Archaeological work in the city of Doliche lasted from 29 July 2025 to 18 September 2025 this year. During this campaign, not only were the large public buildings in the Roman city centre – the Doliche city archives and the monumental apsidal temple – investigated, but also previously unexplored areas between the centres of the imperial and late antique periods. A total of 10 trenches were created. To this end, 28 students, archaeologists and specialists gathered at the excavation house and worked together with 13 Turkish excavation assistants.
Work on the city archive and the Dolichean seal impressions
Work on the city archive, located in 2017, continued in 2025. The archive is located in the south-east of the city hill, on the edge of a plateau where the imperial city centre was located. (Fig. 1) Only a few remains of the foundations of the building itself have been preserved, as the ruins were systematically cleared away shortly after the initial destruction and the stones were used elsewhere or processed into lime. Most of the complex was uncovered during the campaigns of recent years.
The excavations remain a major challenge. The fire debris was already rummaged through in ancient times, and in the recent past, extensive looting has added to the problem. Nevertheless, a total of 22,000 document seal impressions have been recovered so far. However, their excavation requires the complete washing and sieving of the excavated material with water, as the pieces, often only a few millimetres in size, are barely recognisable among millions of stones of the same size (Fig. 2). This method is extremely time-consuming and labour-intensive, and research is progressing only slowly.
Until 2024, all seal impressions came from an 18-metre-long and 9-metre-wide room divided by tongue walls, which is referred to as the archive or the basement of the archive. However, the 2025 campaign brought new findings. A further 15,000 document seals were discovered in the excavation pit of a foundation located outside this room. This confirms that the archive extended over several rooms of a larger building complex, which borders the public bathing facility to the west (Fig. 3). Further exploration of the area is therefore urgently needed, especially as a further increase in the number of finds is to be expected.
Among the 22,000 seal impressions recovered to date, the group of official seals occupies a prominent position. More than half of the pieces bear impressions of seals used by municipal administrative institutions, which are distinguished by their size and motifs of a clearly official nature. Depictions of the city goddess Tyche are particularly common. Already known were a seal with Tyche sitting on a rock, which exists in over a thousand impressions, and a frontal seated Tyche with an inscription from the citizens of Dolichene (Fig. 4). In 2025, another Tyche seal with an inscription was clearly identified (Fig. 5). It again shows the goddess sitting on a rock in profile to the left and explicitly identifies itself as a seal of officials of the archive. This is the first time that a seal can be found that can be directly linked to the activities of the archive itself.
A second important group of official seals depicts Roman emperors in close association with the city god Jupiter Dolichenus. In several cases, the emperor and the god appear shaking hands, a motif that emphasises the special closeness between Dolichenus and the Roman ruling dynasty. There are also depictions of an emperor making a sacrifice before the god standing on a bull. New finds in 2025 revealed a second seal with this motif, which differs in details (Fig. 6). The new finds not only sharpen the picture of the official image programmes, but also provide clues to the early development of the relationships between the city, the deity and imperial power.
Completion of work on the temple
At the monumental temple in the Roman city centre, work focused on the part of the northern aisle adjacent to the apse. It had been anticipated that this would be largely parallel to the southern aisle, which had already been excavated. This assumption was confirmed by the findings. The walls, room proportions and design details correspond in layout and execution to the southern side and confirm the axially symmetrical structure of the temple (Fig. 7).
At the same time, the niche in the northern apse side room was further exposed. Here, too, the assumed mirroring of the structure to its southern counterpart was confirmed. The two niches faced each other on a north-south axis and presumably marked a line of sight within the building.
As in the south, a mosaic floor was uncovered here, displaying the same geometric pattern in identical colours. However, the floor in the north aisle was covered by a layer of mortar applied at a later date. This alteration indicates a later phase of use, during which the inner columns that still existed at the time were also filled in to create an enclosed space (Fig. 8).
In the fill layers of this year’s trench, further architectural elements of the roof structure were uncovered, which have already been documented in other areas of the temple complex. Their rediscovery in connection with the northern area also contributes to the completion of the architectural findings here (Fig. 9). This year’s work thus lays the foundation for the completion of the architectural reconstruction of the temple floor plan by Theresa Pommer (Münster/Braunschweig). The excavations at the temple are now complete for the time being, but the archaeological and architectural-historical evaluation of the findings will continue.
(Late antique) Residential development to the west of the temple?
In the west of the temple, two trenches were dug in the summer of 2025, which were supplemented by an extension after the appearance of dry stone walls (Fig. 10). The location was chosen based on conspicuous concentrations of ash observed on the surface the previous year. These observations were confirmed by the archaeological findings. In addition to extensive layers of ash, a pit with fill containing a high ash content was uncovered, which can clearly be identified as a separate feature. The stratigraphic context of these findings has not yet been conclusively clarified.
The discovery of well-preserved walls, which still stand up to almost three metres high, was surprising (Fig. 11). The function of the walls is still unclear, but they appear to be the remains of residential buildings from the imperial period, which were reused in late antiquity. However, given the still limited extent of the excavation, the functional interpretation remains provisional.
Working in the vicinity of the early Christian basilica
Two trenches were dug to the east of the basilica. Just a few centimetres below the surface, the remains of ashlar masonry came to light. The walls apparently belong to larger buildings that can be attributed to early Byzantine residential construction (Fig. 12).
This is indicated by the numerous finds, mainly ceramics. A barrier plate embedded in the floor (Fig. 13) shows that the buildings were still in use after the church was abandoned. Further research is needed to determine exactly when the building ceased to be used.
Continuation of work on the nave
Work on the central nave of the church continued in 2025 in a new collaboration between a Turkish excavation team led by Prof. Kutalmış Görkay as part of the GMP-projetes and the Asia Minor Research Centre (Fig. 14). The aim of the project is to completely uncover the western half of the church and thus to reliably determine the extent of the building, which has only been assumed until now. The uncovering of the artistically rich mosaic floor should also make it possible to understand the construction and usage phases of the early Christian basilica in the future.
In order to achieve this goal, work will continue beyond the end of the research centre’s campaign in September. The Turkish team will continue the excavations throughout the year, thus ensuring that the findings are processed on an ongoing basis.
