Download PDF | David Talbot Rice - The great palace of the Byzantine Emperors. 2-The Edinburgh University Press 1958.
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TНЕ excavations described in this volume were carried out during one preliminary and three main seasons, between 1951 and 1054. Work was then stopped, for it was felt that in view of the number of streets, houses and other modern structures that encumbered the site there was little more that could be accomplished unless a large area of the town were acquired and transformed into an excavations ‘park’, a task which would require immense financial resources. This does not mean, however, that the site is exhausted; there remains a very great deal to be done, but for work to be truly effective it would have to be conducted on a scale similar to that of the excavations in the Forum at Rome, or those in the Agora at Athens.
The task that confronted us in 1952 was indeed already a limited one, and had four principal objectives, first to unearth such further portions of the mosaic floor that had been found before the war as survived in areas which were not built over; secondly to assure the adequate preservation of the pavement; thirdly to investigate adjoining areas with a view to identifying the buildings concerned; and fourthly, by a careful study of stratigraphical and similar evidence, to establish more firmly than had previously been possible the chronology of the various structures that had existed on the site.
With the exception of a stretch some eighteen metres long on the south-west of the Peristyle, which it is impossible to investigate owing to the presence of modern buildings, the whole area where mosaics might have existed has now been excavated, and the newly discovered sections of the floor are dealt with in Chapter VI of this report. The conservation of the floor has also been completed. Practically the whole of the north-east side of the Peristyle has been roofed over, while mosaics from the north-west and south-west sides have been lifted and installed in the arcades of the Araste Sokak. This is a structure of the early seventeenth century which constitutes a part of the Sultan Ahmed mosque complex, and cuts directly across the site (Fig. 1 and G.P., plan 61). In fact, these mosaics, together with those left /n situ, now constitute what is virtually a Mosaic Museum, а dependency of the Archaeological Museum at Istanbul.
war, my wife and I were there alone. During the second season excavations were begun to the south-east of the Peristyle, in the unexplored area between substructures previously examined by Mamboury and listed by him as Db and De, though the greater portion of the funds available were devoted to the conservation of the mosaics unearthed before the war. In addition to myself and my wife, the staff consisted of Dr. Spencer Corbett as architect and Mr. Donald Strong as assistant. During the third season, 1953, work of a purely archaeological character was more extensive. The area from which mosaics had been lifted on the south-west side of the Peristyle was excavated; substructures which had been discovered the previous year to the south-east of the Peristyle were further investigated; the fourth or south-east side of the Peristyle was opened up, as was a further section of the north-east side of the court, under the Torun Sokak, and an area previously covered by Turkish structures on the sites Ат and A2 (G.P., plan 61). In addition a subsidiary excavation was also undertaken on the site of the so-called ‘House of Justinian’, close to the sea. Dr. Spencer Corbett remained on as architect, Mr. David Oates and Miss Wilson joined the staff as archaeologists, and Mr. Michael Scott and Mr. Tudor Pole as assistants. In the latter part of the season Mr. J. B. Ward Perkins, Director of the British School at Rome, took charge of the work, as I had to return to Britain. Work on the ‘House of Justinian’ was continued by Dr. Spencer Corbett and Mr. Tudor Pole in the autumn, after the main excavation had closed down.
During the final season, 1954, а few further mosaics were lifted from beneath the Torun Sokak, and careful excavations were conducted at a number of points, primarily with the object of checking dates by a strategraphical study. This work was very ably conducted by Mr. David Oates, assisted by Mr. David Stronach and Mr. David Wilson. Dr. Spencer Corbett was replaced by Mr. Geoffrey Clark as architect, though he remained responsible for completing the final plans that are used to illustrate this report; they are all his work except for Figs. 3, 4, 5 and 16, the first two of which were re-drawn by Miss Sheila Gibson from Mr. Oates’ sketches and the last two by Mr. Geoffrey Clark. Mr. Ward Perkins also paid a short visit in 1954, primarily to examine the methods of construction to be observed in the great apsed building which had been discovered between Mamboury’s Db and Dc, and to study comparative material elsewhere in the city and in Asia Minor.
