Return to Cnidus
Project leader: Ian Jenkins
Department: Greece and Rome
Project start: 1997
End date: Phase II 2010
External partners:
Professor Dr Ramazan Özgan, Selçuk University,
Konya, Turkey
British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara
Professor Dr Wolfgang Ehrhardt, University of
Freiburg, Germany
Project funded by:
The British Museum: The Townley Group,
Caryatids and Philanthropic Fund
British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara
Description:
Cnidus or Knidos (pronounced K-nee-dos) lies
at the tip of a long finger of land projecting into the sea in the
south-west corner of western Turkey. It was founded in around 360
BC on terraces built into ground that rises a 1, 000 feet from the
sea to a towering fortified acropolis. The city was inhabited until
late antiquity, when it was abandoned, probably as a result of
repeated raids by pirates.
Cnidus boasted two fine harbours, four
theatres and other fine civic and sacred buildings, the most
important of which were situated on the western edge, overlooking
the sea and with a fine view of the island of Cos. The Cnidians
exported their wine and other produce far and wide, but the city
was chiefly famous for its statue of Aphrodite. This naked
representation of the goddess of love was carved by the Athenian
sculptor Praxiteles, celebrated for his ability to turn white
marble into living flesh.
Modern
exploration of Cnidus began with the visit in 1812 by Sir William
Gell and his fellow travellers investigating its ruins on behalf of
the Dilettanti Society of London. Their published account inspired
the excavations in 1857-9 of the pioneering British archaeologist,
Charles Newton. His work focused, among other sites, upon the
Sanctuary of Demeter and her daughter Persephone, a place he called
the Sanctuary of the Muses and the so-called gymnasium. Many
objects including fine marble sculptures, pottery lamps and
terracottas entered the Museum’s collections as a result of
Newton’s excavations. His own publication is an exemplary and
advanced work for its day. It now raises many questions, however,
and in 1997 the British Museum returned to Cnidus in search of some
of the answers to them. This was the first of a series of
campaigns, which have been conducted in partnership with the Selçuk
University of Konya under a permit from the Turkish Ministry of
Culture and Tourism.
Objectives:
The principal objective of the British
Museum’s current survey and excavation work at Cnidus is to
better understand the archaeological context of objects in the
British Museum.
Phase I, completed in 2003, concerned the Sanctuary of Demeter
and the so-called Sanctuary of the Muses. In the Demeter Sanctuary
all visible remains of structures have been re-drawn and for the
most part re-dated to the Roman period. The Muse Sanctuary has been
re-excavated and shown to be a fountain-house and sanctuary of the
Nymphs. It began life around 300 BC and remained in use into the
early Christian period. It was converted into a church around AD
475-500. Ayşe Dalyancι’s plan and reconstruction drawing of the
Nymphaeum can be viewed on the Greek and Roman Department’s home
pages under research/excavations
Phase II, begun in
2004, concerns the so-called gymnasium, which lies on the south
side of the ancient high street at Cnidus. The place is associated
with an inscription recording honours paid to Artemidoros, son of
Theopompos, who warned Julius Caesar of the conspiracy to murder
him on 15 March 44 BC. The ‘gymnasium’ may have been a wrestling
school or palaistra, which doubled as a school of philosophy – the
subject taught by Artemidoros in Rome. The style of masonry is
identical with that of the Nymphaeum and the two buildings could
have been constructed by the same group of masons at around the
same date. The gymnasium comprises three terraces descending east
to west and was entered from the street by a stone staircase in its
north-west corner. The upper, easternmost terrace was paved
with mosaics.
More information:
Publications:
I. Jenkins, ‘The lion Tomb at Knidos’, Greek Architecture
and its Sculpture (London, 2006), pp. 227-31
I. Jenkins, Return to
Cnidus, Archaeology Abroad Service Website (2006)
I. Jenkins, ‘Return to Cnidus’, Anatolian
Archaeology 12 (2006), pp. 26-28
I. Jenkins, ‘The relief of the dancing nymphs
from a nymphaeum at Knidos’, Festschrift für Ramazan
Özgan, edited by M. Şahin and H. Mert (Istanbul, 2006), pp.
181-91
I. Jenkins, ‘Return to Cnidus’,
BritishMuseumMagazine, 52 (2005), pp.
28-31
I. Jenkins, ‘Marble sculpture from Cnidus and
Halicarnassus in the Swiss Cottage Museum, Isle of Wight’, in S.
Keay and S. Moser (eds.) Greek Art in View (Oxford, 2004),
pp. 121-28
I. Jenkins, ‘Return to Cnidus’, Anatolian
Archaeology, 11 (2005), pp. 29-30
I. Jenkins, ‘Return to Cnidus’, Anatolian
Archaeology, 10 (2004), pp.11-12
I. Jenkins, ‘Return to Cnidus’, Anatolian
Archaeology, 9 (2003), pp.15-17
I. Jenkins, ‘Return to Cnidus’, British
Museum Magazine, 45 (2003), pp.33-35
I. Jenkins, ‘Return to Cnidus’,
Anatolian Archaeology, 8 (2002), pp. 9-10
I. Jenkins, ‘Return to Cnidus',
Anatolian Archaeology, 7 (2001), pp.7-8
I. Jenkins, ‘Return to Cnidus’, Anatolian
Archaeology, 6 (2000), pp. 8-9
I. Jenkins, ‘Cypriot limestone sculpture from
Cnidus’, in G.R. Tsetskhladze et. al. (eds.) Periplous: Papers
on Classical Art and Archaeology, presented to Sir John
Boardman (London, 2000), pp. 153-62
I. Jenkins and G. Waywell (eds.),
Sculpture and Sculptors of Cariaand the
Dodecanese (London, 1997)
I. Jenkins, Archaeologists and Aesthetes
in the Sculpture Galleries of the
BritishMuseum1800-1939 (London, 1992),
pp.168-191
Images (from top):
- Cnidus with its twin harbours
looking north-east
- BM Inscription 787. The text
records the honours paid to Artemidoros, the Cnidian who tried to
warn Julius Caesar not to enter the Roman Senate on 15 March 44
BC.
- Ali Sami from the village of
Yaziköy working in the gymnasium in 2006