The team of ceramologists--Philip Bes, Sinem Özden, Yaprak Özkönü, Karolien De Craen, Ariane Willems, and Jeroen Poblom--concentrated their efforts on three topics this week.

The lower layers in the portico of the Temple of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius were examined, and most of the assemblage could be dated to the early to mid second century A.D. (see Antoninus Pius, August 3-9). However, most of these strata were rearranged during the late Roman encroachment phase, resulting in intrusive material. Layers 12 and 13 north of the portico contained an extraordinary amount of drinking vessels dating to the second century. We hope to discover if we're dealing with ritual waste from festivals connected with the imperial cult.

We began re-examination of material excavated in the Domestic Area since 1995. These ceramics are divided into the categories of food consumption, beverage consumption, cooking ware, amphorae, storage vessels, and agricultural production. The tablewares are counted and weighed, the rim diameter determined, and the remaining percentage of the rim sherd calculated. The common and kitchen wares are counted to determine the minimum number of vessels. Both series of data will be used to reconstruct the function of the Domestic Area rooms excavated so far.

We also launched analysis of the ceramics collected during the June territorial survey (see Territorial Survey, June 16-20), concentrating on material found at Kozluca Höyük (Kormasa) and Kepez Kalesi (an unidentified city site). The former site contained a very rich collection of Hellenistic material that will help in reconstructing this fairly unknown phase in regional ceramic development. The latter site contained both Iron Age and Hellenistic material. Further inspection of the material may reveal a missing set of ceramics dating to the Classical period, until now not recovered.