I would like to take this opportunity of expressing my thanks to all members of the staff for their help in the field, and to those who have worked on the publica-Поп, for what they have also done in libraries and studies at home. All have continuously helped one another. Тһе results of that work are incorporated in the pages that follow. Where individual members of the staff have been primarily responsible for particular sections of the dig or the text, however, their initials appear at the beginning of the section or end of the chapter.
In addition to the staff, there are numerous others who helped with the work of our excavations, and I would like to thank them also, both personally and on behalf of the Walker Trust, which I represented. Firstly I would like to mention the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, which has throughout been associated with the Walker Trust in sponsoring the work. Its Director in Ankara, Mr. Seton Lloyd, gave frequent help in the laborious process of obtaining permits, and Sir Osborne Manse, its treasurer, organized the transfer of the necessary funds. Dr. Plenderleith of the British Museum gave us valuable advice on methods of treating and conserving the mosaics, while Т.С. at Istanbul provided what proved to be the most suitable material for the purpose of bringing out and preserving their original brilliant colouring.!
In Istanbul Mr. W. J. Perkins put his office at our disposal for purposes of correspondence, and afforded us numerous other facilities; Mr. Faruk Akca, of the city architect's department, loaned us a theodolite on two occasions; our friend. Cenani Bey not only gave us frequent assistance, but also repeatedly invited us to his delightful house on the Bosphorus on Sundays and holidays. Last, but by no means least, I would mention the Turkish authorities, more especially the statf of the Archacologiezl Museum at Istanbul. To the late Aziz Ogan, director till the end o£ 1953, and to Rüstem Duyuran, first sub-director and then director, our debt is outstanding, and without fheir constant help aad support our work would at times have been well-nigh impossible. It was through the Museum that we obtained an excellent foreman and а number of specialized workers, more especially the head of the Restoration Department, Reha Arican, who supervised the lifting of the mosaics and worked with us for many weeks on this exacting task. His zeal and his quict good humour will never be forgotten by any of us,
The titles of the majority of works to which reference is made are cited in full in the footnotes, except for a few, which are frequently quoted, which are given in abbreviated form. T'he titles of these are given overleaf.
D. TALBOT RICE
Edinburgh, 1938
INTRODUCTION
IT will only be possible to determine details as to the history of this part of the Great Palace after very much more excavation has been undertaken over a far wider area. It would seem, however, that the original Palace of Constantine did not extend nearly as far towards the south-west as our site, and that the area in which we were working, or in any case a part of it, was occupied by private dwellings; the building excavated below the south-west portico probably belonged to one of these (sce p. 16). When exactly the area over which we excavated came to be taken into the Palace enclosure is still a question which it is impossible to answer.finally, but it probably already formed part of it by the time that Theodosus II was on the throne, for we know that that Emperor erected a palace known as the Bucoleon, on the seashore, some way to the south-west of our site." It may be assumed that the area between it and the main Palace had already been incorporated, and itis probable that some sort of road or stair connecting this new palace by the sea with the old one on high ground above to the north-east was also made at the same time.
The identity and date of the structures with which we were concerned is a more complicated question, which it is still not possible to answer finally. Certain deductions, which go rather further than those hitherto put forward either in the First Report or by other writers elsewhere can, however, be drawn from the evidence accumulated during our excavations. These will be set out after the evidence itself has been presented and examined. The reader will find them in Chapter VII.
Before describing the excavations, however, a word or two about the site itself 18 necessary, for without some sort of picture of its nature in the mind, the plans and sections that are given are by no means easy to understand. In general, the ground slopes steeply between the Hippodrome to the north-west and the sea to the south-cast of the site. Only at the level of the Hippodrome was a comparatively flat arca available, and суеп there it was not very extensive. In order to provide adequate level ground for building, the slope of the-hill was terraced. The terraces took the form either of solid walls, behind which the earth was banked up, or of massive substructures and arcades, on the top of which the essential parts of the buildings were erected. As time went on it appears that these terraces were pushed further and further south-eastwards towards the sea, in order to provide greater space for the Palace buildings at a higher level up the slope. Old sub-structures were buried or cut down and then re-used to support newer ones on top of them, while further foundations were at the same time erected farther down the slope beyond them.
