eastiseverywhere:From National Geographic:Aphrodisias Martin GrayWhen archaeologist Kenan Erim first

eastiseverywhere:From National Geographic:Aphrodisias Martin GrayWhen archaeologist Kenan Erim first saw the site in Turkey where the classical city of Aphrodisias once stood, it was a tumbled ruin, weed-choked and overgrown. But over the next two decades (1966-1988), his painstaking excavations revealed an astonishingly complete city - a “miracle in marble” with plazas, public baths, and a Temple of Aphrodite (above) - that flourished for seven centuries before wars and earthquakes forced its abandonment.Ooh! Turns out Turkey has other ancient Greco-Roman cities other than Ephesus! And it features some cool examples of how an Asian civ got Hellenized:Cult image Aphrodite of Aphrodisias was once housed in the Temple of AphroditeTurkey (c. 00s BCE/CE)[Source]Wikipedia says:The cult image that is particular to Aphrodisias, the Aphrodite of Aphrodisias, doubtless was once housed in the Temple of Aphrodite. She was a distinctive local goddess who became, by interpretatio graeca, identified with the Greek Aphrodite. Her canonical image, typical of Anatolian cult images, shows that she is related to the Lady of Ephesus, widely venerated in the Greco-Roman world as Artemis of Ephesus. -- source link

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