Aphrodisias

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Dates

Unspecified

Garden Description

Aphrodisias (Lelégōn Pólis, Megálē Pólis, Ninóē, Stauroúpolis), in Caria, was home to the cult image of Aphrodite of Aphrodisias. Located about 100 miles from the port at Smyrna, the area featured important marble quarries of the Hellenistic and Roman era. An abundance of sculpture has been found during excavations, and inscriptions indicate that the art landscape as well as architectural settings. An inscription (MAMA VIII, 448) indicates that Artemidorus Pedias, during his term as strategos, promised to "adorn a palm grove with a statue of Hermes, and a gilded Aphrodite with Erotes holding lamps on either side and a marble Eros in Front" (Roueché, 70.) The location of this garden is not specified. Robert suggests, based on the location of the inscription, that it was in the temenos of Aphrodite (Robert, 257). Roueché conjectures that it perhaps lay on the east side of the agora, based upon the presence of Hermes Agoraios (MAMA VIII, 406, 445, 446, and CIG 2770). She proposes that the grove was later embellished by the fountain at the agora gate, where inscriptions (Hell. IV, 131-2) honor the conversion of the gate into a fountain, alluding to the Nymphs of the "place of the palms" (RRR Smith et al. 2018) Roueché notes that this palm-grove, with its walks, statuary, and fountains was clearly an elaborately decorated park. The agora and temenos have been identified. The south agora (215 x 70m) features a long, monumental basin in its center.

Plans

Plan of the South Agora, also called as the Place of Palms at Aphrodisias

Credit: Mica and Ahmet Ertegün South Agora Pool Project

Images

Place of Palms, South Agora, 1st century A.D (Courtesy R.R.R. Smith et al.-The Mica and Ahmet Ertegün South Agora Pool Project)

Credit: R.R.R. Smith et al. The Mica and Ahmet Ertegün South Agora Pool Project

South Agora – Place of Palms (looking west). Conservation rig over pool perimeter at south-east corner.

Credit: Courtesy R.R.R. Smith et al., 2018.

Bibliography

T. Reinach, "Inscriptions d'Aphrodisias" REG 19 (1906), n. 15, p. 107 (worldcat)
Charlotte Roueché, Joyce Maire Reynolds, Aphrodisias in late antiquity: the late Roman and Byzantine Inscriptions including texts from the excavations conducted at Aphrodisias by Kenan T. Erim. London: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, 1989, Pp. 70, 71, 78. (worldcat)
Wilson, A. I. (2015). Water, nymphs and a palm grove: monumental water display at Aphrodisias (R. R. R. Smith, J. Lenaghan, A. Sokolicek, & K. Welch, Eds.), Aphrodisias Papers 5: Excavation and Research at Aphrodisias, 2006-2012, Portsmouth, Journal of Roman Archaeology. Supplement 103, 100-135. (worldcat)

Aphrodisias on Gardens of the Roman Empire