A test sounding in the western residential area
Introduction
The position of the Hellenistic town wall and the results of the architectural and intensive surface survey suggest that the western residential area must have held the original living quarters of Sagalassos. After the investigation of the chronological development and planning of the eastern residential area through a programme of test soundings (1999-2008), the geophysical survey and the mapping of surface architecture in the western residential area also indicated the potential of this zone to be explored through a similar approach. In the northern half of the western domestic area, a first test sounding was therefore already carried out during the 2009 campaign with good results, suggesting that the area was in fact already inhabited in early Imperial times.
Aims & Methodology
In the zones of the western residential area where vegetation will be cleaned for the purpose of geophysical survey surface architecture will be mapped. In addition and in order to establish the building chronology of the western residential area, to verify the hypothesis that this was the original domestic area of the town and to initiate the research on the building typology, technology and scale of the housing complexes it is proposed to excavate few small scale trenches on well-selected locations. The position of these trenches will be determined by the results of the mapping of surface architecture as carried out between 2008 and 2010 as well as by the results of the geophysical and archaeological surveys. By combining the results of these various non-destructive research approaches with the data generated by the few proposed small-scale test soundings, a solid first insight should be offered into the planning and chronology of the occupation of the western residential area.
Figure 1: Area within the western residential zone within which few small trenches may be excavated
For more, see www.sagalassos.be/en/webreports/2010.
