The first volume of the series "Forschungen in Ephesos" appeared as early as 1906, published by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW), which has been publishing the series in its own publishing house since 1977.
The Ephesus excavation in western Turkey is Austria's largest scientific undertaking abroad. Since 1895, the Austrian Archaeological Institute (OeAI) has been conducting excavations in the area of the ancient city. Since 2015, ancient Ephesus has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
A long-term project such as Ephesus offers the opportunity to conduct basic archaeological research and method development at one of the most important sites in the Mediterranean region: The research object is a city complex with its surrounding area that was continuously inhabited from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages, and this mostly as the central site of the region. The Ephesus excavation sees itself as a platform for interdisciplinary basic research in archaeology. Today, field research uses the most modern and largely non-destructive methods such as surveys and geophysical prospection, and only targeted, mostly small-scale excavations are carried out. An increasingly important aspect of the work of the OeAI is the preservation and monitoring of the ancient inventory.
To mark the 125th anniversary of the start of the excavation, the Austrian Archaeological Institute (OeAI), in cooperation with the Austrian Academy of Sciences Press and the Propyläum specialist information service operated by the University of Heidelberg and the Bavarian State Library, successively made the entire series freely available to the public and posterity as open access publications.
The catalogue on the occasion of the 125th anniversary is available here.