Kibyra Soffit Ornaments

Abstract

This article is about the soffits of the architrave blocks belonging to various structures found in Kibyra located in Gölhisar, district of Burdur, which also gave its name in antiquity to the region of Kibyratis, which is the meeting point of different cultures. In this study 19 soffits are evaluated that are found during the excavations in Kibyra since 2006. The soffit decorations in question were recovered from buildings and areas such as the monumental city gate, the eastern stoa of the ‘Agora I’ terraced street, the southern slope of the ‘Agora III’ Teras, the Tholos Nymphaion, the Theater, and the Kaisareion, and were also used as spolia on the terrace walls of the Agora. Throughout the study, the soffit decorations were interpreted together with the architrave decorations, and a catalog was created as a result of this examination. These soffits were also compared typologically with their counterparts in Anatolian cities. The result of this evaluation is that the soffits in Kibyra have different motifs and are mostly dated between the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.

Keywords

• roman period
• kibyra
• architrave
• soffit
• ornament