11. Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı - Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı

avine about 15 m deep that lay between them. So alınost half of the naveand aisles of the" Basilica had to be supported on a substructure of wallsand vaults; and the central part of this substructure was carried on aneven lower storey of vaulted rooms, which may have been cistems filledby rainwater draining off the Agora. Though most of the upper storey ofthe substructure has collapsed (Fig, 4) the lower one is almost perfectlypreserved (Figs. 3, 10, 11).Above floor-level, the great arched hall or Vestibule at the north endof the Basilica still stands about 19 m high and is presumably completeexcept for the timber roof. Otherwise only a part of the apse and most ofthe west wall stand to heights of up to 5 m. Nor is there any sign of theoriginal floor apart from holes in the west wall that once housed thewooden beams carrying the floor of the (perhaps colonnaded) porch facingonto the agora.The main problem in the 1956 survey- was that all the columns hadfallen and the only clue to their positions was that some of the columnfoundationsjust below floor-level survived in situ (Fig. 7). But, as thefoundations were much larger than the column-plinths that they supportedand were therefore not necessarily evenly spaced, it was impossible tobe certain of the spacing of the columns and thus of whether the colonnadeswere in fact connected to the wall at the north end (i.e. to the southwall of the Vestibule, which has slots to receive the entablatures of atwo-storey colonnade) (Fig. 5).The main purposes of the work in '1992 were to re-check the positionsof the column-foundations, to obtain accurate heights for the entablature-slotsand other features on the north wall, and to search for architecturalelements such as architraves, bases and capitals in the overgrownruins of the upper substructure.i was joined in this by my daughter Alexia Ballance, and we spentthe first very hot week of September at the site in a very happy collaborationwith the Turkish Govemment Representative Nurhan Turan. We aregrateful to the Director-general Prof. Dr. Engin Ozgen, and to his predecessorin 1956, for permission to work at Aspendos; to the Director of theArıtalya Museum Dr. Kayhan Dörtlük and to his staff, especially Dr. M.Edip Ozgür, for their help; also to the Iate John Ward Perkins and the IateProf. Dr. Arif Müfit Mansel for their encouragement and practical help in1956; to the Oxford University Craven Committee, the British Academyand the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara for funds in 1992; andto Dr. David French, Director of the B.I.A.A. for his heIp throughout andfor the loan of surveying equipment and a vehicle.454