Temenos for the ruler's cult

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The temenos for the ruler cult in Pergamon is a heroon . The building complex was used to worship the ruling dynasty of the Attalids . It is located south of the castle gate and is connected to the altar terrace by a road . During the excavations, remnants of an older Hellenistic housing development emerged under its foundation. In contrast to other Heroa, no grave or similar was found here, so that the name Heroon only came about through typological comparison, for example by comparing it with the Heroon in Kalydon or the Megalesion in Pergamon.

Excavation history

The Temenos was excavated during an excavation campaign under Carl Humann and Alexander Conze and called the Prinzessinnen-Palais. Theodor Wiegand uncovered the entire complex in 1927 . The complete excavation publication was published ten years later by Erich Boehringer and Friedrich Krauss .

Construction phases

The excavators recognized four construction phases during the excavation: a court period, a main period which was preceded by a planning period, and a Roman period.

The courtyard period comprises a square courtyard measuring 20 × 20 m. In the north of the courtyard there was a wide, not very deep room, which was flanked by an adjoining room in the south. In contrast to the older Hellenistic residential buildings, the complex did not follow the slope, but ran diagonally to it.

During the main period, the complex was converted into a peristyle with Doric columns in the west, south and east . The corner pillars were cloverleaf-shaped amalgamations of three columns meeting one another. The former small cult room was expanded and now served as a vestibule for a newly created cult room directly behind it measuring 10.70 × 3.50 meters. The vestibule was of a hybrid order and combined Ionic columns with Doric entablature. Like the threshold to the vestibule, they were made of marble . In the rear of the new cult room one suspects a cult niche with a base for several statues. The south-east side was equipped with small rooms of unknown function and was protected from the sloping terrain by means of pillars. To the northwest of the complex was the 3rd century BC. The so-called "Weghalle" was built in the 2nd century BC, which was now connected to the building by a staircase leading to the building's courtyard. Adjacent to the "Weghalle" in the south, another, probably inaccessible, hall was added to the outer southwest side of the facility.

In the second half of the 2nd century AD, the cult room in particular was rebuilt. Here the walls were significantly reinforced and the floor plan laid out in a square. The floor was finished with a simple black and white mosaic . Allegedly, the Roman governors were worshiped here since they came to power.

Dating

The dating of the building has not been conclusively clarified. Like the excavators, Wolfgang Radt dates the first construction phase of the building to the time of Attalus I. Holger Schwarzer and Alexander F. Wensler, on the other hand, date the complex to the reign of Eumenes II.

literature

  • Erich Boehringer , Friedrich Krauss : The Temenos for the ruler's cult <Prinzessinnen-Palais>. ( Antiquities of Pergamon Vol. 9). De Gruyter, Berlin 1937,
  • Wolfgang Radt : Pergamon. History and buildings of an ancient metropolis . Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1999, reprint 2005, ISBN 3-89678-116-2 , pp. 245–248, figs. 191–192.
  • Holger Schwarzer: Investigations into the Hellenistic cult of rulers in Pergamon . In: Istanbuler Mitteilungen , 49, 1999, pp. 249-300, ISSN  0341-9142 .
  • Holger Schwarzer: Club bars in the Hellenistic and Roman Pergamon . In: Ulrike Egelhaaf-Gaiser , Alfred Schäfer (Hrsg.): Religious associations in Roman antiquity. Studies on organization, ritual and spatial planning. ( Studies and texts on antiquity and Christianity, Vol. 13). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2002, ISBN 3-16-14777-15 , pp. 221-260.
  • Alexander F. Wensler: On the dating of the Temenos for the ruler cult in Pergamon . In: Archäologischer Anzeiger , 1989, pp. 33-42, ISSN  0003-8105 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Wolfgang Radt : Pergamon. History and buildings, finds and exploration of an ancient metropolis . DuMont, Cologne 1988, p. 275.
  2. ↑ a b Alexander F. Wensler: On the dating of the Temenos for the ruler cult in Pergamon . In: Archäologischer Anzeiger , 1989, p. 33.
  3. ↑ Alexander F. Wensler: On the dating of the Temenos for the ruler cult in Pergamon . In: Archäologischer Anzeiger. 1989, p. 33 ff.
  4. ↑ Hans Lauter : The architecture of Hellenism . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1986, p. 255.
  5. ↑ a b Holger Schwarzer: Investigations into the Hellenistic cult of rulers in Pergamon . In: Istanbul communications . Vol. 49 (1999), pp. 273ff.
  6. ^ Wolfgang Radt: Pergamon. History and buildings, finds and exploration of an ancient metropolis , p. 276.
  7. ^ Wolfgang Radt: Pergamon. History and buildings, finds and exploration of an ancient metropolis , p. 278.

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