Fortification and its impacts

The late fortification of Sagalassos is now a big part of our research project. We carried out a detailed survey in 2024 of the whole circuit, studying especially its reuse of earlier materials. It turned out to be surprisingly unified in its building techniques whilst also showing specific local variations. Most of the wall seems to have been built of scree or quarry rubble of small dimensions, behind a mortar covering. Yet, in places, buildings were either incorporated whole or rebuilt into a wall on the spot. There was a tendency to disguise reused material by turning inscribed faces into the wall and to try to imitate large ashlar blocks by turning paving slabs and other thin pieces on their sides and sometimes imitating pseudo-isodomic work of Hellenistic times, where the wall was most visible, as at gates. This care for appearance, particularly obvious around the NW gate, was not shared by other spolia work in the city: very often inscribed faces were visible, and useful architectural elements were either employed without a thought (as in the very final phases) or visibly broken. The reuse of generic and specific materials in the fortification was clearly very well-thought through an executed in a coherent manner.

What was the impact of building of a fortification on Sagalassos? Surely, there was a sudden restriction of access in many parts of the city? So far, only three gates have been found, and many earlier routes must have found themselves put out of use, with other roads becoming hotspots of activity. This is true of our own colonnaded street, where the creation of a wall, even if we cannot trace it locally, would have increased pressure on the avenue as a primary axial route into the city. Such a concentration of activity can be seen reflected in a number of features. Perhaps, the concentration of bars and restaurants found in the 6th to early 7th c. Lower Agora suggests a big influx people, as does the discovery of a further bar along the colonnaded street as a result of our work this year. There is also something of a concentration of late building work along the colonnaded street, with new porticoes, relaid stairs, an abandoned public building project, and now a church, suggesting a high degree of interest after the wall had been installed. Elsewhere, we see a concentration of surface archaeology, as in the gameboards and crosses of the NW gate. Here, a big effort has been made in jointing and the disguise of clamps to make the fake ashlar cladding into the most flashy part of the circuit. Clearly, fortifications do change cities.

24.1 Late Fortification: survey drawings by NW gate, W facing.

24.2 Late Fortification: photo mosaics, S of Roman Baths.