3. Cilt - Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı

SummaryBased on the fi nd spot in the interior of the peripteros, we know that an imageof a Goddess existed at the site of the later Artemision in the late 8th-early 7th c.B.C., erected on a rectangular basis. We know that it was a xoanon- statue withjewellery which consisted of necklaces, neckbands and a linked-together networkof amber - jewellery.The early history of Artemis Ephesia, with her Hittite-Anatolian background,has been further pursued in recent years 14 . Not only literary and local traditionattributes the beginning of the cult of Artemis to the 2nd millennium, but alsothe fi nds on the site of the later sanctuary also point to this date (pottery andTerracottas).The numerous amber pieces , belonging to a divine image of the late Geometric/Early Archaic period are therefore mediating between the 2nd and 1st millenniumB.C., and perhaps refl ect a Mycenaen tradition.Amber is not only jewellery, but also contains a cosmological concept. Alreadyin antiquity a notable relationship between amber and the sun is recognized, anassociation made by Homer in the Odyssee. And so a solar aspect of the cult ofthe Ephesian goddess is expressed specifi cally by the use of amber jewellery forher divine image 15 .14 S. Morris, The Prehistoric Background of Artemis Ephesia: A Solution to the Enigma of her‘Breasts’? in Kosmos op. cit. 135ff.15 For the solar aspects of Ephesian Artemis see E. Szidat, Die >Buckel> der Artemis Ephesia,in: JdI 119, 2004, 117ff.; U: Muss, The Kosmos of the Ephesian Artemis at the time ofArchilochos, in D. Katsonopoulou (Ed) The Time of Archilochos, International Congress onthe Archaeology of the Cyclads, October 2005 (in print).19