Following the Harbour Street which is approximately 500 metres long one reaches the Harbour of Ephesus which has today turned into a very small lake. In the Hellenistic period and at the beginning of the Roman period the harbour was the best protected mercantile port of the Mediterranean.
At the end of the street it opened towards the sea in the form of an ellipse and was connected to it by a narrow channel. This channel was bordered on either side by marble piers. Close to the sea there are the remains of a building once belonging to the Ephesian customs. The width of the harbour can be easily seen from today’s outcrop of plants and vegetation.
In excavations carried out in the last three years quays, piers and a lot of materials which had been dropped into the sea were discovered. In these excavations were also found very near the quay of the harbour traces of the road beginning at the Curetes Street and reaching Ortygia after passing through the Gate of Hadrian.
All through history the harbour of Ephesus was to be continually silted and then each time with great difficulty cleared and made navigable again. At the end of the 4th century it was seen that the clearing process was futile and it was abandoned. Thus, the mercantile harbour to which Ephesus was indebted for its riches was buried into history.
A multi lined inscription used as an ambo, found during the excavations in the Church of St. John and now on display in the Ephesus Museum, comprises the Ephesian harbour laws. The inscription also known as the Monument of Ephesus indicated the rates of the customs duties. In the Roman period tax revenue was sold against cash to tax farmers who would collect the taxes as foreseen by the law. The transport of the emperor and the army and personal belongings were not taxed.
Harbour of Ephesus
From the theatre down the long length of the Arcadian way you will find yourself staring into a shimmering hedge of dense green undergrowth. Viewed from above, the undergrowth takes the shape of the harbour of ancient Ephesus.
Ephesus was originally built at the mouth of the Caÿster river, on the coast of the Aegean sea, but the river kept silting up. Attalus II of Pergamum (160-138 BCE) rebuilt the harbour, a proconsul of Nero dredged it (ca. 54-68 CE), and the Emperor Hadrian (117-138 CE) attempted to divert the river itself, but to no avail. Today the river is a tiny stream and the sea, a good 5 kilometers away.
According to Acts 18:19, Paul stopped in Ephesus at the end of his second missionary journey en route from Corinth to Jerusalem. At the end of his third missionary journey, however, he landed at the “nearby” port of Miletus and sent a message requesting the Ephesian elders to meet him in Miletus “so that he would not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost” (Acts 20:16 NASB). Presumably he was concerned about being held up by the church in Ephesus, although I am tempted to imagine traffic delays because of construction in the Ephesian harbour early in Nero’s reign.
In another post, I’ll consider how the Ephesian elders got to Miletus: Would it have been expensive to travel by boat from Ephesus to Miletus? What would it have been like to travel by land? I don’t know about the former, but I can begin to imagine the latter.
Ephesus Harbour Necropolis. Excavation area with tomb building to the north of the Harbour Canal in Ephesus.
According to ancient practice, the city of Ephesos was surrounded by extensive cemeteries (necropoleis). Travelers approaching an ancient city first had to pass a city of the dead. The location of these burials along highly frequented transportation routes means that they were very conspicuous and continually confronted the living with the uncertainties, expectations, and individual beliefs surrounding death and afterlife. The tombs did not only serve as commemorative monuments but differences in their appearance, scale, and decoration indicate that they were also a means of self-definition and documentation of social and hierarchical standing.
While the study of Greco-Roman necropoleis has always been of utmost importance at many sites, the systematic research of the cities of the dead in the province of Asia and in particular in Ephesos – detached from individual monuments – continues to be overlooked. Concurrent and extensive research of the necropoleis surrounding the Hellenistic-Roman city has been absent to date with the exception of several rescue excavations and selective excavations – for example along the Stoa of Damianos, in the so-called State Agora, or in the intra-urban tombs.
In 2005 and 2007, the OeAI carried out rescue excavations to the south and north of the Harbour Canal following an attempt to illegally excavate sarcophagi. Such activities have already led to significant damage and a massive loss of information and regularly reoccur in the winter in regions removed from the tourist paths. Therefore, in 2008 by express wish of the Ministry for Culture and Tourism in Ankara and the excavation director in Ephesos the systematic archaeological investigation of the necropoleis was begun in order to study the extent, historical development, arrangement, and appearance of this mortuary landscape using modern scientific methods. The Austrian Science Fund (FWF-Project P22083-G19) financially supports this project.
