Citation
Page reference: Christopher Ratté and Peter D. De Staebler (eds.). Aphrodisias V. The Aphrodisias Regional Survey (Verlag Philipp von Zabern: Darmstadt/Mainz, 2012), 323, 324, 333. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/92973>
Description
Local Name: Geyre
Local Informant: Erdal Bey
Local Information: E/ SE of Aphrodisias E gate
Latitude: 37.42.19.105
Longitude: 28.44.08.461
Elevation: 533m
Axis: South
Description: Well preserved; excavated by Aphrodisias Museum in September 2005 and now mostly filled in; information is primarily from the museum report. Square chamber surmounted by dome (Diam: approx 2.75m); the center had collapsed by the time of excavation. A vaulted niche (0.70-0.80m deep, and 1.95-2.10m wide) opens into each wall, and entrance was through the south wall. The threshold block is preserved, and the pivot (diam: 0.09m) is in the southeast corner, so the door opened inward and to the right. The arches are built of worked marble petit appareil blocks, and the walls are a regularly coursed mix of split and worked stones; much of the surface is plastered. The outer perimeter of the walls and dome was also exposed, revealing a rectangular mass of mortared rubble n-s 6.50 by e-w 5.40m. The back walls of the niches are about 0.60m thick, and the dome was supported on massive corner piers about 1.70 m square, buried within the surrounding earth. Six cists were built into the floor, one in each niche and two across the center; they average 1.80 m long, 0.80 m wide, and 0.50m deep. The floor, about 0.60cm below the level of the threshold, was paved in brick, and the cists were covered with thin slabs of limestone ("kayrak taşı"). A narrow shelf projects from the back of the niches to help support the slabs. ** Finds: All cists contained human bones and some small finds from different periods including belt buckles, coins, lamps, and glass unguentaria, but all had been previously disturbed. The excavators suggest that the tomb was built in the Late Roman period and used into the Byzantine period.