in the tomb complex of house tombs 42, 65

(C92a), 51 (C91) and sarcophagi 62, 63 and

64 (on the numbering of tombs, see Wenn et

al. 2010:22), both inside and outside the tombs

(fig. 1). In addition, the GIS survey of the

necropolis was completed, documenting a total

of 572 tombs, as well as other activities such asquarrying, later roads, Ottoman dwellings, fen-

ces and irrigation systems (Ahrens 2010).

Tomb 42In tomb 42, the aisle between the benches was

emptied out, and it was finally possible to assess

a certain chronology of the tomb use. The

Byzantine fill, which had been excavated

during the previous campaigns (see Wenn et al.

2010), covered several mixed contexts with

Byzantine as well as Roman finds. The bones in

these contexts were less numerous and more

deteriorated than in the Byzantine fill. In the

inner corner by the benches one context stood

out, as it contained many bones, highly frag-

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Figure 1: Map of the excavation area (drawing: Sven Ahrens, IAKH).


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mented and very soft and porous, and no

Medieval finds. The preliminary interpretation

is that it represents finds from the original use

of the tomb, which were swept from the benc-

hes some time after deposition and decomposi-

tion. Under this context and covering the enti-re aisle was a thin, virtually empty context of

sand and gravel, presumably the original floor

level of the tomb. Below there was partially cut

bedrock, and partially a near-conglomerated fill

consisting of chipped limestone.

Apart from bones, tomb 42 also provided seve-

ral interesting finds in the 2010 campaign,

both Roman and Byzantine (fig. 2). One bron-ze coin was found in the Roman context des-

cribed above, though unfortunately not

datable. Several lamp fragments and one com-

plete lamp turned up, two terracotta figurines,

and many personal effects, such as a glass sigil,

glass and amber beads, part of an ivory bracelet

and fragments of pointed bone pins (stili or aci;

writing utensils, hairpins, ornaments etc.). A

Medieval bronze cross was also found, comple-menting the two found in 2008 and 2009.

Though many of the finds were from the

Roman Imperial period, they were found in

mixed contexts, and thus could not be tied to

specific burials.

The sarcophagiTwo sarcophagi were emptied, tombs 62 and63, their inscriptions identifying them as the

tombs of Aristes and Apollonios, the daughter

and son of Eutyches who commissioned tomb

42. Tomb 62 still had the lid on, though the

corner of the lid and the sarcophagus had been

chopped off at some point. The tomb had cle-

arly been looted, but there was still a slight

hope of finding the contents at least partially insitu. With the help of a lift the lid was removed,

and the excavations could start (fig. 3). The

result, however, was disappointing, as there was

little left apart from a few fragments of bone,

pottery and glass. The most notable finds were

several large iron nails, mostly from a limited

area in the centre of the sarcophagus.

Tomb 63 was nearly full of soil when excavati-on started in 2009. The lid had at some point

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Figure 2: Various finds from the 2011 campaign (from top left to bottom right, tomb no. in parenthesis): Three amber

beads (42); fragment of ivory bracelet (42); bone stilus (42); lamp fragment (42); Gloria Exercitus coin (521);

bronze buckle (512); terracotta figurine (42) (photos: The excavation project, UiO).


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been slid off the sarcophagus, and lay partially

supported on the sarcophagus, partially on the

ground (fig. 4). The growth of lichen and othervegetation suggested that the lid had not been

in place for a very long time. The 2009 excava-

tion revealed fragmented bones, pottery and

glass, but seemingly in a mixed fill. Further

investigations confirmed this theory; whereas

the upper part may have accumulated gradual-

ly, the lower part was clearly disturbed. The fill

along the west side of the sarcophagus contai-

ned much fragmented bone, and it seemed as if the bones had been cleared away in that direc-

tion. At the very bottom four craniums were

more or less well preserved. The osteological

analysis has not yet been completed, but so farfive individuals have been identified, including

one child. The sarcophagus contained a fair

amount of pottery and glass sherds, as well as

lamp fragments datable to the 5th century AD,

a silver ring, and a coin from the reign of

Justinus II (565-578 AD) (Ahrens 2010). The

dated finds indicate activity in the 5th-6th cen-

turies, but it is at present not possible to esta-

blish whether the bones are from the originaltomb use, probably in the 2nd century AD, or

Figure 3: The lid of sarcophagus 62 removed by lift (photo: The excavation project, UiO).

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if the tomb was reused later. Neither can it be

determined whether the later finds belong to

reuse burials, or if they have ended up in the

tomb by coincidence.

