Rocco G.

Neoria a Kos

Authors: M. Livadiotti, G. Rocco

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In the context of L. Morricone’s research carried out in Kos in 1935 in the area of the Turkish quarter of Bozuktà, near the port, significant remains of two Hellenistic neosoikoi were discovered, at the time mistakenly believed to be part of the port fortification system. The arrangement and building technique of their partition walls, the dimensions of the compartments and other technical features recall the neosoikoi excavated by the Greek Archaeological Service in 1986-87 further South, always along the harbour inlet, thus providing this new identification hypothesis. Furthermore, a new analysis of the nearby Harbour Baths, excavated on the same occasion by the Italian archaeologist, made it possible to identify further remains of another set of neosoikoi, separated from the other two by a narrow road, and enabled the identification of the back wall on which the long walls of the shipsheds were joined. The bath building would have been built in the 2nd cent. A.D., reusing the Hellenistic partition walls and creating the bathing areas inside the shipsheds, thus retaining their layout. The identification of a new set of shipsheds at another point of the ancient port of Kos further clarifies the extent of the city’s military infrastructure, allowing for a more articulated reconstruction of the port districts, used for different functions: military, cultural and commercial ones. What emerges is an urban landscape in which even the neoria contribute to shaping the image of a city that aims to show itself as rich and important.

Supplementum III – Sacred and civic spaces in the Greek poleis world

This volume is the result of a workshop held at the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, 15-16 February 2017. The theme was Urban and rural space in the Greek polis world, and the participants came from the Department of Sciences of Engineering and Architecture of the Polytechnic University of Bari, Italy, and the Uppsala Department. Three of the four articles examine civic and sacred spaces in the Dodecanese, and the fourth treats the question of how the ancient Greeks perceived and mapped space in order to orientate themselves within it.

As the importance of the south-eastern Aegean and the coastal regions of south-western Asia Minor in the Late Classical and Hellenistic periods is becoming ever more apparent, continued research in this area allows us to gain a better understanding of these poleis and the role they played in the larger Greek world. This relatively short publication contributes to this research and also highlights the central role which highly visible sanctuaries played for travellers in unfamiliar territories.

Summary

K. Höghammar, M. Livadiotti, Introduction, pp. 5-6;
G. Rocco, Sacred architecture in Hellenistic Rhodes, pp. 7-38;
M. Livadiotti, The infrastructure of a Hellenistic town and its persistence in Imperial period: the case of Kos, pp. 39-76;
K. Höghammar, The sanctuary of the Twelve Gods in Kos and the stelai with proxeny decrees, pp. 77-100
A. Frejman, Some thoughts on ancient maps, travel, and the location of Greek rural sanctuaries, pp. 101-110.

Vol. 3 | Monumenti di Kos I. La Stoà Meridionale dell’agorà

Rocco, copertina G. Rocco, Monumenti di Kos I. La Stoà Meridionale dell’agorà, Thiasos, Monografie 3, 2013, pp. 1-194 + 3 tavv. f.t.

ISSN 2281-8774, ISBN 978-88-7140-503-2

Published in the context of the recently launched “Thiasos, journal of archaeology and ancient architecture”, the monograph inaugurates, being its first volume, a series of works dedicated to the architecture of Kos and other Dodecanese islands, that is going to include the edition of the Gymnasium and Central Baths by Monica Livadiotti. The volume is published in e-book form, but a translation in English, edited by Rita Sassu, is under preparation and will be shortly available in printed edition (always with Quasar publisher).

The study of the South Stoa of the agora is part of a more general analysis concerning the topography of the ancient city of Kos that the team of the Department of Sciences of Civil Engineering and Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Bari, directed by Giorgio Rocco, has been carrying out for many years, in collaboration with colleagues of the Ephorates of Dodecanese and the Archaeological Institute of Aegean Studies of Rhodes.

The hypothesis of reconstruction of the Stoa results from a research paying special attention to data coming from the survey of structures as well as architectural fragments and turns out to be a relevant element for the overall knowledge of the agora of Kos and its monuments, a topic the author dealt with in several contributions during the last few years. The very existence of this long porch defining the south side of the agora also solved a number of questions regarding the topographical configuration of the city’s central area, that remained unanswered since Luigi Morricone’s excavation in the westernmost sector of the Hellenistic plateia and Charis Kanzia’s archaeological investigations in its eastern extension.

In addition, the description of the consistency of the monument and its reconstruction are complemented by a comprehensive system of comparisons with the coeval micro-Asiatic architecture, hence contributing to the understanding of the architectural production of the island in the Hellenistic age, giving it a greater importance than has hitherto been supposed.

The volume is then completed by the Catalogue of Architectural Fragments of South Stoa (edited by F. Liuni and A. Ferrante), by the Catalogue of Structural Stratigraphic Units (edited by M. Livadiotti and M. Messina) and by two brief studies, in Appendix, the first one regarding an unusual system of vertical fixing (A. Fino) and the second one about a particular lifting system that connects Kos’ architectural production to the “Ionian Renaissance” of the Hellenistic Asia Minor (M. Livadiotti).

The illustrative apparatus, entirely original, has been realized with the contribution of undergraduate, graduate and PhD students of DICAR of Bari, who, since 2004 participated in missions in Kos, which is gradually assuming the role of “school yard” for future Italian “Bauforscher“.

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Il piano regolatore di Kos del 1934: un progetto di città archeologica

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A preliminar version of this contribution was published in Greek at the International Congress Νεές πόλεις πάνο σε παλιές, organized in Rhodes in 1993 by ICOMOS and the Dodecanese Ephorates. A syntesis was then published also by M. Livadiotti in Livadiotti, Rocco 1996, pp. 86-91. In the 1934 town plan for Kos, the considerable amount of free area corresponding to the archaeological zones excavated by Italian archaeologists is striking. Archival documents show that this peculiarity is the result of a deliberate project and that it is connected with Mario Lago, the Governor of Dodecanese since 1923, who was so deeply interested in classical culture to collaborate with Alessandro Della Seta, Federico Halbherr, Enrico Paribeni, Amedeo Maiuri, Giulio Iacopi and Luciano Laurenzi, to promoting with them in 1928 the foundation of the “Archaeological-Historical Institute FERT” at Rhodes. In 1933 Kos was almost totally devastated by a disastrous earthquake and the Italian government charged the architect R. Petracco with elaborating a new town plan; before the plan was drawn up, Lago agreed with Della Seta in charging Laurenzi with carrying out an archaeological survey and sondages throughout the city in order to identify the most promising areas for future investigations. So, eight large zones were set aside for the creation of as many archaeological parks. Oddly enough, therefore, an Archaeological Service was given a decision preceding a town plan and the new Kos was planned along unusual lines that can be identified in the idea of the “archaeological city”. The plan turned out to be an avant-garde model from the point of view of conservation, even compared with what was taking place at the same time in Italy, where there was an active debate on the problem and the relative legislation was very progressive for the period. The case of Kos has a significant precedent at Rhodes in the Twenties in the episode of the protection of the Moslem and Jewish cemeteries and a creation of a protective band around the walled city. In that story, as documents can demonstrate, Maiuri’s role is not to be underestimated: in fact the archaeologist was really sensitive to the new concerns of restoration and in 1931 participated in Athens, with Della Seta, Pernier, Pace, Iacopi, to the International Conference on Restoration, giving an active contribution to the discussion.