11. Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı - Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı

nious; but his distinction between the fine, large, unmortared blocks hereand the "relatively small" blocks and abundant mortar in the Vestibule isoverdrawn. Many of the blocks in the Vestibule have a volume of aboutone cubic metre and some are even larger (Fig. 9). But it is possible thatthese arehes and the foundations of the porch are part of the same originalRoman scheme as the Vestibule; the west stylobate of the Basilica iscertainly part of the later colonnade scheme, being partly bonded to thecross-walls of the lower substructure, which are positioned to fit the latercolumn-spacing.The Vestibule also poses some other problems. Its size, 25.95 by19.90 m internally, and lack of internal supports must have made it a difficultbuilding to roof, though it is well within metropolitan Roman limitssand not very much larger in span than, say, the Christian basilica atMeryemlik' Its purpose is also uncertain; did it act merely as a monumentalentrance-hall to the Basilica, while the niches around the walls nodoubt provided space for the display of decorative or imperial statuaryj"Or did it in its final form act as the tribunal, the strictly judicial part ofthe basilica, a role that might otherwise have been filled by the apse atthe other end?The dating of both Vestibule and Basilica is uncertain. There is noinscription and, apart from various pieces of columns, a single virtuallyundatable marble column-base and several of the simply moulded marbleplinths on which the bases stood, no architectural elements on which tobase a stylistic dating. In terms of constructional technique, one mightpropose a sequence at Aspendos of a) Theatre, where the structure is ofconglomerate blocks with white limestone lintels and dressings; b) Gymnasium(or larger baths), with conglomerate blocks, some limestone, norubble, but some brick vaults; c) Nymphaeum, where there is no limestoneand small panels of mortared rubble are used in the upper walls; d)Vestibule, with large areas of mortared rubble inCıuding re-used stoneand e) Basilica apse and west wall, where large blocks are confined tostrictly loadbearing areas. In a different tradition, though not necessarilylater in date, are the Aqueduct towers, the smaller bath-building and theapsidal Exedra immediately south of the Basilica apse, in all of whichbrick is used for wall-facing as well as for arehes and vaults". In the Ba-(6) The 2nd-century Basilica Ulpia and the 4th-century churches of S. Pietro in Vaticano and S.Paolo fuori le Mura all had spans of about 24m. The two largest rooms in the Flavian Palacewere rather wider.(7) ~: Herzfeld and M. Guyer MA.MA. II (1930), figs. 6-8.(8) Ozgürp.26. ..(9) All these buildings are deseribed and illustrated by Lanckoronski and by Ozgür. For theAqueduct, see also ı.s. Ward Perkirıs in P.B.S.R. XXIII (1955) 115-23.456