The Urban Change and Transformation of the Theater and its Surroundings in the light of the Side Dionysos (?) Temple

Abstract

The Dionysos (?) Temple in Side was uncovered by excavations and research undertaken by Arif Mufid Mansel in the 1940s and 50s. Mansel, through an examination of architectural elements suggested the temple to have been built in early Imperial period; repaired in 2nd /3rd cent. AD and used during the Byzantine period. During the excavation work done by Ulku Izmirligil around the Agora between the years 1999-2004, some architectural blocks were found. Mustafa Buyukkolanci thought that these blocks also belonged to the temple and carried them to the site, and accepting Mansel's views without questioning them, used these blocks in an arrangement over the temple. When I started my work on the temple, it was already obvious that the building had a long historical usage and had been both an active and a passive part in the civic transformation and development of the city around the theater. Stratigraphic excavation have provided new and important evidence and five building phases have been discovered. This article examines five building phases (I-V) that have been discovered through stratigraphic excavations in and around the temple between 2009 and 2012. Through these phases it is hoped to illuminate the civic changes and transformations around the temple and the theater and thus contribute to the settlement history of the city of Side. For this purpose, the relation of the building to its neighbors and their position inside the city plan, their importance, an outline of excavation history, historical events and epigraphical documents have been used to show that the temple should not be associated with the cult of Dionysos, but instead with Imperial cult. The hit point of the article is the part where the transformation and changes of the building and the city are examined. These phases were examined via archaeological finds and evaluated together with the history of the city.