The archaeological site of Sardis was an important center in Asia Minor, according to Herodotus beginning during the 12th century BC. By the 6th century BC, the site was the capital of the Mermnad dynasty (ca. 680-547 BC), with an empire reaching from the Aegean Sea to central Anatolia, flourishing under Lydian kings such as Croesus and Gyges.
The Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great sacked the city in 547 BC, and Alexander the Great conquered it in 334 BC. Archaeological evidence indicates the site region was occupied perhaps by the 7th millennium BC; historic occupations at Sardis continued fairly consistently until the 7th century AD. Architectural elements intact at Sardis include a large number of Late Roman and Archaic period structures.
First investigated archaeologically by Howard Butler in 1909, recent excavations by the Harvard University Art Museums and Cornell University have focused on the Jewish diaspora synagogue. A recent book on Sardis has been published comparing the various architectural drawings made of the site and its various components.
Sources
This glossary entry is part of the About.com Guides to Anatolia and Persian Empire, as well as the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Cahill, Nicholas 2000 Lydian Houses, Domestic Assemblages, and Household. The Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research 57:173-185.
Crawford H. Greenewalt, Jr. and Marcus L. Rautman 2000 The Sardis Campaigns of 1996, 1997, and 1998. American Journal of Archaeology 104(4).
Magness, Jodi. 2005 The Date of the Sardis Synagogue in Light of the Numismatic Evidence. American Journal of Archaeology 109(3):443-476.
