Temple of Athena

Miletus’ Temple of Athena used to stand on a small, western promontory to the south of the Theater Harbor. Today, it is located inside one of the pools created by the deep trenches of the excavation, surrounded by salt cedars, agricultural fields and olive groves. This makes it difficult to access. To find it, you need to follow the dirt roads branching to the left off the road from the museum to the theater.

Because of the pond, you can usually only make out the newer Temple of Athena. A deep dig between 1994 and 2004 unearthed one of the oldest settlement sites of Miletus to the south of its foundations. When the water is low, it is possible to see some remnants of the city wall. The oldest finds from this spot have been dated to the fourth century BCE, the late Chalcolithic (or Copper Age). At that time, Miletus already played a role in the trading relations between the Aegean Sea and, via the Gulf of Miletus and the Büyük Menderes Valley, inner Anatolia. The settlement’s trade activities become even clearer during its later stages in the early Bronze Age (around the third century BCE) and the middle Bronze Age (around 2000–1700 BCE). Many Minoan items (such as these seals from the dig of the Temple of Athena) from the second century BCE have been found. This is probably because the first of Crete’s ancient palaces and their surrounding urban centers were built at that time, resulting in increased demand for metals. The inhabitants of Crete at that time, called Minoans today, restructured trade with Asia Minor, which was rich in metals. Between about 1700 and 1450 BCE, Miletus was virtually dominated by Cretan-Minoan culture; it even had a Minoan temple with a clay brick altar in an open courtyard. Its adjacent buildings were decorated with typical Cretan frescoes. This was the beginning of the Temple of Athena. Over the course of the fifteenth century BCE, the Cretan influence gave way to the Peloponnese culture, as the early Greeks (today named Mycenaeans after the famous discovery site in the northeastern Peloponnese) replaced the Minoan Cretans in their dominance over the Aegean Sea, including in Miletus.

This resulted in the establishment of Millawanda, repeatedly mentioned in Hittite sources. It was a vassal state of Ahhiyawā, a kingdom in Greece which the Hittites recognized as their equal at times. Through Millawanda, Ahhiyawā repeatedly interfered in the political conflicts of western Asia Minor, supporting the enemies of the Hittites. Around 1315 BCE, Millawanda was destroyed by the troops of the Hittite king Mursili II. Excavations of Miletus identified a corresponding layer of debris. To ward off threats and unrest towards the end of the second century BCE, a large fortification wall was erected. The Hittite-style structure included multiple bastions; parts of their foundations were unearthed at the Temple of Athena. Soon after their construction, Millawanda was conquered and destroyed. The inhabitants of the settlement left the fortification wall in pieces but rebuilt other buildings, in particular, the megaron, already used as a ritual structure at the time. Next to it, on top of the ruined wall, the “kultmal” was built, an enclosed oval altar constructed from boulders. In the Geometric Period in the eighth century BCE, perhaps earlier, a temple was built on the foundations of the megaron. It was later replaced by the Older Temple of Athena.

It had a west-east orientation and dates back to the Archaic period (specifically, around 600 BCE). These are the humble remains of one of Ionia’s earliest marble buildings. Only the frontal vestibule (pronaos) and the beginnings of an interior room (cella) remain. At the center of the room, a row of columns supported the roof. The structure was replaced by a temple foundation sized 18 x 30 meters, made from gneiss blocks, which can still be seen inside the pond today.

This is the Newer Temple of Athena from around 500 BCE, the heyday of Miletus—then called the Pearl of Ionia according to a famous section (5, 28) of Herodotus’ Histories, which tell the story of the wars between the Persians and Greeks around the mid-fifth century BCE. When the Persians conquered Miletus in 494 BCE, the Temple of Athena was still under construction. Only few architectural fragments have been found.

Text: Julien Zurbach / Lisa Steinmann / based on W.-D. Niemeier in Niewöhner 2016