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Jordan Pickett (University of Georgia) will speak on "New Results from the Byzantine Acropolis at Sardis: Geology, Time, and Architecture". Lunch will be at 12, the lecture at 12:30.

Lecture Abstract:
This paper considers the results of new fieldwork undertaken at Sardis since 2019, as part of the Harvard-Cornell Exploration of Sardis, with a focus on the Byzantine Acropolis. A particularly challenging environment, the Acropolis consists of tectonically-uplifted gravelly riverbeds, which have become extremely eroded and sheer over the centuries. There are significant questions about the historical deformation of the Acropolis, which have consequences for our understanding of the massive spolia-built fortifications of the Byzantine period that sit atop. These are hundreds of meters of walls, entirely built of recycled materials, including every known Roman period structure from the city below, in addition to likely dozens of hitherto unidentified monuments. Gates, vaulted interior structures, posterns: the Byzantine fortifications at Sardis sit in rare company alongside Nicaea, Ephesos, Pergamon, and Magnesia on the Maeander, as monuments of the so-called Transitional Byzantine Period (c. AD 650 – 850). New radiocarbon results concerning the date of the Acropolis are discussed here, alongside new geomorphological studies, as well as architectural and historical analysis.