Localizing and Reconstructing the Gymnasion of Patara An Interdisciplinary Approach

Year 2024, Issue: 27, 247 - 291, 15.12.2024

Şevket Aktaş , Mustafa Koçak , Andrew Lepke , Feyzullah Şahin

Abstract

Although a universal feature of the Greek polis and, despite ample epigraphic evidence, the gymnasia of the Hellenistic and Roman East, especially in Lycia, are understudied. In this paper we present our initial findings relating to the gymnasion of Patara. Through an interdisciplinary approach we can identify the site of the gymnasion and reconstruct how it was integrated into the city center in terms
of urban planning. By analysing the relationship of the gymnasion to other buildings in the vicinity, we can even trace developments in the building history of the gymnasion. This paper presents numerous archaeological findings from the city center of Patara. It also presents three hitherto unpublished inscriptions, one of which was set up in honor of the Patarean benefactor Ti. Claudius Flavianus Eudemos.

Keywords

Lycia, Patara, Roman architecture, gymanison, bath

Thanks

We would like to express our sincere thanks to the following persons and institutions for allowing the publication and for their intellectual support: the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Türkiye; Prof. Dr. Havva Işık, head of the Patara excavations; and Prof. Dr. Christof Schuler. We thank Mikail Duggan for proofreading. We would also like to thank archaeologist Şafak M. Türkoğlu and architect Songül Sancak for preparing the photos, orthomosaics and drawings, and Dr. Matthias Pichler for his corrections and suggestions.

References

• Aktaş, Ş. 2013. “Patara Ana Caddesi.” Ph.D. diss., Akdeniz University.
• Aktaş, Ş. 2016a. “Säulenstraße und zentrale Agora.” In Patara. Lykiens Tor zur römischen Welt, edited by H. İşkan, Chr. Schuler, Ş. Aktaş, D. Reitzenstein, A. Schmölder-Veit, and M. Koçak, 79-82. Darmstadt: Philip von Zabern.
• Aktaş, Ş. 2016b. “Patara Nero Hamamı Gymnasium Propylonu.” In Lykiarkhissa. Havva İşkan’a Armağan, edited by E. Dündar, Ş. Aktaş, M. Koçak, and S. Erkoç, 1-14. Istanbul: Ege.