Notion Archaeological Research Project: The Biography of an Ancient Greek Urban Community
FAIN: RZ-260848-18
Regents of the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1382)
Christopher J. Ratte (Project Director: December 2017 to present)
Excavation and analysis at Notion, an urban site from the Hellenistic and Roman periods, located in western Turkey. (36 months)
Archaeological excavation at Notion will examine how a community living in a port town in western Anatolia responded to developments in Greek urbanism and the expansion of Roman power. Notion lies in ancient Ionia, 15 km north of Ephesus. We focus on the tumultuous era of the 3rd century BCE to 1st century CE, when many cities were radically transformed through local initiative and external coercion. During this period Notion was relocated to a new site, but then abandoned after only a few centuries. Building on the results of archaeological survey, we will examine the historical and social processes enacted in the ultimately unsuccessful reinvention of the city through investigation of its residential areas. Research at Notion on urban development and devolution at the household scale offers a new approach to the study of western Anatolian cities, and contributes to comparative urban studies, household archaeology, landscape biography, and Ionian history.