KAZI SONUÇLARI TOPLANTISI 1. CİLT - kulturvarliklari.gov.tr

The Roman RoadThe ancient roadway that runs in a north–south direction throughPessinus was a major component of the city in its local and broader context.Sections of this road have been previously surveyed, near İstiklalbağı andnorth of Ballıhisar/Pessinus, 3 but no detailed observations or maps havebeen published. During the 2010 season, approximately 2.2km of the actualembanked and cobbled road surface was documented, with a total of 7.2kmof the route mapped between Pessinus and Tekören (Fig. 4).The ancient roadway follows an approximate north–south route,keeping to higher ground where possible and gradually descending fromthe Sivrihisar uplands down towards the dry valleys around Ballıhisar.The northern sections, near İstiklalbağı, are very well preserved and oftenclearly visible across the landscape, partially due to the pale coloured stoneused in the embankment and road surfacing. The surfacing cobbles here areof mixed stones, mainly local marble, quartz, limestone, schist, granite andconglomerates, as well as unusual reddish brown stones that may be ferrousslag (only in Section 1, immediately west of the İstiklalbağı Roman quarry).In many locations the embankment and stones form the edges of modernfields where the embedded carriageway was too difficult to plough out orremove. The ancient road can also be discerned from satellite imagery as alinear feature running along the edges of some of the modern field boundaries.Four sections of ancient road were mapped (Fig. 4): Section 1, to the west of theİstiklalbağı Roman marble quarry; Section 2, near modern Ballıhisar-İstiklalbağı-Sivrihisar road junction; Section 3, alongside the modern north–south Ballıhisarroad, 3km north of Ballıhisar: Section 4, in fields <strong>1.</strong>8km north of Ballıhisar.Pessinus and Its SurroundingsThe main purpose of extensive surveys in the surroundings of Pessinuswas to record the location and attributes of archaeological features –both previously documented and undocumented or unpublished. There3 Devreker and Waelkens 1984, 51, fig. 29; Devreker and Vermeulen 1996, 77; 1997, 132.115