Building Urban Community on the Margins: Stratonikeia and the Sanctuary of Zeus at Panamara

Abstract

While Lagina was a local shrine that grew and expanded with Stratonikeia to become its religious center, the sanctuary of Zeus Karios at Panamara was already recognized as an important regional cult center in southern Karia.1 However, it, too, was gradually drawn into the orbit of Stratonikeia to become the next major urban sanctuary of the polis. This case study explores yet another kind of dynamic in the transition to polis sanctuary, one that entailed a major lateral shift in scope for Panamara, from the wider region of southern Karia with diverse communities towards the urban center in the north and its demographic base (Figure 6.1, and Figure 5.1 above). Through an examination of this transition it will become apparent how Stratonikeia came to replace, or absorb, the administering body of the sanctuary, but also how Panamara was used to achieve the same kinds of goals of the emerging polis as was Lagina: territorial integrity, social cohesion, and global recognition, albeit in a different way. Panamara and its environment have unfortunately not been subject to the same systematic archaeological investigations as Lagina, and much of the original landscape in the area has already been lost in the exploitation of lignite, or brown coal, through strip-mining. Our sources for this sanctuary and its environment are therefore severely limited, especially with regard to architecture and processional routes. Fortunately, however, the communities involved with the sanctuary at Panamara left hundreds of inscriptions behind that provide valuable insights into the way in which the sanctuary and cult of Zeus Karios were gradually realigned to meet the needs of Stratonikeia.