Artificial terraces and tile tombsThe excavation campaigns have also seen a lot

of activity outside the tombs, as illustrated on

the map (fig. 1). East of tomb 42 the fill wasmore than 2 m thick, nearly covering house

tomb 51. The arrival of geologist Stefano

Marabini gave a new understanding to the area,

as he assessed the fill to be a man-made terrace.

While removing part of this fill around tomb

51, four tile-built tombs appeared, in various

degrees of preservation. Tomb 481, oriented

roughly N-S, consisted of two layers of tiles,

but was poorly preserved with only some few bone fragments.

Tomb 512 was also constructed from two lay-

ers of tiles and oriented N-S, but was in a bet-

ter state of preservation (fig. 5). The bones were

badly deteriorated, but parts of both femurs

and the right side of the pelvic girdle remained,

and it was possible to establish that the head

had been oriented to the south. By what must

be assumed to be the left abdomen, two buckles

were found. The ring-shaped bronze buckle canbe dated to the Early Byzantine period (fig. 2).

The iron buckle was badly corroded, but pro-

bably had an oval shape, and preserved traces of

gilding. In addition several iron nails were

found.

Tomb 521 was oriented approximately E-W,

and well constructed, with four tiles in the bot-

tom, sides made from alternating courses of brick fragments and stones, and three layers of

Figure 4: Excavation in course: Camilla C. Wenn working in sarcophagus 63 at left, and Kjetil Bortheim excavating

around the mortar structure back right (photo: Bjørn-Håkon Eketuft Rygh).


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tiles on top (fig. 6). Little was preserved inside

the tomb, only some few bone fragments, and

large iron nails. Two Gloria Exercitus coins

from c. AD 330-340 (fig. 2) were found in the

stone setting around the third top tile layer

(Ahrens 2010). Tomb 550 was not excavated.

West of the tomb complex a mortar structure

and an overturned sarcophagus lid had been

partially uncovered already in 2009, and the

investigations were continued in 2010. The

irregular mortar structure was situated in the

sloping hillside, consisting of light mortar with

stones of various sizes incorporated. In places

the bedrock was visible, and was clearly cut to

form a terrace on the axis of the foundation and

back wall of tomb 187 (C84). It is probable

that the terrain had been dressed to prepare for

the construction of more house tombs. The

upper part of the mortar structure merged into

another terrace, cut into the bedrock. A terra-

cotta pipe crossed the upper terrace and led

water to or across the mortar structure. Twofurther fragments were found from the overtur-

ned sarcophagus lid, but the fragmented potte-

ry and bone around them did not seem to be in

a tomb context (Ahrens 2010). One last con-

text should be mentioned; while levelling the

ground west of sarcophagus 63, and in front of

tomb 65/C92a, a large heap of pottery ungu-

entaria and other vases, as well as some glass

vessels were found, with preliminary dates tothe Imperial period. It is plausible that this is a

dump of grave goods taken from one of the

nearby tombs, whereof tomb 65 is a likely can-

didate.

A preliminary outline of the useof the necropolisThe 2009 and 2010 excavation campaigns have

given new aspects to the supposed Romannecropolis, and it is possible to outline a long

term use of the area. The activity in the area

may in fact predate the house tombs, which are

probably from the 2nd century AD. The ungu-

entarium found in 2009 (see Wenn et al.

2010:22) next to the lid has been dated to ca.

50 BC-AD 50 (Ahrens 2010), and may belong to a grave prior to the house tombs and sarcop-

hagi. The cuts in the bedrock between tomb

187 and the complex around tomb 42 reveal

more of the large scale planning of tombs in the

Roman necropolis. The same was also apparent

inside tomb 42, where the bedrock had been

cut to even out the ground for the tomb house.

In the case of crevices in the bedrock, these

were filled with roughly chopped limestone,

and covered with a thin layer of sand and fine

gravel. A rich variety of items from the Roman

period were found inside tomb 42 and between

tombs 65 and 63. These give some insight into

the burial customs and rites in the first use pha-

ses of the tomb, though the original setting

cannot be reconstructed. It is evident that the

people originally buried in the tombs wereequipped both with personal objects and with

vessels more probably intended for grave rites.

One burial feature found in several tombs (at

least in tombs 62, 512 and 521, and to some

extent also in tomb 42) is large iron nails. Their

position in the corners of the undisturbed tile

tombs strongly suggests that they were part of a

wooden box or coffin in which the body wasplaced. This may also have been the case for

sarcophagus 62 and for one or more burials in

tomb 42. An interesting aspect here is the time

frame. Sarcophagus 62 was looted at some

point after the original burial, but contrary to

sarcophagus 63 it does not seem to have been

reused. The nails in tomb 62 were thus proba-

bly from the original burial in the late 2nd cen-

tury AD. The tile tombs are at least two centu-ries later, and the tomb type is significantly

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different. It thus seems to have been common with nailed wooden structures for burials for

several centuries. They may have come in diffe-

rent forms, either as coffins, or as walls and

covers separating the bodies in the tombs.

