We referenced at about Sardis Guides in the following instution's decuments:

ARCHEOLOGICAL EXPLOROTION OF SARDIS jointly sponsored by the Fogg Art Museum of Harvard, Corneli University, the American Schools of Oriental Research and the Corning Museum of glass.

Sector PN ("Pactolus North )

The Temple of Artemis

The Artemis temple at Sardis, though not actually in a Greek city, is one of the seven largest of all Greek temples. It was begun about a generation after the conquest of Alexander and the enormous scale (c. 45.7 x 99.2 m.; cf. the Parthenon, c. 30.9 x 69.5 m.) was clearly meant to rival the three great Ionian temples at Ephesos, Samos and Didyma. It is possible that the funds to start the project may have come from the Seleucid kings, of whose empire Sardis was then an important subcapital.

The three great Ionian temples are all "dipteral , that is with two rows of columns around the celia. As preserved the Artemis temple is a "pseudodipteros , that is, a dipteros with the inner row of columns omitted, hence a "false dipteros. The celia is divided in the middle into two back to back chambers facing east and west. The altar, unusually, is at the west end of the temple and, even more unusually, was probably meant to be physically connected with the temple. The core of this altar is a Lydian limestone structure of the later 5th or 6th centuries B.C. At some time, probably when the temple itself was begun, the altar was enlarged by a casing of sandstone blocks.

In its present form the temple represents a building whose original design has been radically altered in two ways. First, the celia originally had only one chamber facing west (the darker walls on the plan). At some time the west wall, west door, and interior columns were removed and a new west wall, a central dividing wall and the present east door were built producing the unusual back to back chambers. Second, the original design of the exterior colonnade must have been not pseudodipteral but dipteral, like Ephesos, Samos and Didyma; the double row of exterior columns would have been aligned with the interior columns and with the interior dividing walls.

The date and purpose of these alterations is controversial. With regard to the celia subdivision, we know from an inscription of c. 5-1 B.C. that by the late Heilenistic period both Artemis and Zeus Polieus were honored together in the same precinct, possibly in the same temple. Also, when the temple was excavated a colossal head of Zeus was recovered from the celia. Therefore some scholars believe that the celia was subdivided already by c. 200 B.C. in order to give each god his own chamber (although the standard pattern in "shared Greek temples is to place both images in the same chamber). On the other hand, two colossal portrait heads of the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius (A.D. 138-161) and his empress Faustina were also recovered in the celia. And we know that during Antoninus' reign Sardis received "neocoratê honors, that is, the city was charged with maintaining an official temple of the imperial cult. Therefore some scholars believe that the subdivision occurred only at this time in order to adapt the temple to the imperial cult, giving one chamber to Zeus and the emperor and one to Artemis and the empress.

     The process of making these alterations during the renovation has left many Visible marks. The central dividing wall is thinner and of poorer construction than the original side walls. The steps at the northwest corner are probably meant only to give temporary access to the building during construction. And the fluted columns on peculiar pedestals seem to have been disassembled and moved bodily from the interior; there are numerous places on their shafts, and on the bases of the four adjacent columns of the interior porch, where masons have trimmed accidental breaks and inserted almost invisible patches.

Even this project was never finished (see fig. 4). Many of the ornamental column bases, which were meant to have a variety of patterns, are only hail carved. The plinths of most of these columns are still in a rough state but in the middle of each side there is a small smooth place where masons have scribed lines to indicate the finished dimensions.    In the course of the 4th century A.D. the temple was abandoned and a small Late Antique chapel was built at the southeast corner. Its marble was systematically broken up to provide lime for the mortar and rubble buildings of prosperous 5th and 6th century Sardis. The immediate area became a combination residential district and tomb area.

By the 9th century the temple was again deeply buried by landslides from the acropolis and eventually only the tops of the two standing columns were visible.

Three interesting inscriptions are carved on the temple. A long one on the north wall of the original pronaos (west porch) publically records the property of a certain Mnesimachos, who had taken a loan from the temple and had to mortgage many of his lands when he was unable to repay it. This inscription i~' to be dated c. 220 B.C. and shows that the cella walls had been built by that time. A short inscription in Lydian appears on one of the two fluted columns (on the apophyge at the bottom of the shaft, almost impossible to see from the ground) and signifies in the terse dedication formula "so-and-so to Artemis that an individual donor underwrote the column's cost. The third inscription appears on the foot of the fourth column from the north in the east colohnade and records that the column was thefirst to be erected ("I am the first to rise. . . ") and was paid for not from public monies but by private subscription. This must be the first column erected during the mid-2nd century renovation project.