Der ´Hadrianstempel´ an der Kuretenstraße

The present publication on the so-called Temple of Hadrian on Curetes Street in Ephesos constitutes the first all-encompassing monograph on this subject. The small temple is located on one of the main thoroughfares of ancient Ephesos. According to its building inscription, it was probably built in 117/118 CE by the Ephesian P. Quintilius Valens Varius, his wife and his daughter. Its function has been much discussed in the academic world. Originally, the excavator Franz Milter interpreted the structure as the neocorate temple, the central place for the worship of the emperor Hadrian in the Roman province of Asia Minor. This approach has been largely rejected by the scientific community since the 1970s. However, no alternative solution was generally accepted. Therefore a new project was carried out at the Austrian Archaeological Institute from 2009 until 2012 and funded by the Austrian Research Fund FWF. Based on a new documentation, the results of building research, inscriptions and decoration were combined and analyzed in a contextual manner. Based on these results, the temple can now be connected to the cult of the goddess Artemis and regular cultic processions from her sanctuary through the city. In addition to results concerning antiquity, also the subsequent phases of the building history receive attention. The publication does not only include a study of the late antique changes in the building, but also provides a scholarly analysis of its re-erection in the 1950s and the conservation problems and damages connected to these building measures. The temple on Curetes Street is one of the oldest projects of this kind in modern Turkey and therefore provides information that will also be valid for other structures in this region in the near future.

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