ISTANBUL - Austrian President Heinz Fischer will inaugurate an archaeological exhibition in Istanbul that showcases findings from the excavation of the temple of Artemision at Efes (Ephesus) which is known as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
The exhibition will open at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum on Thursday. More than 500 pieces, such as bronze sculptures, tiles, ivory and amber objects unearthed at the Artemision excavations will be displayed at the museum for the first time.
Temple of Artemision is located at Kusadasi, Izmir on the Aegean part of Turkey and is known as the sacred site of the ancient Greek goddess Artemis, the virginal huntress and twin of Apollo, who supplanted the Titan Selene as goddess of the moon.
The temple, built of marble, with its peripteral columns doubled to make a wide ceremonial passage round the cella, was designed and constructed around 550 BC by the Cretan architect Chersiphron and his son Metagenes. This enriched reconstruction was financed by Croesus, the wealthy king of Lydia.
The temple became a tourist attraction, visited by merchants, kings, and sightseers, many of whom paid homage to Artemis in the form of jewelry and various goods. Its splendor also attracted many worshipers, many of whom formed the cult of Artemis.
But the temple was destroyed in 356 BC in an act of arson committed by Herostratus. According to the story, his motivation was fame at any cost, thus the term herostratic fame. That very same night, Alexander the Great was born. A Greek biographer remarked that Artemis was too preoccupied with Alexander`s delivery to save her burning temple.
The temple was built and destroyed a few more times after that and lost its charm as people of Ephesus chose Christianity. Remains of the temple were used mostly in construction of other buildings by the Christians.
After seven years of searching, the site of the temple was rediscovered in 1869 by an expedition sponsored by the British Museum led by John Turtle Wood. Wood dug the site until 1874. A few further fragments of sculpture were found in 1905 during excavations directed by David George Hogarth. The recovered sculptured fragments of the fourth-century rebuilding and a few from the earlier temple, which had been used in the rubble fill for the rebuilding, were assembled and displayed in the "Ephesus Room" of the British Museum.
Austrian archaeologists continued excavations at the site since 1965 and discovered new findings that signposted the structure of the temple.
(TÇ-MS)