Assos. Report on the Excavations and Research into Urban Development, 2006–2011

Abstract

A joint Turkish-German project is investigating the city of Assos from its beginnings to the Byzantine period with the aim of clarifying major phases of change in its urban development. The city walls can be almost fully reconstructed in their main phase from the 4^th cent. B.C., and prove that the city covered a similar area at an earlier stage. On the acropolis, phases of occupation since the Bronze Age have been identified, as has elaborate architecture in the vicinity of the Archaic Temple of Athena. The dating of the bouleuterion by inscription together with evidence of a precursor building on the site of the north stoa prove that the model of unified construction of the agora has to be revised. The intensive survey yielded indications here and there of an ordered urban structure in pre- and early Hellenistic times which was substantially modified by the construction of Hellenistic buildings and their conversion until the early Byzantine period. Finds attest the continuous occupancy of the urban zone from the early Iron Age until the 7^th cent. A.D. The unusual building of the Ayazma church is an indication of a mid-Byzantine settlement outside the city.