ICFA.NA.0191, Nicholas V. Artamonoff Collection, Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives, Dumbarton Oaks.

İpek Bodrum cistern, detail of superimposed capitals, May 1937. 

Artamonoff’s fascination for secluded Byzantine remains is evidenced again in this photograph. Alexander Van Millingen, professor of History at RC, had published a photograph of the interior of this cistern in his 1912 book Byzantine Churches in Constantinople. Two late antique capitals recycled for the construction of the underground cistern have become the main subject of Artamonoff’s only snapshot of the structure.