Antioch in Pisidia: on the History of the City and it’s Study

Abstract

The ancient city of Antioch in Pisidia was the capital of the Roman-Early Byzantine province of Pisidia, although it is formally located on the very border of Phrygia. The city is located near the modern city of Yalvach, a county town in the province of Isparta. It stands on a hill at 1240 m in the Lake District of Asia Minor. The article provides an overview of the main monuments discovered by archaeologists over a period of more than a hundred years of research. The period of excavations by W. Ramsey from 1911 to the end of the 1920s, and the modern period, begun by Turkish archaeologists at the turn of the 20th – 21st centuries, are distinguished. The city has been excavated only to a relative extent (less than half of the area). It is established that Antioch had a regular hippodamic layout. Significant parts of the main streets (decumanus and cardo) have been opened. There are ideas about defensive walls and an acropolis. The monumental Western Gate served as the main entrance to the city. The complex was studied in the north (aqueduct, Nympheion, baths, Northern Church), in the city center (Augusteion, Propylaea, Tiberius Square, Great Basilica of St. Paul) and other individual objects (Central Church of St. Bass, theater, country temple of Mena, etc.). The process of studying Pisidian Antioch by researchers is also considered. It is concluded that the problem is not covered in domestic historiography, and the existing works are related to foreign historical science. To date, there is only one monograph (1998), one collective monograph (2011) and a collection of materials of the international conference (2002). An important part of the available other publications is the introduction into circulation of materials from the archaeological study of the city.

Acknowledgements: the work was carried out under the supervision of Professor of the Department of General History, Doctor of Historical Sciences Bolgov Nikolay Nikolaevich.