Der Tumulus auf dem İlyastepe und die pergamenischen Grabhügel

Abstract

In September 2010, the looted burial chamber of a tumulus on the mountain İlyastepe, not far from Pergamon, was investigated and documented by archaeologists. Following the investigation, the well preserved wings of the stone doors of the chamber were transported to Bergama Museum in a spectacular salvage operation. The tumulus is notable for its highly exposed location, suggesting that it was commissioned by an important personage. This is indicated also by the elaborate architecture of the burial chamber, which is the earliest proof of a barrel-vault known in Pergamon. The excavators were particularly fortunate in finding remains of the principal burial underneath the spoil left by the grave robbers. In addition an unguentarium was recovered from the sarkophagus which provides a terminus post quem in the 2nd half of the 3rd century B.C. for the dating of the burial complex. Anthropological examination of the human skeletal remains attests that the deceased in the sarkophagus was a male at least aged 60. Remains of at least two further individuals from cremations could be identified. Classifying the tumulus on İlyastepe among the sepulchral monuments of Pergamon substantiates the dating of the burial mound to the 2nd half of the 3rd century B.C. and shows parallels with the architecture under the reign of Attalos I.