Amorium Excavations 1990: The Third Preliminary Report

Abstract

This was the third season of excavation at Amorium in east Phrygia, and the team worked for four weeks, from 1 August 1990. The archaeological aim was to study social change and development from the Hellenistic period to the Medieval, in particular the Late Roman period and so-called Dark Ages. We completed a detailed survey in the Upper Town, worked in three trenches (two of them initiated last year [L and AB] in the Upper and Lower Town, and one which was new [the Church] in the Lower Town), and further study was made of pottery and small finds. This is a new archaeological subject in this period in central Anatolia, and the first stage is to sort out the pottery, small finds, two or three buildings, levels, and chronology. The next stage will be to study the faunal, botanical, and other samples.In the Roman period the town lay at the eastern end of the province of Asia. It was probably fairly small, consisting of the Upper Town and part of the Lower (the area of the modern village). Nonetheless, Amorium was mentioned in classical texts and has produced Hellenistic and provincial-Roman coins, Phrygian marble sculpture and architecture, inscriptions, non-local pottery, and a Roman carnelian intaglio.