Nicholas D. Cahill (Advisor)
William Bruce (Author)
Nicholas D. Cahill
University of Wisconsin at Madison
This dissertation is a thorough examination of the stratigraphy, finds, and cultural context of the sector Pactolus North (PN) at Sardis. Excavated in the 1960s, PN was originally believed to be a likely site for the agora during the Lydian period. Instead, PN was shown to be an extramural industrial, domestic, and religious area. The industrial phase was primarily devoted to the separation of electrum into gold and silver. As there were no sources of electrum at Sardis, the refinery is interpreted as a site for the conversion of electrum coins and jewelry into gold and silver bullion. A small neighborhood existed around the industrial precinct, which expanded once the refinery was closed. A sacred precinct was constructed which included a small altar adorned with sculpted lions in honor of the goddess Cybele. The altar and neighborhood continued in use after the Lydian kingdom fell to the Persians in 547 B.C. Unlike the city center, which seems to have been mostly abandoned during the Persian period, peripheral areas of the city like PN were continuously inhabited, making this study particularly useful for understanding the effects of Persian rule on Sardis. During the Persian period the neighborhood at PN was expanded and monumentalized with two large apsidal buildings, which suggests the growing significance of suburban areas of the city in the second half of the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. The effect of Persian rule on religious life at PN seems to have been minimal, as shown by the continuity of cult at the Cybele altar and in possibly private offerings such as the so-called ritual dinner deposits. The evidence for the abandonment of the city center and the increase of extramural activity, however, demonstrates a dramatic shift in urban settlement enacted by the Persians at Sardis. PN also provides a model for a second shift in urban settlement, from the suburbs back into the city center, during the early third century B.C. This dissertation examines all the primary evidence for such larger trends apparent in the archaeology of Sardis, as well as giving insight into the early history of coinage.
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