Like many ancient cities, where occupation of the site has been continuous into modernity, the ancient remains of Thyatira are mostly buried under the modern city. This is true of many of the NT cities, including for example Thessalonike. But there is a small excavation site in downtown Thyatira, and here are some of my pictures worth sharing. Then, and now Thyatira was not a vast city. The other part of the problem is that Turkey has many hundreds of ancient sites of relevance to the study of the OT and the NT, including Greco-Roman and ANE sites (like Hattusha, the Hittite capital). But there is not enough money to excavate them all, and how is one to know which ones in the end will pay for themselves after excavation?
As you can see, this site in crammed in right next to an apartment complex.
There are a few nice honorific columns or steles to be studied.
The letter suggests an inscription from the Hellenistic period. The Christian community, like the city, was likely small, and like almost all these sites, did not survive into modernity, especially because of the Muslim take over of Christian sites like Hagia Sophia.
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