Before you is part of a marble column that originally stood over fifty-six feet high! That’s almost five times the size of what you see here. Originally, it was part of a vast temple dedicated in the late fourth century BC to Artemis, the Greek goddess of hunting and childbirth. This column has been reconstructed from fragments of one or more columns. They were unearthed in the early twentieth century during the American excavations at Sardis. Sardis was the ancient capital of Lydia, located in what is today western Turkey.

The Sardis column is a particularly fine example of a Greek Ionic column from Asia Minor. Notice the spiral forms at the top of the column, that are known as volutes. Delicate palmettes and rosettes with leafy fronds decorate the space between them. If you walk around the base, you’ll be able to appreciate its immense width, and see how the sculptor embellished it with an exquisitely carved pattern. Sardis was one of the cities in southwestern Asia Minor, where Greek elements of art and architecture were continually interwoven with local tradition. The volutes on this column and the enormity of the temple in which it stood are typical of Greek architecture in this part of the world.