Fifteen Eighty Four

Nestled beneath the “pointed peaks” of the legendary Tmolos Mountains in Turkey, the Temple and Sanctuary of Artemis at Sardis is one of the most impressive monuments of classical antiquity. Dating to the Hellenistic period, it was undertaken, not by a king, but, we believe, by Stratonike, a“fiery” Hellenistic queen, and redesigned under the Roman emperor Hadrian, when it became the center of an imperial cult.  Though gigantic in size and boasting a non-canonical form in the imperial period, this wonderous building is less known than the Ephesus temple to the same goddess, much lauded in ancient texts but with scant archaeological remains.  We explore the Temple of Artemis at Sardis from multiple perspectives.  Melding historical, architectural, archaeological, and religious approaches, the book provides new insights into its unorthodox design, the changing nature of religious and cult practices at the temple, the relationship to its setting, and its benefactors. Simultaneously a historiographic analysis reveals how ideas about the structure evolved in post antique examinations.  An initial chapter examines early encounters by early travelers from the west who sketched, painted, described, and admired the eye-catching remains, including two monumental columns over 17 meters tall still standing today.  The close reading of the building’s remains reveals a complex evolution.  While most past studies have concentrated on the “finished” appearance of ancient structures, we approach architecture as a form that is always becoming.  Decades of archaeological research by Yegül indicate that for centuries the Temple at Sardis stood as a simple box, a cella with no surrounding columns.  Yegül asks if the temple’s original conception for a surrounding colonnade in a pseudodipteral configuration fostered an awareness, if not a direct connection, with the influential architect Hermogenes, though the full complement of surrounding columns was never erected.  Under the emperor Hadrian in the second century CE, the Romans reworked the temple as a ‘fashionable’ pseudodipteros by erecting a gigantic mantle of columns and dividing the cella into back-to-back chambers: one for Artemis, and the other for the Imperial cult, a unique configuration seen only in distant Rome with the Temple of Venus and Roma.  

The deep porch recalls western prototypes and implies possible architectural experimentation, such as a possible opening to the sky.   Throughout we explore numerous engaging interactions to reveal the life of the building and its meaning to the community.  An inscription on one of the Roman columns talks to us across the centuries, telling viewers that it “was the first to rise.”  An earlier inscription carved on the Temple’s wall tells the story of Mnesimachos, a shrewd entrepreneur who borrowed a large sum from temple funds and ultimately reneged on the deal and never paid it back.  This multidisciplinary and comparative examination of the Sardis temple allows us to place this extraordinary work in the larger context of Greek and Roman religious architecture in Asia Minor.   Important and picturesque examples from other sites are discussed and depicted.  Drawing upon our architectural training the final chapter explores diverse aspects of design, building form, and conceptualization.  Richly illustrated with more than 250 color images and plates, including historical paintings and original drawings, the volume also includes digital hypothetical reconstructions of the temple by John Goodinson which reveal the possible impact and experience of the enormous structure in its evocative sanctuary setting below the Sardis acropolis.