2. Cilt - Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı

of the 6th cent. B.C. were observed, but only an irregular bordering of stonessurrounding dark black earth mixed with ashes and calcined bones (Fig. 3).No datable pottery was found. This deposit for the debris of the ritual mealsand sacrifices belongs more likely to the elder phase of the sanctuary.While searching for any remains of a younger altar of the sixth cent. B.C.,a trench was dug down to the natural soil between the eastfront of the templeand the ash deposit mentioned. But unfortunately no traces of foundations ofsuch an altar have been found.So far, an Ionic kyma (PA-S 4 Abb. 4), which already had been retrieved in2004 and handed over to the museum of Aydın, was considered as the onlyexisting relict of the 6th cent. altar. Instead of a true corner as we should expectat the cover plate of an altar by comparison with the famous archaic altar forPoseidon at Cape Monodendri 6 , the kyma displays a volute at its edge similarto but not identical with the much more developed antae capital of the archaicDidmaion 7 . The Ionic kyma from the Panionion should, therefore, instead beinterpreted as one of two antae-capitals.Apart from this capital the archaic Panionion did not dispose of »true«antae, since its ‚antae‘ — plain marble slabs of exactly the same width as thewalls — did not protrude either from the inside of the pronaos walls or fromtheir outside and differ from these only by their material, i.e. marble 8 . After theplastering of the walls which, however, was never accomplished, the marbleantae of the Panionion would have hardly caught anybody‘s eyes. The ‚antae‘of the Panionion are also lacking the structural role normal antae usually play,since their thickness of only 0.3 m. does not correspond with the diameter ofthe columns of 0.54 m.How is it to be explained, that foundations of an altar of the 6th centuryB.C. are completely lacking?Two answers are conceivable: Either the altar, which presumably has beenhardly touched by the fire destroying the temple, already had been removedby the byzantine period or there was still no altar when the temple burneddown to the ground. The latter explanation is favoured by the fact, that no6 cf. K. Schefold, Die Griechen und ihre Nachbarn (Berlin 1967) pl. 206a.7 ibidem pl. 206b.8 H. Lohmann et al. loc. cit. (note 4) p. 161 fig. 42.192