This talk presents preliminary results from excavations at the Place of the Palms and the Governor’s House at Aphrodisias, one of the most significant long-term classical excavations in western Anatolia.
Evidence from the Place of the Palms has revealed not just the intimate details of daily life and gaming in one of the city’s public spaces in use over several centuries, but also important evidence for conflict at the time of the early-seventh-century wars between Rome and the Sassanian empire. In addition, current excavations aim to better understand the full extent of the North Temenos House and its chronology and function. Central aims are to determine the full extent of the house and to establish a chronology of its occupation, which continued uninterrupted throughout the Byzantine Dark Ages. A round statue base inscribed in Latin for a late antique governor was found lying in the house in the 1960s. The presence of a governor’s statue in this centrally located mansion strongly suggests this was the provincial governor’s residence in the late antique period.
