Research and Bibliography

Research on the Sacred Way

The Sacred Way and religious processions of Miletos have been an important topic of research about the region for over 100 years. Most of the research is published in German literature and was connected to research undertaken by German projects based at Miletos or Didyma under the auspices of the German Archaeological Institute (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, or DAI).

The earliest mapping of a path through the hills between Miletos and Didyma was by Paul Wilski (1906), who identified an Antike Strasse (ancient street).

In the 1980s, Karin Gödecken (1986) and Peter Schneider (1987) connected epigraphic and archaeological evidence from the region to create a reconstructed route of the Sacred Way.

Alexander Herda (1996, 2006) has also examined the nature and the possible origins of earliest tradition of procession from Miletos to Didyma, perhaps as early as the 6th century BCE (i.e. 2600-2700 years ago).

Bibliography

• Gödecken, K.B. 1986. “Beoachtungen und Funde an der Heiligen Strasse zwischen Milet und Didyma, 1984.” ZPE 66:217–253

• A. Herda, Von Milet nach Didyma. Eine griechische Prozessionsstraße in archaischer Zeit, in F. Bubenheimer et al. (Hrsg.), Kult und Funktion griechischer Heiligtümer in archaischer und klassischer Zeit, 1. Archäologisches Studentenkolloquium, Heidelberg, 18.–20. Februar 1995 (Heidelberg 1996) 133–152

• Herda, A. 2006. Der Apollon-Delphinios-Kult in Milet und die Neujahrsprozession nach Didyma. Ein neuer Kommentar der sog. Molpoi-Satzung. Milesische Forschungen 4. Mainz: Philip von Zabern.

• Schneider, P. 1987. “Zur Topographie der Heiligen Straße von Milet nach Didyma.” Archäologische Anzeiger: 101–129.

• Wilksi, P. 1906. Karte der Milesischen Halbinsel (1:50000): mit erläuterndem Text. Milet I 1. Berlin: G. Reimer.