The systematic exploration of the Ephesian necropoleis depends on the cooperation of an interdisciplinary group of scientists from the following disciplines: archaeology, classical studies, architectural history, geophysics, archaeozoology, geoarchaeology and anthropology. This study will provide information about the history of the necropoleis, their appearance and size, their integration into the topography and the architectural design. Broader social issues will also be discussed, such as changes in burial customs and rites, and the social structure of the population of the capital of the Roman province of Asia in the transitional period from paganism to Christianity. Surface surveys as well as geophysical prospection (ground-penetrating radar and magnetometry) of the region are the basis for selective excavations that will clarify the development and the physical extent of the necropoleis.
Since a complete excavation of the necropoleis is not possible, the stratigraphic excavations are concentrated on larger, connected areas that will offer a representative sample regarding chronology, structure, and appearance of the individual tombs and graves. The focus of the anthropological analyses are questions regarding sex, age, familial relationships, consumption patterns, and causes of death. The evaluation of the decoration, size, and structure of the graves, of the grave goods, and of possible epigraphic finds will illustrate the burial customs and social structure of the Ephesians. The contextual evaluation of the ceramics and small finds from the necropoleis will clarify basic questions concerning the phases of usage and later reuse.
Finally, geoarchaeological investigations will provide models for the complex silting-up processes as well as the fluctuating sea and groundwater levels over the course of centuries that led to the installation of the Harbour Canal enabling the construction of the Harbour Necropolis.
Consequently, the project concentrates on an almost unstudied region of Ephesos as well as on a field of research that is currently not well established in the Roman province of Asia. The results of the study of the necropoleis should be understood as a significant contribution to and a call for new research approaches in this region.
As a transhipment point for goods and wares, the harbour of Ephesus contributed significantly to the prosperity of the antique city.
The harbour bay was first artificially enclosed during the rule of the Pergamene King Attalos II (159 – 138 BC); its appearance, still visible in the landscape today, dates back to building activities of the early Roman Imperial Period (1st century AD). The harbour bay itself was surrounded by warehouses. Three monumental gates led from the harbour into the city.
Over the course of previous millennia, the region around Ephesus experienced far-reaching paleogeographical and paleo-ecological transformations. Since the Calcolithic Period (about 4500 ─ 3500 BC) the continuous sedimentation of the river Küçük Menderes created deltas, by means of which the former bay of the sea was completely silted up. This process, drastically accelerated by human intervention in the Hellenistic Period (334 ─ 133 BC) and above all in the Roman period, greatly influenced the location of Ephesus and its significance as an important port- and trade-metropolis in the centuries around the birth of Christ and thereafter. The translocation of the coastline towards the west ultimately played a role in the gradual decline of the city in the post-Roman period.
Due to the fact that the beach continuously shifted to the west, it was repeatedly necessary to relocate the harbour installations, in order to enable access for trade ships. Because of progressive silting up, an artificial channel was laid out between the Roman harbour bay and the open sea. Latest paleogeographical research confirmed that due to the artificially deepened waterway of the harbour channel it was possible to use the harbour bay over a long period ─ from the Hellenistic Period maybe until the 7th century AD.
The most important connection between the harbour and the centre of the city was the Arkadiane Street. The boulevard (about 500 m long and 11 m wide) started at the Middle Harbour Gate and ended up at the Great Theatre.
The appearance of the street derives from a rebuilding during the reign of Emperor Arcadius (395 – 408 AD). An inscription referring to a regulation regarding the public lighting of the street is dated to the 6th century AD. In the Justinianic Period (527 – 565 AD), the so-called Four-Column Monument with sculptures representing members of the imperial family or dignitaries was erected.
Today the visitor can only imagine the former importance and monumentality of the street. Most part towards the harbour is covered by bushes and is not clearly visible.
Cleaning and Excavation of the Arkadiane Street towards the Harbour
In 2012, the research at the Ephesian harbour marks one of the main projects at the Ephesus Excavations. By the geophysical survey of the complete harbour area, including the harbour channel, the large-scale documentation of the harbour area will be finished.
Second, the Arkadiane Street will be cleaned and excavated. Primarily, work will focus on the part towards the Middle Harbour Gate that has not been under archaeological research so far.
The uncovering of the complete boulevard is of some importance for the site management of Ephesus. It is the first step for realising a new visitor’s entrance near the harbour area.
Visitors will then be able to enter the ancient city from the harbour as it was possible in antiquity.