3. Cilt - Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı

in some parts to a height of around 3 m (cf. Fig. 9). This was probably the mainpublic space of the town, its agora; a hypothesis strengthened by the existence, onits S side, of two adjacent and probably connected large terraces, and by the factthat the main rectangular platform and the lower hill-slopes below it are scatteredover a large area with unfl uted column drums (at least 41: the number of thecorresponding GPS WPs taken so far), similar in shape and remarkable dimensions(diameter: ca. 70 cm; height: ca. 110 cm: cf. Fig. 10), and probably to be interpretedas relics of a porch (stoa). The ground surface inside the rectangular terrace isirregular: a probable hint to the presence of more underground architectural relics.The column drums, with other visible blocks and fragments, may represent onlythe emerging level of a much bigger accumulation.The acropolis slopes, at both higher and lower altitudes than the agora, arecrossed by other imposing walls, to be interpreted in some cases as further terraces(a means to broaden the habitable surface in this steep area of the town); in othercases, especially at the lower altitude and in case of longer rectilinear tracts, asparts of the city wall (at present not retraceable in its whole perimeter). All aroundthe two acropolis hilltop-terraces, the fortifi cation walls (Temnos was an oppidum,according to Pliny the Elder) 26 are no more than scraps, diaphragms fi lling thegaps of the abrupt natural rock. The agora terraces and the other structuresdescribed so far have been surveyed and positioned by GPS (79 WPs in total,including the above mentioned 41 corresponding to the column drums of the stoa;plus the continuous contour tracking of the polygonal sustaining wall).F) TERRITORY: As said above, the survey area, encompassing a radius ofca. 10 km all around the town site, includes some modern villages, where reusedancient spoils can be sporadically identifi ed (mostly column drums; one decoratedstone slab –probably from an ambo– laying on ground in the little square of YeniGörece, etc.). Accurate survey and registration of these ancient relics is usefuland possible, especially in the deserted agro-pastoral villages of Eski Hasanlar,Eski Görece and Eski Süleymanlı, where rural houses and public buildings(mosques) are increasingly decaying, as a consequence of recent depopulation(some decades ago the inhabitants moved to homonymous villages founded inlower and more accessible areas nearby). A preliminary survey of the abandonedand collapsing buildings of Eski Görece and Eski Süleymanlı revealed manyarchitectural fragments (drums, capitals, entablature blocks, decorative reliefs etc.:cf. Fig. 11), and a few millstones and oil presses, which confi rm the unchangedagricultural nature of this peripheral part of the territory of Temnos.26 Plin. NH V 119 (cf. supra, n. 4).349