There is so little sense of time in our age. It is no longer necessary to recall history because everything is available on the Internet with a few wiggles of the fingers.
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When I was in the tech industry, I invented products that made it unnecessary to remember. I’m not sure I did anyone a favor.
Ephesus, though, is an entirely different way of containing history. Deep and rich and mostly gone … yet timeless, as are all valuable places, things, and people. It is a series of cues that when filled in provide a three dimensional view of the past and its place in the present.
We are no more sophisticated than the inhabitants of Ephesus two thousand years ago. No more clever, no more deep, and maybe a lot less aware in terms of aesthetic values.
What do we know, and how far have we come? I ask the questions because we’ve come to a point in time, where a city with all its memories is being unearthed. Only ten percent of Ephesus has been uncovered in the more than a hundred years since the work began.
And yet, we already can see and feel and appreciate it’s sophistication and the depth of its rich culture.
The city had running water, sewers, central heating, and a library as its centerpiece. Each shop had the name of its owner inscribed in stone as its frontispiece, along with a description of his or her best attributes.
The streets were paved with marble, and the buildings carried the beauty of sculpture upon sculpture.
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