The Marble Court of Sardis and Historical Reconstruction

One of the major monuments uncovered by the Harvard-Cornell Archaeological Expedition in Sardis, Turkey, is a gigantic bath-gymnasium complex of the imperial type dating from the 2nd century A.C. (FIG. 1 ). The eastern half of the complex is occupied by a large open courtyard surrounded on all sides by colonnades, the palaestra; the western half consists of many large vaulted halls and rooms arranged symmetrically around a major east-west axis and is intended for bathing. At the west end of the palaestra is an impressive vestibule displaying a rich, two-storied arrangement of colonnaded architecture, dedicated to the Imperial Cult (FIG. 2). This hall, named ‘Marble Court’ by the excavators on account of its rich marble architecture and decoration, was reconstructed from the ground up by a joint team of American and Turkish architects, archaeologists, and epigraphists between the years 1964 and 1973. Together with the reconstruction of the Stoa of Altalus in the Athenian Agora, the Marble Court of Sardis may be the most extensive reconstruction project undertaken in the Aegean in the last few decades

Agora · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Excavation · Turkish · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Archaeological Research and Protection · Architecture · Classical Antiquity Studies · Geology · History

• The Eighteenth Campaign at Sardis (1975)

  Crawford H Greenewalt, Kubilây Nayir et al.•Bulletin of the American Schools…•1977

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