KAZı SONUÇLARI - Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı

From a financial standpoint, field work has had the indispensable support of theMinistry of Foreign Aftairs, the above-mentioned universities and institutions, to whichwe must add the Institute for Aegean Prehistory of Philadelphia, the British Institute ofArchaeology of Ankara, the Istituto per l'Arte e il Restauro di Palazzo Niccolini, Florence,the San Nicol6 Sand Quarry of Ferrara, and the Turbanltalia.Work on the Hellenistie Tower (Figs. 1, 2).The tower is situated beside the 8ou/euterion, at a short distance from the entranceto the Agora and the ancient town. It was necessary to give it greater importance,since it not only represents a distinctive feature of the landscape and in terms ofthe town's history, but is also one of the few sections of the old walls stili Şitanding afterthe Sultan ordered their demolition in 1889 to build the Bebek quay at IstanbuL.At present - considering that its upper part has disappeared - the tower appearstruncated, as the building emerges from the paved floor of Imperial age betweenthe propy/aeum and the docks of the western harbour. The point where the tower originallyemerged, which is further below, can be observed in a narrow trench openedsome years ago close to the wall.The tower baseis rectangular, presenting the typical LV century B.C. defensivestructure. The blocks used are locally quarried limestone, of uniform height but ratherless regular length.Excavation mainly took place inside the tower, where we cam e across a heap ofassorted debris (bricks, tiles, mosaic tesserae, painted plaster fragments, smail piecesof marble for decorating walls or floors, pottery, amphoras, etc.) dumped in a sort of upside-downstratigraphy: in other words, with the oldest finds (from the Iate Helienisticperiod, but with an occasional item dating back to prehistoric times) uppermost and themost recent pieces underneath, directıyon the floor of the tower room. Some materials,especially an oil lamp engraved with the letters OKTA/BIOY (inventory No. 7250),can be traced back to the second half of the III century A.D., with the consequencesthat might be imagined for dating the dump itself.i am quite unable to find an explanation for this re-utilisation of the tower, unlesswe imagine an imminent danger (perhaps the Eruli) in the III century AD which led toa renewed use of this portion of city walls for defence purposes: in this case, the f100rinside the tower would have been raised or else the entire space filled in for some 10­gistic reason or to give the structure greater solidity.On the basis of the remains stili standing, it can be seen that the inner walls ofthe original room were built using decidedly smaller blocks than those laid externally;furthermore, there is a kind of "oftset" in the wall, level with a paved floor surface apparentlyobtained using the stone chips left over from working the material for the towerwalls. In the floor, some stone blocks with two rectangular cavities must have originallyhoused wooden posts. Along the eastern wall, slightly above the floor, traces ofspaced-out cramp irons can be seen. One block, on the northern wall, bears the inscriptionOu (li) adhVi Luxew. The first name appears partlyerased after the first two letters,but the supposition that it can be interpreted thus is strengthened by the localepigraphy.Externally, the excavations have also restored to viewthe upper rows of the citywalls in a north-south direction which, in Imperial times, formed the perimeter of theagora. Here it can be clearly seen how the tower is distinct from the walls.The fresh knowledge acquired about this remarkable relic of the urban defencesystem, though stili open to a number of doubts regarding its chronology, shall hopefullyprovide the starting-point for a renewed examination of the lasian defence system.Special excavation assays could be performed, for example, close to the newly-uncoveredportion of wall between the tower and the agora entrance. This hope is implicitly352