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EXCAVATION AND RESEARCH AT ELAIUSSA SEBASTE:THE 2001 CAMPAIGNEugenia EQUINI SCHNEIDER*The 2001 campaign at Elaiussa Sebaste took place in the months from Augustto October", and .was marked primarily by the welcomed and unexpected visit to Elaiussaof Minister Istemihan Talay and by the generous offer to the mission on the partof the Mersin Ili to use the old school building in Ayaş. This is a nice building, with severalrooms which have now been restored and converted into storerooms for the excavationsfindings, offices and a rest house. Part of the outside area is shortly going tobe turned into a smail open-air museum.The excavation activity was concentrated on the western side of the promontorywhich closed to the east the large northern harbour basin.North-Western Seeter- The Port' s Baths (Figs. 1, 2)The investigations conducted in the north-western seeter of this area were aimedmainiyat completing the exeavation of the Harbour baths, most of which were alreadyuncovered during the 2000 campaign. The excavation also concerned the areasimmediately to the north and south of the central nucleus of the baths, with a view todefining the complex's original extension.In the north sector, the gradual removal of the more recent layers (a floor of beatenearth belonged to the complex, as indicated by the pottery finds, which includeamphoras from the VI Century AD) uncovered a vast rectangular room which may beidentified as the frigidarium; in the middle of this room there is a wide pool which, whenfirst discovered, was completely filled up: on the surface with earth mixed with stones,then with sand and a large number of potsherds, and almost at the bottom with architecturalfragments belonging to the decoration of the hall, which tilled the pool whenthe room lost its original function. This must have happened, according to the data providedby the pottery fragments found in the infiII, between the end of the 3rd and thebeginning of the 4th century AD, a chronology which confirms what has alteady emergedfor the other rooms in the complex which have been investigated so far. The pool(about 1.1 m. deep) was originally curved on its short sides, to the east and west, andis paved with a mosaic in large white tesserae (Fig. 3). An inner step, originally linedwith marble slabs, runs around the whole perimeter of the pool, the walls of which areProf. Dr. Eugenia EQUINI SCHNEIDER- Dipartimento di Scienze Sloriche, Arçheologiche e Anlropologiche dell'Antichita-Universiliı di Roma "La Sapienza" - Piazzale A.Moro 5· 00185 Roma IITALYA.As in the previous years our invesligations were undertakan lhanks to funds from the University of R ome "La Sapıenza",the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Council of Research. The govemment representativewas the archaeologist Şevki Bardakçı from Muğla Museum whose understanding and collaboration has been veryappreciated.437