Die Siedlungsgeschichte Pergamons – Überblick und kritische Revision

Mit einem Appendix von Anneke Keweloh-Kaletta

Abstract

Until recently, Pergamon’s settlement history was told according to doctrines already formulated in the early 20^th c. Now a re-evaluation becomes apparent. For instance, the idea of a groundbreaking urbanistic initiative under Philetairos can hardly be maintained anymore. At the same time, there is increasing evidence for the existence of a fortified polis with urbanistic standard repertoire already in the late 4^th c. B.C. Pergamon´’s upgrading to an internationally competitive Hellenistic residence took place in the 2^nd c. B.C., when both the representative city center and the slopes of the city-hill were integrated in a general project of urban design. However, the largest part of the newly acquired settlement area was only built up in the 1^st c. B.C., which appears as another key-period of Pergamon’s urban development. The urban area doubled once again in the Roman imperial age. There is no evidence, however, for the repeatedly assumed shift of the settlement from the city-hill to the plain. Both zones rather acted in a complementary way until the end of the Byzantine era. The reasons for these developments can only be comprehended in the context of Pergamon’s micro-region, which is included in the analysis of the settlement’s history for the first time.