The Development of the Byzantine City of Assos from the 8th to the 15th Century

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Beate Böhlendorf-Arslan
• Subject Area: Classical, Roman, Christian and Islamic Archaeology
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 563126915

The ancient city of Assos (Troad) is an ideal site for the study of settlement history in the longue durée. Since most of the urban area has never built over and no major early excavations took place, comprehensive archaeological research can be carried out in the city and its immediate surroundings. In an earlier project, the late antique-early Byzantine phase was investigated. It turned out that settlement within the ancient city walls ended in the late 7th century, but that there was still a Byzantine population thereafter. In the project applied for here, the focus will therefore be on the expansion, infrastructure and equipment as well as the settlement development of the entire city and its immediate surroundings in the Middle and Late Byzantine period, from the 8th to the 15th century. In a combination of intensive surveys, building observations, smaller sondages and the evaluation of finds, the possible Middle and Late Byzantine settlement area, two church buildings and their integration into the settlement as well as the acropolis with its Middle(?)-Late Byzantine castron and its early Ottoman use will be investigated in three subprojects. Assos offers the exceptional opportunity for Asia Minor to reconstruct the development of an ancient site from Late Antiquity to the Ottoman period. This can lead to a reassessment of processes in the history of settlement that are of significance far beyond the case study of Assos.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants