Excavations in the Sanctuary of Aphrodite on Zeytintepe near Miletus in 2003–2005

Abstract

In the years 2003–2005 the excavation work at the sanctuary of Aphrodite on Zeytintepe hill was focused on a flank approx. 50 m wide and 80 m long, extending westwards to the  summit of the hill. In the 2003 campaign, late Archaic terracing was discovered here, laid out over a limestone quarry. Stone from the quarry was used as building material when the sanctuary was remodelled. Subsequently a terrace was constructed over the quarry, in the course of which very large quantities of votive offerings came to be buried in the earth. The votives were found scattered throughout the filling layers generally without any particular find context, although occasionally votive sets consisting of several pieces came to light, evidently carefully arranged in the fill. The burial of a human corpse in a filling layer of the terrace, exposed in the 2005 campaign, is an unusual find in a sanctuary.