Finds

So, what have been the most engaging finds of this year? Well, many simply turned up without much context, on the surface in the initial deturfing. There was an inscribed lead weight found by Serdar the chief workman, on the second day, which looks 6th to 7th c., from its monograms. There were animal figurines from the portico of the Colonnaded Street, from similar layers, and a very odd quern stone of an unusual material that cropped up here too. The finding of the remains of the opus sectile floor were also a treat, though all that remains now are shadows in the mortar. A good number of loose pieces were recovered to be studied down at the depot, including repurposed bits of broken architectural crustae and fragmented slabs of veneer. These pieces, of lozenges, squares, and triangles, sometimes of marble, other times of modest material like tile and schist. We found a lot of pottery of course, a great deal of bone, both animal and human, and some familiar domestic objects such as bone hairpins. But the pithos was a great diagnostic find, alongside the counter, to indicate a potential bar, as was the authepsa fragment found within, part of a samovar for keeping water in order to serve hot wine, a favourite tipple in Late Antiquity. It was no doubt very popular in the cold winter weather of the Anatolian mountains.

28.1 Marble segments displaced from the opus sectile floor, including crustae.

28.2 Authepsa, found by Yusuf.