Laodicea is an ongoing project, and the latest development is fascinating. It involves Trajan’s provision of a fountain, complete with his statue, and some new rules about the use of water, which reminds me of the water restrictions you hear about from time to time in L.A. The climate at Laodicea is similar in that there is no rain to speak of during the hot summer months. Here is a shot of what the site looked like before the dig….
Notice as well that ancient statues were painted and did not look as they do today, with bare marble. Here is the reconstructed image of Trajan and his fountain….
More interesting is the listing of watering rules decreed by Trajan himself….
And here is the original inscription of the water rules near the statue…
Once again kudos to Prof. Shimshek and his team for helping bring first through fourth century life in Laodicea to light.
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