The stratigraphy in the aisle of tomb 42 indi-cated that Roman burials were at some point

cleared away, and swept off the benches. After

this there seems to have been a long period of

low activity, with occasional deposition and

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Figure 5: The tile layers in tomb 512, with the finds drawn in (drawing: Sven Ahrens, IAKH).

Figure 6: The tile layers in tomb 521 (from left to right; the first three taken towards E, the last towards W):Top layers 1 and 2; top layer 2; top layer 3; bottom layer and side walls (photos: The excavation project, UiO).


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redeposition of material, before the final massi-

ve dump of bones from Byzantine burials in the

late 13th century. The reuse of tomb 42 was

however only one aspect of the area in Late

Antiquity and the Byzantine period. Already in

the 4th or 5th century the area between thetomb complex and the martyrion was terraced,

partly by filling large amounts of soil among

the previous tombs. This work was probably

contemporary with the terracing works made

for the martyrion church about 70 m further

east (Ahrens 2010), and thus shows a large-

scale planning of the area in that period, lin-

king the two areas. Judging from the finds in

the tile tombs 512 and 521 on the western edge

of these terraces, these tombs belong to the

same period. Consequently, the cemetery per-

taining to the martyrion church stretched out

widely already at this early stage.

Within two centuries after this, sarcophagus 63

was reopened. The original contents were either

partially removed, or at least rummaged

through and internally displaced, either from

looting or reuse. The Byzantine lamp fragments

and coins are not likely to be the result of loo-

ting, and may indicate reuse as a tomb, but it is

also possible that the tomb remained open

from this time, and that it was used as a rubbishdump, thus explaining the finds.

We are still far from fully understanding the

East Necropolis of Hierapolis, but the past

excavation campaigns have given us much data

with which we have been able to outline a litt-

le more detailed the beginning of the Roman

necropolis as well as its Byzantine reuse, and

the relationship to the martyrion. The 2011

campaign is in planning, and with it we hope

for further insights, which in combination with

the Thanatos: Dead bodies, live data (2010)

research project with workshops and a planned

2013 conference can be expected to further the

research both of Roman necropoleis as well as

the Early Byzantine period in the area.

L I T T E R A T U R E

Ahrens, S.2010 Hierapolis 2010. Report on theexcavations by the Institute of Archaeology,conservation, and history, University of Oslo

(Aug. 17 – Sept. 10). Digital report(http://www.hf.uio.no/iakh/english/research/projects/hierapolis/reports/hierapolis-report2010.pdf, accessed 26.2.2011).

Ahrens, S., J. R. Brandt &H. Ingvaldsen2008 Utgravninger i Tyrkia 2002-2007.Nicolay Arkeologisk Tidsskrift 105:57-65.

Arthur, Paul2006 Byzantine and Turkish Hierapolis (Pamukkale): An archaeological guide.Ege Yayinlari, Istanbul.

Bortheim, K. & E. M. Sund2008 Hierapolis 2008. Inntrykk frå norskeutgravingar i italiensk regi på tyrkisk jord.Klassisk forum 2008 (2):96-103.

2009 Norske utgravninger i Hierapolis,Tyrkia 2008. Nicolay Arkeologisk Tidsskrift 108:27-31.

D’Andria, F.2003 Hierapolis of Phrygia (Pamukkale): An archaeological guide. Ege Yayinlari, Istanbul.

D’Andria, F., G. Scardozzi &A. Spanò (eds.)2008 Hierapolis di Frigia, II: Atlante di Hierapolis di Frigia. Ege Yayinlari, Istanbul.Thanatos: Dead bodies – live data. A study of

funerary material from the Hellenistic-Roman- Byzantine town Hierapolis in Phrygia, Turkey

2010 Digital project description(http://www.hf.uio.no/iakh/english/research/projects/hierapolis/pictures/Thanatosabridgedversion100310.pdf, accessed 28.02.2010).

Wenn, C. C., E. M. Sund andK. Bortheim2010 Excavating a reused tomb – challengesand methods. Tomb 42, East Necropolis of Hierapolis, Turkey. Nicolay Arkeologisk Tidsskrift 111:19-26.

a necropolis through the centuries - rome

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