Day Eight

(Courtney, being all imperial :) )

(Courtney lecturing with the terrace of her site in the background.)

(Some members of our group making their way up the monumental stairway.)

(The view of Domitian Street and Plaza from the terrace of the Temple of the Sebastoi.)

Hi everyone! I can hardly believe it is already Friday night, once again. We only have a few more days in Turkey!!... 

Today was a really full day!--our major day at the Ephesus dig: site presentations throughout the ancient city by the remaining students in our group. I've posted some pics of Courtney giving her presentation at the Temple of the Sebastoi (or emperors). Her site was really the most significant civic and religious site of the city (...and I'm not just saying that because she's my roomie!). I've tried to include some pics where you can see how prominently situated the temple would have been on the terrace in the middle of the city. Thanks to Gingas (once again), we were allowed to climb up to the terrace where the temple would have sat via the monumental stairway! It was awesome; no one gets to do this normally. (One of the pics shows some people in our group making their way up the stairway. The other is the view of the city from the top of the terrace.)

This temple, and the provincial imperial cult it signified, would have been a really outstanding part of the identity of Ephesus, particularly in light of the city's shift away from the physical location of the Artemision (on the other side of Mt. Panayr dag) and psychological shift toward Roman rule. We really got a chance to think out loud, together, about the implications of this by exploring all of the structures of the city. It was a really great day for advancing my thinking about Ephesus. I am so hopeful and excited about how this trip and all of its learning will inspire my dissertation writing!

Tonight, we all ventured out together into the city suburbs just a little more, and ate dinner at this amazing municipal/community-owned building. It was the best evening yet! A really wonderful dinner, live music, and so much fun. After dinner, we got some baklava and took it back to our hotel. We gathered in a basement room, full of couches and with a lit fireplace, drank our wine, ate baklava, and chatted with each other and with our Turkish hotel hosts (Mustafa and Belyle). It was really a great day full of thinking and learning, followed by a really nice evening. What a phenomenal opportunity this has been...

Tomorrow, we tour the famous "slope houses" with one of the Austrian archaeologists who has been principal in excavating them, Hilke Thur. She will be taking us through the houses, giving us the inside information on this very exciting dig site within the ancient city. There is so much important insight to be gained from thinking about how the people of Ephesus lived within their city. We are so excited. And having Hilke with us is a really rare opportunity!!

Hope everyone is well!

Love,

Krista