Page 127 - TINA Dergi Sayi 10

TINA

Maritime Archaeology Periodical

Most of the sherds belong to the Roman Empire pe- funerary chapel shown here in yellow (Fig. 13). The
riod. The earliest examples of these finds belong to sarcophagus placed to the southwest of the chapel
the 1st century AD, while the latest ones are dated to is probably for the corpse of St Neophytos. In 391,
the 7th century. Besides some exceptions, these early Theodosius I issued a decree adopting Christianity
finds dated to the 1st century AD were excavated be- as the sole religion of the empire, and it is probab-
low the level IV. The potsherds mostly date to the 3rd ly after the end of support for the traditional religion
to 4th centuries AD, and there are examples from the of Rome that the basilica was built on top of the an-
5th to 7th centuries AD as well (Fig. 11). Late period cient temple. The dating is supported by the burials
finds were mostly from the lakebottom or the level 1. found beneath the bema wall. With the period of the
Following the 2017 and 2018 campaigns, the ex- 3rd phase, which is shown without coloring here, the
cavations have been mostly terminated in the prothe- funerary chapel was transformed to the diakonikon
sis, the apsis, the diakonikon and the narthex sections of the basilica. The final phase is represented with the
(Fig. 12). There are four phases of the building (Fig. late period structure, where the uncovered apsis, pro-
13). The first phase should be the temple from the thesis and mid-nave are shown here with blue. It is
Pagan period. We have not observed any foundati- still uncertain whether these walls belong to a church
on remains of a possible temple yet. However, this of reduced size or to another building (Fig. 14).
possibility is now enhanced with the erotic figurine We assume that the main entrance had a wooden
recovered during the 2017 excavations in addition entrance based on our excavations in the narthex se-
to previous examples of coins and potsherds before ction (Fig. 15). There is still no clue related to the
Christianity. The second phase is represented by the communicating door from the narthex to the basilica.

Fig. 15: Kazıların tamamlanmasından sonra narteks bölümü.
Fig. 15: Nartex section following the completion of excavations.

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