The East Tomb and other Tomb Buildings at Balboura

Abstract

To the north east of Balboura, on the far side of the stream-bed, lie the ruins of an imposing tomb (see Fig. 1), the largest and most elaborate so far discovered in the area. Built directly on and partly into the hillside, the building was oriented to look straight across the valley towards the city (orientation: 27° E of true north—see Fig. 2; i.e. the tomb faces approx. SSW); and apparently it stood in splendid isolation, at some distance from the other tombs of the northern necropolis, and on somewhat higher ground. The remains of another tomb of similar type, but of smaller dimensions, can be seen across the valley in the neighbouring cemetery; and a third faces the city from the slopes to the south.Although at first sight there seems to be little of the building left in place Pl. 1 (a, b); Fig. 2), enough remains for us to be fairly sure of its original form. It was built on two levels: above, standing on a stepped podium, a monumental building designed to house large stone sarcophagi—a structure most often described in inscriptions throughout Asia. Minor as a heroön (and for convenience so designated here); and below, within the podium, a lower chamber or crypt, often referred to in inscriptions as a hyposorion, normally intended for the various dependants of those entombed above. The building was constructed from the local white limestone; and while certainly the most ambitious sepulchral monument yet known from Balboura, it shows a relatively simple design, and the same rather rough-and-ready workmanship as the other buildings of the site.

Where to put them? Burial location in middle Hellenistic to late Roman Sagalassos, southwest Anatolia

“…The efficacy of funerary display in group formation and differentiationwhich emerged in the first century BC -was still trusted, relied upon and expanded, regardless of size or investment (for example, temple tombs, arcosolia). This tendency to enhance funerary visibility has been observed throughout Roman Asia Minor, as documented at Ariassos (Cormack 1996), Balboura (Hallett, Coulton 1993), Ephesos (Steskal 2017b) and Melli (Vandeput, Köse 2001), as well as for the wider Roman Empire (Purcell 1987: 32-33;von Hesberg 1992: 22-26;de Jong 2017: 33).…”