View of the Lower Agora and the Roman Baths complex, Sagalassos, Turkey
© Carole Raddato
As mentioned in part 1, Sagalassos made the headlines in the international press in 2007 and 2008, due to the unexpected discovery of three extraordinary statues of the emperors Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius and empress Faustina the Elder, wife of the emperor Antoninus Pius. The statues were originally located in the frigidarium, the coldest and largest room in the Roman baths at Sagalassos.
The Roman Baths complex, built on a hill east of the Lower Agora early in the second century A.D., where the colossal marble statues of Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius and Faustina the Elder were found
© Carole Raddato
The Roman Baths complex, currently undergoing excavations
© Carole Raddato
Archaeologists were excavating the site of a huge Roman bath complex, whose construction began under Hadrian, when they found the lower part of a leg and a foot with an exquisitely decorated sandal. The foot alone was about 0.8 meters long. The head of the emperor Hadrian (0.70 m high and with a diameter of 0.51 m) was found next to it. Traces of red paint have survived on both the hair and sandal. Given the dimensions of the recovered body parts, the total statue must have been nearly 5 m high.
The head of the colossal marble statue of Hadrian found at the Sagalassos Roman Baths complex in 2007, Burdur Museum
© Carole Raddato
This head was the centerpiece of the exhibition Hadrian: Empire and Conflict that run at the British Museum of London in 2008.
Lower part of a leg and foot with sandal of the over life-size statue of Hadrian found at Sagalassos in 2007, Burdur Museum
© Carole Raddato
In 2009, the head, right arm and lower legs of a huge statue of Marcus Aurelius were uncovered.
The head of the colossal marble statue of Marcus Aurelius found at the Sagalassos Roman Baths complex in 2008, Burdur Museum
© Carole Raddato
Lower part of a leg and foot with sandal of the over life-size statue of Marcus Aurelius found at Sagalassos in 2008, Burdur Museum
© Carole Raddato
Hadrian’s role in attributing privileges to Sagalassos (center of the Pisidian Imperial cult; granting the city the title of “first city of Pisidia”) explains the size of the statue as well as the fact that he also was honoured with a new temple and with a late Hadrianic nymphaeum containing a gilded bronze statue in its upper floor.
The ruins of the Temple of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, Lower Agora
© Carole Raddato
The temple was dedicated to the emperor Antoninus Pius, the imperial house and the Divine Hadrian under whose reign its construction started, and to the ancestral deities, as could be determined by the building inscription. Until the late 4th, early 5th c. AD, the temple would remain the major sanctuary for the Imperial cult.
The remains of the Hadrianic Nympheum located on top of the terrace limiting the north side of the Lower Agora
© Carole Raddato
Statue of Poseidon from Hadrian’s Nympheaum at Sagalassos, Burdur Museum
© Carole Raddato
Visitors at Sagalassos would have entered the ancient city via a broad and bright white avenue (colonnaded street), passing the promontory of the Temple of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius in the south and continuing towards the Lower Agora.
The north-south Colonnaded Street
© Carole Raddato
View of the Lower Agora and the Colonnaded street
© Carole Raddato
Under the reign of Trajan (98-117 AD), the first monumental nymphaeum of Sagalassos was built on the north side of the Lower Agora. It was the first large fountain greeting travelers entering the city from the south via the colonnaded street. In Severan times, the façade of the Trajanic phase was partly dismantled and a new one – identical to the former – was erected ca. 0.40 m in front of it. The nymphaeum, excavated in 2000 and 2001, was found in a rather good state of preservation.
The Trajanic then Severan Nymphaeum, Lower Agora
© Carole Raddato
The Eastern Portico of the Lower Agora
© Carole Raddato
Further photos from Sagalassos can be viewed from my image collection on Flickr.
Source: http://www.sagalassos.be/