This process was continued from the fourth century, if not before, until the eleventh century, when the Palace began to fall into disuse: It began again in late Byzantine or early Turkish times, and several retaining-walls of Turkish workmanship were built across and above the Byzantine ones at various periods; the most recent is a long high wall which seems to coincide with some sort of original outer terrace between the site of our excavations and the sea; it is shown at the bottom right-hand corner of Fig. 1. The way in which the terraces succeed one another is clearly shown in the longitudinal section of the site (Folders A and B).
More impressive, however, and more difficult to cope with in the process of excavation, were a series of vast constructions which served either as bulwarks to sustain the structure of the mosque of Sultan Ahmed, or to house a bazaar and living-quarter which was attached to the mosque. Like the mosque itself, these all belong to the early years of the seventeenth century. The foundation trenches for these walls were cut through filling that had accumulated after the Palace fell into disuse, down to the level of the mosaic or in some cases even through it. The layout of these constructions can be clearly seen on the general plan (Fig. 1); it corresponds in no way with the plan of the Byzantine buildings below, which would appear to have fallen completely into ruin and, indeed, to have disappeared from view long before the Turkish structures were erected. These Turkish structures take the form of arcades, a number of which have now been used to house such mosaics as were lifted in the course of our work because they could not be left in situ. The arcades form what is virtually a street, now known as the Araste Sokak.
It would seem on the evidence of the pottery that much of this area of the Palace was used as a rubbish dump as early as the twelfth century, and its ruin must have begun somewhere around 1150. The debris accumulated during the following century, so that the ground-level of the Turkish structures was some two metres above the level of the mosaic. From that time the surface-level remained fairly constant over the main area, but rubbish was still dumped from time to time down the slope оп the seaward side, and that process actually continues to this day. Тһе results of the process are twofold. In the first place, the early foundations are in many places well back on the hillside, buried at a tremendous depth below the present surface. In the second, a confusing complex of foundations is often present at a low level, for the later builders did not bother to clear away earlier masonry even when they did not build on the top of it, knowing that it would be obscured at the bottoms of great dark cellars. Тһе number of such foundations that were encountered on our site are described in the pages that follow; their complex nature is clearly indicated on the longitudinal section.
The photographs and plans that are published here indicate the very impressive proportions of these substructures, and if the whole of the Great Palace could be excavated, a magnificent complex of similar substructures would certainly be disclosed. But it must be remembered that the buildings which survive to this day beneath the soil represent no more than the substructures, and that the churches, halls, audience chambers and living-rooms which made up the Palace itself were originally situated above them. Of these main structures on the ‘piano nobile’ practically nothing remains—nor is it likely to remain in any other part of the Palace that stood on the slopes, except perhaps in so far as the actual floors are concerned. А small portion of such a floor was laid bare by us close to the junction of the Peristyle and the Apsed Hall (Pl. 4, c).
The Book of Ceremonies and the other texts tell us how frequently the Palace was enlarged and reconstructed. Earlier substructures were re-used in this process, and as was clearly the case in the Apsed Hall, all sorts of additions, often of a seemingly inconsequent nature, were made, so that the plan of the substructures did not always correspond very closely with that of the superstructures of the final phase. But it can hardly be doubted that the initial plan of a set of substructures corresponded to that of the original building above, and at some time or another а grea£ Apsed Hall must have constituted the main building on our site at the upper as well as the lower level. What is not certain is that the main building retained this plan in subsequent times.
It must not be forgotten that the lapse of time between the fifth century, when some at least of our buildings were set up, and the tenth, when the Book of Ceremonies was written, was very considerable—equal in extent in fact to the span between the Norman conquest of England and the reign of Elizabeth I. Considerable changes in building methods and styles took place during those centuries, and a great deal of rearrangement arid rebuilding of the actual Palace was also undertaken. How extensive this was is indicated on the one hand in the texts dealing with the Palace, and on the other by the great complexity of the constructions laid bare by excavation. In the pages that follow an effort is made tadisentangle the successive periods so far as one complex of buildings is concerned. But it is also hoped that the comparative survey of building methods that follows will serve to throw light not only on this particular problem but also on the story of carly Byzantine architecture as a whole.
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