An unfamiliar early Byzantine ceramic object from olympos: Bird-feeder

Abstract

The subject of this study is a ceramic bird-feeder has been discovered in Olympos excavation in the 2017. The bird-feeder has been found in the southeast corner of the stylobate, which runs from the front of the pronaos to the east during the excavation works aimed to reveal the cella and pronaos of the temple in 2017. The findspot of the bird feeder is in the east of the viridarium of the Episcopeion, in an Early Byzantine period dump between the southeast corner of the stylobate and the north wall of the Room 20 (M20). The clay of the ceramic bird-feeder resembles to the Late Roman D Ware of red slip ceramics which are mostly considered to be from Cypriot origin. According to the general chronology of the area and the context data, the bird-feeder from Olympos is belonging to the 6th century AD.