Byzantine Small Finds from Ephesos

The material culture of the Byzantine period in Ephesos includes not only jewellery and garment decoration but magical artefacts and small finds with liturgical background, stamps, medical and cosmetic instruments, counters, scales and weights, tools and weapons as well as implements including various lighting devices, locks and keys. Also multiple materials were involved: luxury goods were made from precious metals and ivory, however, ordinary jewellery and dress ornaments were usually fabricated from nonferrous metals and glass. The luxury goods from sacral/religious areas include processional crosses, incense burners, polykandela and votive icons. However, a distinction between secular and sacred use is not always easy, because objects with Christian images and symbols do not necessarily relate to the ecclesiastical sphere. For example, the small cross pendants and reliquary crosses or encolpia can also be interpreted as an expression of personal religiosity and private piety. The Ephesian small finds examined in this study include 1100 artefacts, which derive from different localities and contexts (settlement areas and graves) throughout Ephesos and its surroundings. Thanks to the cooperation with the Ephesos Archaeological Museum in Selçuk, it was possible to include objects whose exact provenance is unknown (scattered finds, which were handed over to the museum by local people) or finds which originate from Turkish excavations. Likewise the Byzantine artefacts, which have been taken from Ephesos to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna as early as the late 19th and early 20th centuries, were incorporated. Thus a unique opportunity of a presentation of the material of an entire region was offered. This is particularly relevant in terms of large groups of objects such as finger rings, belt buckles or crosses whose analysis enabled us to trace regional trends and local preferences of the population and to confront them with other well-documented regions. The declared goal was to give a most complete presentation of the Ephesian material including a contextual analysis. In this context, a number of detailed aspects was of interest, such as questions on the manufacturing techniques and the chemical composition of individual objects. The analysis of the Byzantine small finds was therefore carried out both archaeologically as well as technologically, which ought to allow a holistic view of the material. Through collaborations with specialists from different disciplines and their respective methods and different research areas (workshops, techniques, chemical composition and origin of the metal) this study should result in a comprehensive view of Ephesos in the Byzantine period.