The Episcopal Palace at Miletus. Late Roman Peristyle House and Early Byzantine Residence

https://doi.org/10.34780/a847-7wqa

Authors

  • Philipp Niewöhner [Author]

Abstract

The Episcopal Palace in the centre of Miletus was discovered in the early 20th century by Theodor Wiegand and excavated in the 1970s by Wolfgang Müller-Wiener, but it was never published. This is being done now, following additional excavations and a re-examination of the complex in 2013. The Episcopal Palace dates from the first half of the 5th cent. A.D., when it replaced a late Roman peristyle house from the 3rd cent. A.D. that had undergone renovation in the 4th cent. Much later and long after its destruction the palace was superseded by a potter’s workshop, when during the 14th/15th cent. Miletus was part of the Turkish emirate of Menteşe. The Episcopal Palace was closely associated with the church of St Michael that flanked the residence to the south and served as the bishop’s oratory and palace chapel. The chapel, a vestibule in the form of an elongated apsidal hall, a relatively large main hall, and the absence of a central peristyle court distinguish the palace from the peristyle houses of late antiquity and link it to the Byzantine Palace at Ephesus. The new features may reflect the establishment of a new elite of clerical office-bearers that replaced the leading families of old.

Keywords:

Ceramics, Asia Minor, Menteşe, mosaics, Late Antiquity

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Published

2017-07-18

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How to Cite

Niewöhner, P. (2017) “The Episcopal Palace at Miletus. Late Roman Peristyle House and Early Byzantine Residence”, Archäologischer Anzeiger, 2, pp. 181–273. doi:10.34780/a847-7wqa.