1. Location
In the east section of the Embolos, east of the Octagon (no. 47) and west of the Stoa of Alytarches (no. 44), the excavations of 1994 brought to light the architectural remains of a building with a hexagonal shape (no. 46).1The Hexagon, as it has come to be called in the relevant bibliography, was located under a structure of Late Antiquity and it continued under the steps of the paved Couretes Street.2
2. Architectural design and dating
The monument’s superstructure is arranged in three parts, comprising a base, the monopteral composition and the conical roof. The monument’s base, whose total height was approximately 1.50 m., was composed by a marble three-step crepidoma of a hexagonal shape (0.75 m. in height). Over it stood a bathron made up of marble orthostatai with a cyma-bearing crowning, each side measuring 2.55 m. in length.3 There followed a stepped crepidoma-like structure, which supported a monopteral colonnade with six Ionic columns.4 These columns comprised a fluted shaft resting on a base decorated with a concave-convex cyma. Parts from the Ionic capitals of the monument have been discovered in the Embolos and the Agora areas.5 The Ionic entablature of the peristasis comprised a three-fascia epistyle, an undecorated frieze over which there were dentils and a cornice probably decorated with cymae. It is believed that the monument was covered by a conical roof.6
The total circumference of the monument has been estimated to 5.60 m. with a depth of 4.80 m, while its total height was 9-10 m.7 With respect to its function, we may assume it was an honourary monument containing the statue of the person being honoured.8 On the basis of the pottery that has been found in the building’s area, a date to around the late 1st century BC has been proposed.
1. Karwiese, S., "Grabungen 1995, Ephesos: Prozessionsstrasse (Via Sacra) im Bereich Kuretenstrasse / Heroa / Hadrianstor", ÖJh 65 (1996), Beibl., p. 14.
2. In order to reveal the position and ground plan of this monument the excavators proceeded to remove some slabs of the overlying paved road. They selected the slabs preserved in a poor state and those that, according to measurements, corresponded to the west corner of the monument, cf. Karwiese, S., "Grabungen 1995, Ephesos: Prozessionsstrasse (Via Sacra) im Bereich Kuretenstrasse / Heroa / Hadrianstor", ÖJh 65 (1996), Beibl., p. 14ff.
3. Karwiese, S., "Grabungen 1995, Ephesos: Prozessionsstrasse (Via Sacra) im Bereich Kuretenstrasse / Heroa / Hadrianstor", ÖJh 65 (1996), Beibl., p. 15.
4. Limestone blocks were discovered at the corners of the structure, and were identified as the foundation blocks of a colonnade.
5. Karwiese, S., "Grabungen 1995, Ephesos: Prozessionsstrasse (Via Sacra) im Bereich Kuretenstrasse / Heroa / Hadrianstor", ÖJh 65 (1996), Beibl., pp. 16-17, pl. 9, showing fragments from the corner Ionic columns of the Hexagon.
6. The above description of the architectural form rests on the monument’s pictorial representation by H. Thür, cf. Karwiese, S., "Grabungen 1995, Ephesos: Prozessionsstrasse (Via Sacra) im Bereich Kuretenstrasse / Heroa / Hadrianstor", ÖJh 65 (1996), Beibl., p. 16, pl. 8.
7. Karwiese, S., "Grabungen 1995, Ephesos: Prozessionsstrasse (Via Sacra) im Bereich Kuretenstrasse / Heroa / Hadrianstor", ÖJh 65 (1996), Beibl., p. 15.
8. Karwiese, S., "Grabungen 1995, Ephesos: Prozessionsstrasse (Via Sacra) im Bereich Kuretenstrasse / Heroa / Hadrianstof, ÖJh 65 (1996), Beibl., p. 15.