St Mary´s Church of Ephesus

When at the beginning of the 20th century the long building in the NW of the ancient city of Ephe-sus was unearthed and investigated, this led to its identification with the church of St Mary where the 3rd ecumenical council of 431 AD during which Mary was dogmatized as theotokos (`gave birth to God`) was held. Since the first publication of the results in 1932 this was common knowledge. Certain doubts, however, led in 1984 to the start of a new investigation beneath the floors of the church which ended in 1998. Here, at first two results were important : 1) that the over 260 m long preceding building turned out to be the south portico of the Olympieion, the temple complex dedi-cated to emperor Hadrian into which the church was built later-on, and 2) that the eastern half of the portico contained the Bishop`s Palace. The 3rd important result was the discovery that the church in its monumental shape was only erected 70 years after the Council, but that there existed a first sacred building already in 431. Afterwards a splendid basilica on a long double row of columns with eastern apse lined with marble and decorated with mosaics was built, soon to be replaced, however, by a brick building with high vaults, probably following an earthquake. This church lasted until the first Arab attack in 654/5, after which it served as a modest centre of a graveyard which developed without and within and was used until Late Byzantine time. The new research of the building carried out according to today`s modern methods rendered a series of important evidence with the aid of which particularly the individual floors and strata and thereby building periods can be dated so that their sequence was established. But also the rich ar-chaeological material led to multiple new discoveries in the field of ceramics and glass re-search which - locally and over-regionally - is exemplary for the Roman imperial epoch as well as for the Byzantine era; and the exact documentation and anlysis of the decorated architectural elements (li-ke banisters, beams, and reliefs) rendered their classification within the overall Mediterranean By-zantine context, leading to a relatively good idea of the furnishings of the individual phases. The scientific analysis of the overall evidence is now more or less finished, so the preparation of a final extensive publication can be started. Apart from the interpretation of the stratigraphical con-text and the historical conclusions to be drawn thereof, this will include a full catalogue of each find group, and in addition also the anthropological analysis of the graveyard and an excursus on the Council Acts.

The goal of the project aimed at the conclusive analysis and interpretation of the material evidence won during the excavation campaigns carried out from 1984 to 1997. The work was divided into several topics two of which (namely minor objects and architectural décor) were executed and concluded by two international scholars (Petra Turnovsky/A and Angelica Degasperi/I) who were financed by the FWF. The results have provided impulses and decision aid for the basic archaeological adaption worked out by the excavation and project director. So e.g. dating elements won through the coins were corroborated by the sherds, and the furnishings of the building interior were made comprehensive by intensive analysis of the architectural elements. But also vice versa, e.g. certain sherd types and balustrade panel motives can be better determined because of the stratigraphical conditions and the historical frame resulting from these. Apart from these works, the anthropological analysis of the individua found in the surrounding Byzantine cemetry was realized so that - practically for the first time - an archaeological-biological synopse of this kind of cemetry can be submitted. As an overall consequence from this cooperation, the new picture of the Ephesian Church of Mary has much changed, for even older interpretations that were modified during the course of the project could be further altered and sharpened. So the original building, the South Portico of the large "Hadrianic" Olympieum, could be much better comprehended in its parts and be dated later than previously assumed. Its first re-use appears to be actually related to the council of 431 AD, but the great metropolis of Mary (together with the adjoining Bishop`s Palace) was built only many decades later (around 500). Presumably after the earthquake of 557, it was completely rebuilt followed by alterations in the liturgically important area, the Presbytery. The destruction caused by the Arab invasion of 655 did not bring about the end but the reduction of the remaining church which still served the veneration of Mary and as a centre of the cemetry which now spread not only outside but also in the interior. As such it was used until late Middle Ages.