New Findings Uncovered During the 2024 Work on the Church of St. John of Ayasuluk Hill

St. John, one of the apostles of Jesus Christ and the author of the Gospel, is believed to have spent most of his life in Ephesus with Mary. It is believed that some of the Gospel he wrote was completed on Ayasuluk Hill. It is known that the martyrion, which was built as a simple grave structure when he died, was later transformed into what is seen today during the reign of Emperor Justinian I. The first excavations at the St. Jean Monument were initiated by Greek archaeologist G.A. Sotiriou in 1921, during the occupation of Izmir. Sotiriou carried out excavations in the bema area where St. John's tomb was located, the north and east cross arms and part of the narthex. With the end of the occupation period, the excavations were paused for a short period of time and then continued by Hans Hörmann on behalf of the Austrian Archaeological Institute between 1926 and 1930. Hörmann carried out excavations in the naos, narthex, atrium and south cross arm. The results of the excavations were published in 1951 in the series Forschungen in Ephesos, volume IV.3. Since 2020, excavations have been carried out by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sinan Mimaroğlu, a faculty member of Hatay Mustafa Kemal University. Under the direction of Sinan Mimaroğlu, excavations were carried out in 2020 and 2021 on the western slope of the inner castle in order to obtain data on the early periods of Ayasuluk Hill. The 2024 excavations in the south cross arm of the church yielded important results regarding the architectural phasing of the church of St. John in the earlier period. The 2024 excavations revealed that the plans of the early phase of the church and its construction phase, as interpreted by various scholars to date, were incorrect.