A new basilical church uncovered at Akyaka in Caria

Abstract

The building which is the subject of the study is located in Akyaka, a province of modernday Muğla, situated in the territory of the ancient city of Idyma. Çatalçam Sokak, where the Papazhk Creek joins the Azmak Road, is surrounded by a forest. The part of this small wood closest to the road was called Eren Dede by the natives. Illicit digs were carried out in an area where there were two Turkish tombs built in the late period, and some architectural remains of the Early Christian Period were also uncovered. Afterwards, a rescue excavation was carried out for two seasons by the Muğla Archaeological Museum. Excavations brought to light a three-aisled basilica with three apses and a narthex, together with architectural sculptures belonging to the church; small finds; and a mosaic pavement in the opus tessellatum technique. The excavated structure was built following a standard type of plan applied in many of the grand-scale churches of the Early Christian Period, mainly at the Capital and then in the Aegean and the Mediterranean world from the 5th to 7th centuries. The architectural sculptures, small finds and mosaics uncovered both at the excavation and previously during the survey support the dating of the structure reached by the plan typology.