By Glenn Maffia

On a recent visit to the Temple I noticed a modicum of maintenance work being conducted within the Chresmographion (the higher section of the three levels), but could not discern any German Archaeological Institute (GAI) personnel, merely local labourers.

Sparse on the ground

That is not to say the archaeologists are entirely absent, but hints at the news I recently published about the GAI team being thinner in number this season than is usual.

I recall, when the exciting find of the Theatre was gradually being revealed from its 2,000 year internment, that there appeared to be more archaeologists swarming over the site than tourists.

That, and the subsequent years were exciting times as each year a new discovery followed quickly on the heels of another. Then suddenly in 2016 things shuddered to an apparently grinding halt as the GAI were refused access to the site due to some ‘tiff’ between the two governments.

After that moment, the GAI team became noticeably shallower in numbers, though much of that impression was probably fuelled by the dictat that at least 51% of the personnel employed upon an archaeological site must be of native origin.

Nonetheless, the flurry of newly discovered finds were decidedly reduced to a mere trickle. Unlike the southeast edge of the Temple, in which every passing year was becoming inundated with a veritable gush of water. A mystery finally solved when the local water authority found a broken water feeder pipe beneath the heavily used road which wraps around the archaeological site.

My research continues

It may well have been this event that saw a greater emphasis in shift to the maintenance of the site, a finer attention to the preservation over the more eye catching ‘prestigious finds’.

Though, I am sure, there are many more antique structures just waiting to, once more, glimpse the light of day. These structures shall not be going anywhere and thus attention to preservation can take a lead, for now.

I am sure academics, either here, or Germany, or within Turkish institutions shall be diligently researching old manuscripts from the past travellers and research teams which ventured through this ancient land so rich in history.

I certainly am doing so, via the internet. So much has been archived on specialist areas of interest that the relevant websites to this particular historic site in Didyma can be elusive.

It all rather leads me to other fascinating areas of study, but I am staying focused on the environment around the Temple of Apollo wherever and whenever, I can do so.

It would be rewarding, I feel, to discuss this subject with the archaeologists on the ground, though any attempt I have made has, surprisingly, never been encouraged.

One would think they would be lucid on a subject so close to their hearts. More pertinently it is my opinion that the very essence of their work should be to relay any findings into the public domain. So, why on earth is such information so jealously guarded? I believe that I know that answer, but it would be unfair of me to conjecture upon that within these pages.

A new attraction?

It immediately occurred to me when viewing the architectural fragments in the gardens of the Excavation House (where the archaeologists reside when they are on-site) that there is enough material therein to furnish a modest museum within, or near, the archaeological site.

Possibly upon the high ground rising directly before the main façade of the Temple, it certainly is a location of prominence and also one which every visitor passes when evading the traffic on their way to the Temple entrance.

Admittedly, we have a perfectly fine museum not that far away at Miletus; though that is a car drive away and only has a limited section applicable to the Didyma site. I do not recall the actual numbers, though it was surprising that visitors to the Miletus Museum numbered fewer than those entering the Temple.

Therefore, as elegant and pleasant as it is, isn’t this museum in the wrong place? Possibly not, in my opinion, but I do tend to lean towards a dedicated museum upon the Didyma site in conjunction and harmony with the existing place of learning.

This is merely a proposal, advantageous to the town, in that it shall have greater appeal than many of the events currently in operation within Didim Municipality.