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A Note on Architectural Sculpture in Central Lycia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

R. M. Harrison
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Extract

One of the many critical periods of Anatolian archaeology is that of Late Antiquity, when the long-established nexus of Graeco-Roman cities in the Eastern Mediterranean basin gave way to an order which looked increasingly to Constantinople. The refoundation of Byzantium on an imperial scale had occurred in the fourth century, but some two hundred years were to pass before the city was to achieve a metropolitan status which was unequivocal. The factors which determined its character and success have been, and still are, much disputed; but there can be no doubt that amongst them the part played by Anatolia in this formative stage of the Byzantine world was considerable.

And yet this period in Anatolia—the transition from the Classical to the Medieval—has attracted comparatively little attention amongst archaeologists, and basic work (survey, excavation and analysis) remains undone. A start has been made, but this must be followed up in earnest if the surface evidence, so vulnerable to modern agricultural and economic development, is to be recovered.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 22 , December 1972, pp. 187 - 197
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1972

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References

1 Most notably, perhaps, by Prof. S. Eyice, Dr N. Fıratlı, Prof. M. R. E. Gough, and Dr N. Thierry.

2 The study of this region was suggested to me by Professor Gough, under whom I first encountered Byzantine archaeology at Alahan in 1955.

3 The survey was authorized by a permit generously provided by the Turkish Department of Antiquities. My wife, as photographer, accompanied me throughout. Reports were published in Türk Arkeoloji Dergisi X, 2 (1960), p. 25Google Scholar, and Anatolian Studies XIII (1963), pp. 117–151Google Scholar (hereafter referred to as AS XIII).

4 Petersen, E., von Luschan, F., Reisen in Lykien, Milyas und Kibyratis (Reisen im südwestlichen Kleinasien, II, Vienna, 1889), pp. 38–40Google Scholar. These sites were revisited, and described in some detail,by Rott, H., Kleinasiatische Denkmäler (Leipzig, 1908), pp. 316–24Google Scholar.

5 AS XIII.

6 The Vita Nicolai Sionitae, edited with commentary by Anrich, G., Hagios Nioklaos (Teubner, 1913–1917Google Scholar), and discussed by Robert, L., Hellenica X (1955), pp. 197–208Google Scholar.

7 AS XIII, pp. 145–8Google Scholar.

8 I know of no archaeologist who visited Muskar and Alakilise between 1906 (Rott) and 1959 (ourselves). Subsequent visits were by Mr J. Morganstern (in connection with his researches at Dereaǧzı) and Dr N. Thierry. Mme Thierry, with characteristic generosity, permits me to publish four of her photographs (Figs. 10, 13, 15,18). To the kindness of Mr Morganstern I owe Fig. 23.

9 AS XIII, pp. 126–9, 145–6Google Scholar. Subsequent research will investigate outlying buildings (including those in the valley with two storeys and external staircases) and ancient fieldterraces (including those on the northern slopes of Dikmen).

10 Cf. AS XIII, p. 128, fig. 5Google Scholar.

11 Ibid., Fig. 6.

12 Cf. Rott, H., Kleinasiatische Denkmäler (Leipzig, 1908), pl. facing p. 16Google Scholar, and AS XIII, pl. XXXVII (a).

13 AS XIII, p. 145Google Scholar, and pl. XXXVII (b).

14 Cf. Rott, op. cit., Abb. 120; AS XIII, pl. XXXVI (b). The photograph in Fig. 10 here I owe to Mme Thierry.

15 This block corresponds with that (with bird to left) illustrated in Rott, op. cit., Abb. 121.

16 Cf. Reisen II, Fig. 27; Rott, op. cit., Abb. 119; AS XIII, Fig. 4. This photograph too I owe to Mme Thierry.

17 Cf., AS XIII, pp. 131 and 146Google Scholar.

18 Rott, op. cit., Abb. 116, has an overall view of this cornice; for my detail (Fig. 15) I am indebeted to Mme Thierry.

19 Cf., AS XIII, pl. XXXVI, p. 146Google Scholar. I am grateful to Mme Thierry for her detail, Fig. 18.

20 Cf., AS XIII, p. 139Google Scholar; Demiriz, Y., “Demre'deki Aziz Nikolaos Kilisesi”, Türk Arkeoloji Dergisi XVI, 1 (1966), pp. 13–34Google Scholar; this capital is illustrated in her Res. 18.

21 I am indebted to Mr Morganstern for photographs of this capital, including Fig. 23 which he permits me to reproduce here.

22 For this site, and a Constantinian milestone in the garden of the same building, cf. Bean, G. E., Harrison, R. M., “Choma in Lycia”, JRS LVII (1967), pp. 40–44Google Scholar.

23 Morganstern, J., “The church at Dereaǧzı: a preliminary report”, DOP 22 (1968), pp. 221–2Google Scholar, fig. 6.

24 An early draft of this paper was read at the 14th International Congress of Byzantine Studies, Bucarest, 1971.