Pergamon – Report on the Projects of the 2018 Campaign

Abstract

The Pergamon Excavation in 2018 concentrated on follow-up work to the concluded research programme and on preparations for the new long-term project »The transformation of the micro-region Pergamon between the Hellenistic and the Roman imperial period«. Archaeological and construction-history investigations of an extra-urban thermal bath from the Roman imperial period were commenced. Geophysical prospection supplied important information on the full extent of the bath. An urgent necessity in research into the imperial-period city was embarked on with the newly initiated investigation of the Pergamon amphitheatre. Follow-up investigations at the monumental tumulus Yığma Tepe using geophysical methods permitted a concrete appraisal of several anomalies inside the burial mound. Projects in the surroundings of Pergamon revealed an increased number of sites especially on the west coast of the Kane Peninsula and in the western foothills of the Yünt Dağ Mountains, affording new insights into the function of the micro-region as a ›visual region‹ and extending the spectrum of rural settlement forms. Monument conservation continued at the Red Hall and the gymnasium in line with the new overall conservation-plan. Reconstruction of a corner of the peristyle of the palaestra in the gymnasium was completed. A further focus of work lay on damage documentation in the gymnasium’s east baths.