Ephesos

Ephesus was an ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in the 10th century BC on the site of the former Arzawan capital by Attic and Ionian Greek colonists. The city flourished after it came under the control of the Roman Republic in 129 BC. The city was famed for the nearby Temple of Artemis one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Among many other monumental buildings are the Library of Celsus, and a theatre capable of holding 25,000 spectators.


	Dr. Stefanie Wefers, an Archaeologist was involved in a project to have that part of the site scanned with a laser. From that survey and her numerous other papers I have been able to produce the attached images of Ephesos, although preliminary, I hope you find them interesting.

My main interest in the site before I knew about all of the mills on the hillside was the Marble saw. It was while researching this that I came upon a vast selection of information from a host of eminent Archeologists including Dr Wefers, Anja Cramer, Paul Kessener, Klause Grewe, Tullia Ritti,, Fritz Mangartz, Pierre Brun and several others
The following drawings have been produced from the documents available on line detailing their investigation, opinions and research. None of the drawings are a direct copy of their work but it is their information that has enabled me to draw the saws


	Ephesus marble saw


	Currently I don’t have another place on the site to show the other stone / marble saw mills, so I have added them below. Also at the end are some impressions of what the grain mill along the channel may have looked like based on a Roman one excavated in Greece.


			Geresa marble saw (Jerash, Jordon)







				Hierapolis stone saw.


	In 2005 a relief on the cover of a sarcophagus at the north necropolis at Hierapolis in Phrygia, Turkey, could be identified as a water-powered stone saw mill.

The inscription on the cover names M. Aur. Ammianos as the owner of the sarcophagus; it could be dated to 2nd half of the 3rd century AD. Ammianos is described as “An inventive and able man, working with wheels.” It was generally believed the crank wasn't invented until the middle ages so maybe a man ahead of his time?

		The arrangement below is just my interpretation of how the saws may have been set up with their guide frames


	The drawings below show a ‘Vitruvian’ type mill that may have been similar to the ones built at Ephesus. These were originally based on a mill excavated in the Athenian Agora by Arthur Parsons during the early 1930’s The information has been re-appraised in is published in a document entitled a ‘Roman Water mill in the Athenian Agora’ by Robert J Spain


	Click on the location map to connect to a 3d interactive model of the site

		Apologies for the spelling variations there seems to be several alternative ways