I vecchi scavi sulle terrazze orientali dell'acropoli di Iasos. Un'indagine retrospettiva per una proposta di lettura

The review of Giovanni Rizza's excavation notebooks concerning the excavations carried out in 1962 and 1963 along the southern terraces of the Iasos Acropolis under the direction of Doro Levi has allowed us to reconsider the function of this area. The article presents a retrospective analysis of the old, but extremely fundamental, documentation and some preliminary remarks on the findings (mostly terracotta figurines and to a lesser extent pottery and various objects). The area at issue, which archaeologists consider as the continuation of the "theatre residential district", contains some particular environmental features (such as rocky terraces, caves and natural niches, the presence of water), and some archaeological aspects related to the findings (typology, iconography and finding context) that suggests it was once a sanctuary, devoted to the cult of Aphrodite and Eros, built in natural landscape.