Turkey - Claros

Mission Research Topic: publication of excavation results and architectural study of the monuments in the Sanctuary of Apollo.

Excavation History: Discovered in 1907, the Claros site was the focus of several exploration campaigns between 1913 and 1997. Following the first digs, directed by the site’s inventor, Theodore Macridy, and by Frenchman Charles Picard in 1913, the main monuments were cleared during the missions carried out by Louis Robert and Roland Martin, between 1951 and 1960. Uncovered at that time were the monumental entrance to the sanctuary (the Propylea), the great Doric Temple dedicated to Apollo, the Temple of Artemis, the altars and two rows of honorary monuments from the Hellenistic and Roman Eras, aligned along the path that led up to the temple. Many inscriptions were exhumated and in part published by L. Robert. After a relatively long break, work resumed in 1988, conducted by a Franco-Turkish team headed by Juliette de la Genière. The Mission’s aim was to explore the most ancient levels of architecture, which previous digs had been unable to reach. The structures designed for sacrifices, and the archaic altars and structures going back to the 10th century BC, were unearthed between 1988 and 1997. In 2000, the dig was continued by a Turkish team from the University of Izmir, while the French mission worked on publishing the results from previous digs and completing the archaeological study of the Temple of Apollo, undertaken in the 1960s by R. Martin and P. Varène.