by Verena Mähser

The building research team led by Theresa Pommer has been working for three years on the monumental Roman temple in the centre of ancient Doliche. The aim is to study the building in terms of its architecture, construction and use. I have accompanied this work for two campaigns, focusing my research on the architectural fragments of the temple’s entablature. Despite the long period of reuse of the building and the recycling of the stones, the last three campaigns have produced a large number of architectural finds, some of which are very large. I am studying them intensively after documenting them in the depots of the excavation house. Other parts of the entablature have been reused in buildings constructed after the destruction of the temple. I also draw and analyse these in detail after the archaeological documentation is complete. For example, an architrave block was reused as spolia in a wall built on the mosaic floor in the southern aisle of the temple.

For a comprehensive analysis of the architectural elements, we use digital techniques such as laser scanning with the Artec Spider handheld scanner and photogrammetry using the Structure from Motion method. The aim is to obtain digital models of the building’s decoration that are as detailed as possible. However, we also draw important and large blocks by hand in the traditional way, as this allows us to make more detailed observations and document the traces of the working process.

Taken together, this provides a comprehensive picture of the architectural fragments, allowing us to reconstruct the temple roof and other structural elements. The analysis of traces of the working process allows us to understand historical construction methods and production techniques. By analysing the dimensions of the building components, but also of the structural elements, we can reconstruct the overall dimensions of the temple, and through static considerations we can also understand and reconstruct elements of the temple roof that have not survived. Analysis of the smaller fragments, which have already been digitally recorded in large numbers, is also a revealing source for understanding the shape of the temple’s entablature.

Our work here provides the basis for understanding the history of the building, allowing the architecture and its historical significance to be placed in a wider chronological and cultural context, and answering overarching questions about historical construction processes, manufacturing techniques or prevailing building traditions.

Thanks to the ongoing excavations, the exciting work of archaeological building research continues to provide us with new surprises, and we are always amazed at how enormously instructive and multi-faceted our research here on Keber Tepe in Doliche is.