The city walls of Pisidian Antioch

The city walls of Antioch in Pisidia (TR) are among the largest and most complex remains of this provincial capital, located in the Turkish Lakes Region, at the former borders of Pisidia and Phrygia. The Antiochene fortifications, commonly and roughly dated to Roman Imperial and late antique times, are best suited for a chronological, functional and semantic analysis that will not only enhance our knowledge about this specific monument, but that will also help to understand the broader context of these walls: what did the people of Antioch want to pursue with their fortifications? Are they a mere rampart or do they also transport the importance and the particular identity of Antioch as a Pisidian capital? By highlighting and trying to understand the specific role the fortifications played for Antioch this project will also serve as a case study for further general comprehensive fortification research in Roman and late antique times. Despite their good preservation, at least in some parts, the city walls have never been studied in detail. The proposed project aims to establish an architectural history to clarify how these walls functioned both as a military building - protecting and limiting the settled area - and as an integrative part of the urban architecture - linking the city to the hinterland by means of gates. Antioch, founded by the Seleucids in the 3rd c. B.C., played an important role as the administrative center for this region at least after it had received the status of Roman colony in 25 B.C. (Colonia Caesarea Antiochia). Eventually the city became the capital of the new Roman province of Pisidia under the reign of Diocletian. Building programs especially in the reign of Augustus and Tiberius award Antioch the role of carrying the "Roman idea" of culture and administration into this region, expressed in cult buildings such as a temple for the emperor cult (Augustus), large squares and streets and a magnificent aqueduct ending in a large fountain, but also in the division of the city into seven vici following the model of Rome. Being a center of early Christianity since St. Paul visited the place during his missionary expeditions, several large churches were built on prominent spots in the city. Antioch was settled until the 12th cent. A.D. The fortification system is highly complex and is furnished with particular architectonical features, such as bonded round twin towers and terraces. The Hadrianic city gate, originally a free standing building at the entrance of Antioch, was transformed in later times and incorporated into the presumably late antique fortifications. The defensive walls offer a series of topics which are relevant to the understanding of Antioch: The chronology of the city walls will help to place the fortifications into the historic relevant periods of Pisidia. A further important topic are the walling techniques. Older parts of the walls consist of carefully hewn blocks and opus caementitium, whereas later stretches of the walls were almost completely built of spolia. Identification and the establishment of distributional patterns of building material will be an important part in this study in order to evaluate the function and the effect of the city walls - i.e. their semantic meaning. A topographical model shall help to visualize the results. It is planned to publish the final results in a monograph. The project includes specialists of architectural research, surveying and archaeology is tightly connected to the current research in Antioch, undertaken by the representatives of the Süleyman Demirel University of Isparta, M. Özhanli and F. Özcan.