Tlos, history in progress

I am quite amazed to see this recent picture of Tlos’ Theater and Stadium. What an invitation to return! 

[picture from Hurriyet Daily News]

Tlos lies on a hill overlooking the Xanthos River, less than 50 kilometers north of the well-known port city of Patara. The site is off the beaten track for mass tourism, but in the wake of the excavations and restoration carried out by archaeologists over the past months, this will thoroughly change. 

There obviously was enough material piled up amid the overgrowth of the theater’s orchestra to reconstruct the building with original stone blocks (see: Tlos in the beautiful Xanthos Valley). Nowadays, we can rely on digitalization to do the work virtually before actually moving the stones. Only a small number of blocks were beyond repair and had to be replaced with new matching marble. The ultimate reward is to host live events in the renovated theater this fall (2025). 

Despite early estimates that the theater could seat a maximum of 4,000 people, it transpires that after restoration, it offers enough space to host 8,500 spectators. That makes the theater one of the largest of its kind! 

The next project will focus on Tlos’ Stadium, which I recall had seating on one side only. In the 2^nd century AD, the Romans added a pool to the Stadium, to be used for naval battles. It was lined with shops that opened onto the Stadium on one side and onto the adjacent Agora on the other side. The city’s earliest road ran alongside. It was approximately eight meters wide and had a paved sidewalk 1.5 meters wide. The vaulted shops have been cleared from the soil that accumulated over the centuries. They will be restored next year (2026) to display their original façade behind the columns that lined the street. 

[Picture from Arkadaslik Yachting]

It has been established that in the early 5^th century BC, Tlos was a small settlement nestled on the Acropolis. The surrounding slopes were mainly used as a necropolis, which is still very present. After Alexander arrived in Lycia, the people’s ancestral ways of living changed as they moved to the plain below. In the years and centuries that followed, the familiar Greek and Roman buildings appeared, as testified by the remains of these impressive structures. 

Like in other Lycian cities, much of Tlos has been destroyed by the massive earthquake of 141 AD, causing the southern part of the Stadium to collapse. Another severe earthquake occurred in 240 AD. The theater fared better since it was built on bedrock.

The Parthenon, a moment in time

Now is the moment to see the Athenian Parthenon (see: Experiencing the perfection of a Greek temple) free of scaffolding. This is the first time in the past 200 years.

Not for long though, as the plans are to start further conservation works next month!

Those who will be able to visit this treasure are among the happy few!

[Picture from GoodNewsNetwork]

A bust of Alexander dug up in the UK

The news is not entirely new, but digging up a bust of Alexander the Great in the UK deserves all our attention. The Daily Mail made headlines saying that a 2,000-year-old bust of Alexander was recovered from the gardens of Sutton Place, near Guildford, UK. This property once belonged to Paul Getty, who later built a copy of the Villa dei Papiri from Herculaneum in California. 

[Picture from Daily Mail]

It was the estate’s gardener who discovered this bust during restoration works in 1984. The property was owned by an American art collector, who had acquired it from Mr. Getty’s son in 1980. Apparently, this art collector did not know the value of the find, and the gardener was allowed to keep his find, which he did all these years. 

He recently had a clear-out and took his belongings to an auction house. There, it was thought to be an 18^th or 19th-century copy of the Roman god Hercules. 

Luckily, it caught the attention and interest of antiquity dealers, who recognized this 38-centimeters tall bust as a young Alexander, wearing the lion headdress. It was dated to the 1^st century BC, but apparently nothing transpired about its country of origin or the name of the sculptor. 

How or when it arrived in the UK remains a mystery. It must have been buried before Paul Getty owned the property, as he most certainly would have recognized an original Alexander. 

This beautiful bust was eventually sold for almost 400,000 GBP and could have reached a higher price had it not undergone some repair of its nose and headdress. 

Statues from antiquity always have a story to tell, but here we have nothing to go by. As the new owner may be a private party, the likelihood of getting a thorough analysis is very slim. 

Tombs in ancient Oxyrhynchus

The ancient site of Oxyrhynchus, south of modern Cairo, is best known for the papyrus remains that were discovered back in 1897 (see: City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish by Peter Parsons). It took many years to start deciphering the many bits and pieces, a process that is still ongoing, as detailed in my earlier post, Get involved with Oxyrhynchus.
 
This work is full of surprises. For instance, the 1922 reconstruction and translation of a poem by Sappho of Lesbos, who lived circa 630-570 BC. By 2005, the missing part of this poem had been found on a papyrus held at the University of Cologne. It is wonderful and unique to finally have a complete poem by one of the greatest lyric poetesses of antiquity.
 
By now, it transpires that 80 volumes of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri have been published, thanks to the relentless efforts of Professor Peter Parsons of the University of Oxford. The documents have largely contributed to a better understanding and knowledge of the history of Egypt and Rome.
 

More than a hundred years after the site was discovered, excavations are carried out by the Institute of Ancient Near East Studies of the University of Barcelona. It is hard to believe that Oxyrhynchus once was the third-largest city in Egypt, as it boomed under the Ptolemies, who ruled after the death of Alexander. It was Christianized with the rest of Egypt, as testified by the many churches and monasteries that were built. During Roman and Byzantine occupation, however, the city gradually declined. Life changed dramatically after the arrival of the Muslims in 641 AD, and Oxyrhynchus was eventually abandoned.

 
The discovery of the papyrus garbage dump slowly revived the general interest in this forgotten city. Since 2020, Spanish archaeologists have concentrated their efforts on the city’s necropolis. Each excavation season has its own harvest of tombs and grave goods. In 2023, for instance, six funerary complexes from Persian (Sassanid), Roman, and Coptic times and 16 individual tombs were discovered.
 

Last year, in 2024, a collection of 52 mummies from Ptolemaic times was exposed. Thirteen of the bodies had golden tongues in their mouth, a clear sign of preparation for the afterlife, and one had a gold plate on its fingernails. Precious gifts like scarabs, amulets of Egyptian gods, and a terracotta statuette of the god Harpocrates (the Greek and Roman version of the Egyptian child-god Horus) were also retrieved. Another tomb counted three burial chambers whose walls were covered with texts and colorful funerary scenes depicting several Egyptian gods. Also, four limestone sarcophagi have been found.

 
This all sounds very promising as the finds in Oxyrhynchus give new insights into life and death during Ptolemaic and Roman times.

[Pictures from the Universitat de Barcelona]

Restoring the Bath/Gymnasium of Tralles

A lot can happen in ten years since I last visited Tralles (see: A tentative visit to Tralles). 

Excavations in this ancient city have been carried out around its Baths/Gymnasium, the iconic three vaulted arches, which the locals call “the three eyes,” that caught my attention back in 2015. 

[Picture from Anatolian Archaeology]

After being closed to the public, Tralles finally reopened to the public in August 2025. For me, the place is hardly recognizable as all the trees and shrubs around the arches have been cleared, exposing a comprehensive layout of the Baths. The terracotta water or sewage pipes I noticed before are no longer visible, probably reburied appropriately under the floor. 

This is one of the largest Roman bath complexes in Anatolia, matching the importance Tralles had acquired at that time. 

This large complex is said to cover 40,000 square meters, i.e., having sides of 60 meters or something along those lines. The pool could accommodate up to 200 people. Archaeologists expect that after restoration, it will be refilled with water and thus recreate a mesmerizing picture of the premises. 

Romans would often visit the Baths on a daily basis, not only to refresh themselves during the hot summer months, but mostly to socialize and exercise.