Citation
Christopher Ratté and Peter D. De Staebler (eds.). Aphrodisias V. The Aphrodisias Regional Survey (Verlag Philipp von Zabern: Darmstadt/Mainz, 2012). <http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/92654>
Description
Local Name: Aphrodisias, West Necropolis
Local Information: Regional Survey 2001 no. W2; on west side of Geyre village, on north bank of Dere, oriented due South
Latitude: 37.42.43.14
Longitude: 28.42.30.96
Elevation: 508m
Axis: S
Dimensions: Chamber: W: 4.82 m, D: 5.05m, pres. H: 3.20m
Description: Well preserved underground chamber tomb; nothing visible on surface; now used for storage of sacks of pine cones and corn cobs; located in north bank of Geyre Deresi. The tomb is a large rectangular vaulted room with a large vaulted niche (n-s 2.55m, e-w 2.06m) in the back wall, slightly off-center to the west. The main chamber is cleared to within 3.20m of the vault, and the niche is cleared to a height of 1.90m. The walls and vault are built of well-mortared split stones, some of which are evened-out river stones. Some of the stones used in the vault are very large (up to L: 1.00m, W: 0.25m). The few petit appareil blocks are limited to the jambs of the entrance door and the voussoirs of the vaulted niche, which extend as much as 0.25 m out into the room from the plane of the wall. Part of the back wall of the niche (Th: 0.30 m) is broken away revealing the orange-red local conglomerate bedrock. The vault and the end walls are not bonded; the end walls rise to meet the intrados of the vault, and the triangular gaps at the ends of the masonry courses are chinked with river stones. The dromos walls (Th: 0.40m) abut on the southern end wall of the chamber, and the dromos (W: 1.19m) is only slightly wider than the entrance door (W: 1.10m). Four rock-cut burial niches (H: approx. 1.20m, W: 1.55m, D: 2.30-2.70m) extend the space of the main chamber, two each to the east and west near the north and south ends of the side walls. The openings through the masonry are informal, without support from an arch or lintel, and the rock cut walls are irregular. Though spur walls line the entrances of the two northern niches, in general they appear to have been cut and constructed after the tomb was built.