Ephesus Tour Guides Study Trip Article 3

Article 3
Will mostly be about the Terrace Houses at Ephesus.
What is the total area that Terrace Houses cover?
What are the different time periods of Terrace Houses?
What are uses the Terrace Houses area had after inhabitance?

Who is the owner of the House at Terrace Houses Dwelling Unit 6?
Where does it say that the house was owned by that particular person?
What other names do we know stated as the owners of the houses?

Restorations at Terrace Houses
Restoration of the columns at the Courtyard at Terrace Houses Unit 6
The restorations of the Wall Paintings and the Frescoes at the Terrace Houses of Ephesus.
The protection roof project of the 1960s.
What are some of the used materials Marble?

About Details of some of the areas at the Terrace Houses in Ephesus
The Cult section at Unit 6
Where were the entrances from?
How was the lighting arranged in the Houses of Ephesus Ancient City?
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The Terrace Houses 2 section,
4000 square meters,
3 main Terraces and 7 housing units.
There 4 streets surrounding this parcel.
Gilbert studied the Terrace Houses and in his articles he mentions these streets as the 'the Steam Street' and 'the Mill Street'.
We will talk about why these streets were named like this.

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In this video he talks about the different timeline of the houses at Ephesus.
The houses vary in size and they are separated from each other.
You can also see the traces of different timelines by looking at the walls and the different materials and stuccoes used on the walls.

In this video he talks about the way that cut this specific green marble. They call it booking, like wings of a butterfly.
After the fire in 270 AD. these marble lost their colors, during the restoration they kept the space so it can be flexible in case of an earthquake.
They have B letters to indicate where they should be faced

In this video he talks about the Wall Paintings and frescoes that are seen in the Terrace Houses in Ephesus Ancient City.
the decorations on the walls including frescoes and wall paintings are not left to the artists choice so the house owner decides what he/she wants on their walls as decorations.

Some of the walls has up to 8 layers of stucco and wall paintings.
Some of them have 2 to 3 different layers from different time periods.
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​And he talks about some of the staircases used or added in later periods
And he talks about a vault being covered and be used as a wall in a later usage period.

​And about the restoration systems
the restorators normally uses different colors to show the difference between the originals and the restored parts.
​But according to Cengiz İcten Austrian restorators at Ephesus didn't apply this system and kept it same color so it is almost impossible to distinguish the originals from the restored ones unless you are an expert.

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The houses were used in earlier periods such as Hellenistic era however mostly the remains that we have are from Mid. 1st century BC, Emperor Augustus' and Tiberius' Era and Early 3rd century AD.

​There is an earthquake in Ephesus in 260sAD, most of these houses were destroyed by the earthquake so after this earthquake most of these houses were used as workshops we are going to see Mills, blacksmiths workshops and Marble Cutting Studios in the following parts.

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In this video he talks about this vaulted structure at the corner.
​It is a toilet of this house. The houses had toilets. And from dwelling units we only know 2 of the names who are the proprietors.
One is this particular house owned by Gaius Flavius Aptus, another houses that we know the owner of is the Dwelling Unit 2 at the top.

And about the owner of that house Vilius Salitarius there are so many gossips written on the walls of his toilet as graffiti.
The gossips include some explicit content including his sexual preferences. So similar to nowadays that toilets were the locations to see such speculative messages.

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In this video he talks about the inscription found over a column capital at Dwelling Unit 6 at Terrace Houses 2 and they found the name of the proprietor of the house, the inscription writes Gaius Flavius Furius Aptus.

This was one of the wealthiest families at Ephesus, he also is a priest for Dionysus Cult he is also responsible from the Upper (State) Agora of Ephesus so he has plenty of money that's why his house is 710m2.
​He has the private bath, banquet feast reception hall. This reception hall alone is 135m2.

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​In this video he show where the Inscription is that writes Gaius Flavius Aptus the Dionysus priest.

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In here he talks how long it took for the restoration of these columns because of the fire incident back then all marble pieces were crumbled into each other and the burnt layer of the ash made it difficult. 
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​The pieces weren't able to be collected in an organized way. 

They were randomly put into boxes as they were found later realizing they were all pieces from different parts with varying sizes different thickness and different colors.

First they were boxed then they were categorized according to their thickness, now around %90-95 is on the tables.
They are being placed over a very robust type of paper called the honeycomb so that they can be moved easily.

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Terrace Houses unit 1
In the 60s, the Austrians started excavating this area.
​They couldn't figure what it was first, and it wasn't like anything that has been found and studied much before.
​The technology was not this advanced back then so they removed some of the frescoes with plasters.

Unfortunately many valuable finds were lost and destroyed from Ephesus Terrace Houses Unit 1.
​And later in the 80s, Austrians wanted to start a new project Terrace Houses Unit 2.
Us as the official museum authority told them they can excavate but they should also be responsible of the restoration and the maintenance it needs after excavation.
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It turned out to be something beautiful, a very good project. 
There used to be a former Roofing systems in the early years. 
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Gilbert Wiblingert made the roof project of the Terrace House Unit 2.
​Maybe it was good or bad, but at the academy in Austria there was a competition and Gilbert's team lost after that the roofing is removed from here and this new roof system is constructed instead. 

Maybe it doesn't look very appealing from outside, looks like a greenhouse but it protects the finds at it's best potential. The researchers and restorators can work even in the winter time but 11 million US Dollars of money is spent for it. 
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​This weakened the Austrian excavation team a little. After Krizingen period there was another competition at the academy in Austria and Sabine won that.
​And after that 11 million dollars of expense Austrians couldn't initiate another large scale project like this.

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In this video he talks about the courtyard's reconstruction after the big fire in 260sAD in Ephesus.

​All of these columns were destroyed, burnt. 
After the excavation they were preserved and left for reconstruction.

Later these columns were joined back and they drilled the center of the columns to fix a metal dowel and tied to a steel construction on the floor.

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At the entrance of Terrace Houses in dwelling Unit 6, one of the rooms facing to the courtyard,  the one on the right side with wall paintings, there is a Cult section in the house.
​Between the two columns probably there was a statue of a God or Goddess that this family worshiped.

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In this video he talks about the illumination of the rooms and the houses at the Terrace Houses of Ephesus. The light comes through the courtyards of the Terrace houses and also up above there are glass frames. The safety is very important so the glass is not a transparent one and it has iron covers. And he talks about the swinging Door system of this particular room.

In here Mr. Icten talks about the Entrance of the Houses in Ephesus. 
The houses that are on the side of the East-side 'Steam Street' would enter from there, and the Houses on the West part would enter from 'the Mill Street'.