Introduction

Taking the introduction of new concepts in landscape and social archeology into account, and consciously building on the results of previous research, the Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project should like to launch a new phase of interdisciplinary archaeological investigations. A new excavation programme is proposed, in addition to the continuing programme in the monumental centre of the town, which will focus on the close relationship between the town and its immediate hinterland, as well as on reconstructing the activities of other social classes in antiquity. Indeed, as a result of the ongoing urban excavations mainly the activities of the social elite have been documented, whereas the lives of the ordinary working people are less well studied. The proposed programme, which is fully complimentary with the existing programme, should result in a more detailed and balanced knowledge of all the social classes composing the community of ancient Sagalassos. The study of all layers of society in an ancient community is highly innovative in the context of classical archaeology, especially when the excavations are developed in a fully integrated interdisciplinary context.

Aims

In town, the new programme wishes to propose the excavation of a middle class house, located to the East of the Neon-Library. During earlier excavation campaigns, small portions of the house were already explored, revealing a well preserved late Roman unit, which was destroyed by a catastrophic fire. Permission is requested for the systematic excavation of the interior of this house. From a social point of view, the results of these new excavations can be very usefully contrasted to the continued excavation of the urban mansion, the excavation of workshop units in eastern suburbia, where craftsmen worked for a living, as well as the excavation of parts of the eastern necropolis, where families and the less well off found a last resting place.