Abstract
AN APPLIQUÉ CERAMIC FRAGMENT FROM APOLLONIA A.R.
Apollonia a.R. located in Gölyazı District of Bursa's Nilüfer Borough. With the permission of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, rescue and drilling excavations were carried out in different areas of the city in our scientific consultancy between 2015-2018 under the Directorate of Bursa Museums Directorate. Excavation and cleaning works funded by Nilüfer Municipality were carried out in the parts of the area known as Kız Island. The purpose of the drilling excavations on the island in 2017 is to identify the possible structures in the temenos area, to understand the architecture, to draw up the plans of the structures, to determine which god if any, the cult area belongs to.
Initially, it is thought that the depiction of the naked boy relief represented the famous statue of the famous sculptor of the Classical Age, Praxiteles, Apollon Sauroktonos, which was preserved on the piece of an appliqué ceramic, found in the drilling excavations in Kız Ada during the 2017 excavations. However, it was concluded that this depiction might not represent Praxiteles’s Apollo Sauroktonos, but might represent Hermes and the Infant Dionysos, due to its standing posture supported with a pier on the left side, the chlamys, and the winged shoes. Due to the loss of the baroque appearance in the body lines of the male figure and the thinning of the body, the ceramic piece is thought to be from the end of the 1st century BC. Pergamon is one of the important centers in the production of appliqué ceramics consisting of figures with mythological themes. Although we can not make any suggestions about the production place of the appliqué ceramics since the excavations have just started, it is noteworthy that a similar example was also found during the excavations in Apollonia a.R., showing that there may be a relationship between the two cities.
Keywords
Apollonia a.R., Kız Island, Apollon Sanctuary, Apollon Sauroktonos, Hermes-Dionysos, appliqué potter