Residential life will be a major focus of the current project. It is clear that a new city plan was established at Notion in the early or mid-third century BC, and that the city was substantially abandoned by the mid-first century AD. But the details of both the growth and the decline of the city remain obscure. Was the city built up in a single campaign or gradually over time? Similarly, was it depopulated quickly or slowly over generations? Excavation of the houses in several different parts of the city may help us to answer these questions. Investigation of residential areas will also provide new information about the social and economic life of the city, for example, about differences in wealth and social class. The results of the prior surface survey suggests that most inhabitants of the western part of Notion lived in houses approximately 220 square m in area, while substantial portions of the eastern part of Notion appear to have been occupied by much larger houses, ca. 435 square m in area. Excavation will show whether these differences reflect intentional zooming of residential neighborhoods or change over time, for example, the combination of smaller houses into larger houses in the eastern part of the city, in a manner analogous to the evolution of the residential areas of Priene. Finally, excavation of the houses of Notion may provide answers to economic questions such as the importance of the harbor to the livelihoods of the city’s inhabitants (through examination of evidence for diet, for example, as well as for trade and household industry).
A large house west of the Agora was chosen for initial investigation because of its prominent location and because of all the houses of Notion it was the one whose basic outlines were clearest in plan. The reason for its exceptional surface legibility is that it occupies an exposed location on the summit of the central ridge of the city and is therefore only lightly buried, and it was clear in advance that for this reason the floor levels of the house would not be well-preserved. Nevertheless, it seemed that this would be a good place to begin because it would be possible to excavate an entire house relatively quickly; the knowledge gained by this initial project would then be useful in the eventual investigation of more deeply buried and better-preserved buildings in other parts of the city. Excavation began in 2022 and will be completed in 2024. Excavation of a second house on the east side of the city began in 2024.
House west of Agora: Hellenistic phase
The house excavated between 2022 and 2024 lies on the north side of a broad (5.9 m) street that runs into the center of the west side of the Agora. It is a square structure, 18 m along a side. The building consists of a colonnaded court, or peristyle, flanked on its west, north, and south sides by large rooms. Thus Rooms 1-2 lie on the west side, 3-5 on the north side, and 6-7 on the east side. While centered between the east and west sides of the house, the peristyle court is shifted to the south, so that there are no rooms beside the south portico on that side.
The only preserved threshold marks the main entrance to the house, which leads from the street to the southeast corner room (Room 7). It is an index of the poor preservation of the house that no other doorways survive. Nevertheless, patches of the floors were preserved in several places, and study of the artifacts found in the house enable us to identify the functions of some rooms: Dining pottery (such as plates and cups) was stored in Room 6; cooking pottery was concentrated in Room 3; locally made storage jars were kept in Room 2, and imported amphorae (wine jars) were clustered in the south portico. Most of the pottery and other artifacts found in the house (such as coins, terracotta figures, lamps, and loom weights) date to the mid-first century BC, which seems to represent the latest phase of occupation. Pottery from earlier levels indicates that the house was built in the early third century.
House west of Agora: Classical phase
Excavation beneath the floors of the Hellenistic house revealed extensive traces of an earlier building, demolished by the construction of the Hellenistic house. The remains of this building included walls incorporated into the foundations of the Hellenistic house (especially beneath Rooms 1, 2, 4, 5, and the colonnaded court), and abundant pottery. The layout of the earlier building remains unclear, but the pottery is consistent with domestic occupation, and it provides a date of the late fifth century BC (the Classical period) for the latest occupation phase. The date of the construction of the Classical house remains uncertain, but a sizeable quantity of sixth century pottery found in foundation levels suggests both that the house was approximately a century old when it went out of use, and that there was earlier (Archaic) occupation in the surrounding area.
The most important find associated with this Classical house was a hoard of Persian gold coins, buried in a small jug (olpe). The coins show a figure of a kneeling archer, the characteristic design of the Persian daric. Presumably the hoard was stored in this location for safekeeping, and for some reason never retrieved. The discovery of such a valuable find in a controlled archaeological excavation is very rare. According to the Greek historian Xenophon (Anabasis 1.3.21), a single daric was equivalent to a soldier’s pay for one month.
Indeed, it is believed that a primary function of the daric was for the payment of mercenary troops, and the hoard may have been associated with military operations in the area. Several such operations are mentioned by ancient historians. At the outbreak of the Peloponnesian war, the conflicting loyalties of the inhabitants of Notion and nearby cities are illustrated by a dramatic episode related by Thucydides (3.34). Between 430 and 427 BC, a group of Persian sympathizers from the nearby city of Colophon had occupied part of Notion with the help of Greek and “barbarian” mercenaries. In 427, the Athenian general Paches attacked and killed the pro-Persian mercenaries, after luring their commander into a trap. The Persian sympathizers were then expelled, and Notion was reorganized under Athenian supervision. This is exactly the kind of sequence of events that could have led to both the deposition and the loss of this hoard, but it is not the only possibility. In 406 BC, for example, a decisive naval battle in the conflict between Athens and Sparta was fought off the coast of Notion, which the Athenians were using as a naval base. Alternatively, the hoard could represent the savings of a rich citizen or retired soldier who died unexpectedly.
This discovery shows how useful it is to follow up on the results of archaeological survey with excavation. In five years of archaeological survey at Notion, very little pre-Hellenistic pottery or other evidence for pre-Hellenistic occupation was recorded. It is now clear that our excavations will make a significant contribution to knowledge about Notion in the Classical as well as the Hellenistic period.