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Article

Elmalı  

M. J. Mellink

Town in the district of Antalya, south-west Turkey. Elmalı is set in a fertile plain c. 1100 m above sea-level, which is dotted with ancient sites that belonged to Lycia or the Milyad in Classical times. Roads from Lycian coastal sites lead through mountains and river valleys to Elmalı, from where connections upland to Pisidia and Burdur are easy. Excavations of a site of the 3rd millennium bc and of two painted tombs of c. 500 bc were carried out by M. Mellink from 1963 onwards on behalf of Bryn Mawr College, PA. Finds are in the Archaeological Museum in Antalya; the wall paintings remain in situ. In 1986–7 two tumuli excavated by a team from Antalya Museum produced Phrygian and other grave goods of c. 700 to c. 600 bc.

At Karataş-Semayük, excavations revealed a fortified mansion of the early 3rd millennium bc and a village of megaron-shaped houses in which the extensive use of timber is noticeable. In the burial grounds individual and family burials were contained in large jars. Early art is evident in metalwork (e.g. a silver pendant in double-axe shape and a silver pin with boar’s head finial), in designs on terracotta stamp seals and in incised and applied animal figures on pottery. Red polished pottery is decorated with white painted ornament....

Article

Ephesos  

Thorsten Opper, M. Rautmann, Anton Bammer, Ulrike Muss, and Mark Whittow

[Ephesus.]

Site of an important Classical city on the west coast of Turkey, c. 2 km south-west of modern Selçuk. It has been occupied since perhaps as early as the 10th century bc, and its Late Classical Temple of Artemis (Artemision), built on the site of an earlier temple from the Archaic period, was regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

M. Rautmann

According to Greek tradition, Ephesos was founded in the 10th century bc by Ionian settlers near the mouth of the River Cayster. From the mid-6th century bc it was ruled successively by the Lydians, Croesus of Lydia extending the unfortified city inland, and the Persians. It was conquered by Alexander the Great in 334 bc, and throughout antiquity Ephesos was an important trading centre, its prestige enhanced by the construction of the colossal Temple of Artemis (6th century bc, rebuilt 4th century bc) on the plain to the north-east of the city. In the early ...

Article

Eretria  

John R. Lenz

Greek city on the south-west coast of Euboia, east of Lefkandi and Chalkis and facing north-eastern Attica. Eretria was important in two periods: the Late Geometric and Archaic (c. 750 bc until its sack by the Persians in 490 bc) and the Late Classical and Hellenistic (from c. 400 bc until the Roman sack in 198 bc). Greek and Swiss excavations have uncovered many finds from these periods.

On a site of Bronze Age settlement, Eretria in the first half of the 8th century bc grew into a leading Greek city with active overseas connections, surpassing most in its architecture, urban development and metalworking. Having inherited certain architectural and artistic traditions and perhaps population from Lefkandi, Eretria and Chalkis traded from Italy to Al-Mina and jointly founded the first Greek overseas colony at Pithekoussai in Italy. They were key intermediaries in the interaction of Greece, Italy and the Near East. Some of the earliest Greek alphabetic inscriptions come from Euboia and its colonies....

Article

Geoffrey Waywell

[now Bodrum]

City on the south-west coast of Caria, now south-west Turkey. It was founded c. 900 bc by Dorian Greek colonists from Troezen in the Peloponnese, but by the 4th century bc the population was a mixture of Ionian Greeks, Carians and Lelegians. It is famous for its 4th-century bc Mausoleum. From 546 to 480 bc and again from c. 403 to 334 bc the city formed part of the Persian Empire; during the intervening years it was a loyal member of the Athenian alliance. In 334 bc it was stormed by Alexander the Great, and later it was taken over by the Ptolemies of Alexandria, from whom it was freed by the Romans in 190 bc. One of its most famous citizens was the historian Herodotus (c. 484–425 bc).

Halikarnassos reached the height of its wealth and importance in the 4th century bc, when Mausolos (reg 377–352 ...

Article

S. J. Vernoit

[Edhem, Osman HamdiHamdi Bey]

(b Istanbul, Dec 30, 1842; d Eskihisar, Gebze, nr Istanbul, Feb 24, 1910).

Turkish painter, museum director and archaeologist. In 1857 he was sent to Paris, where he stayed for 11 years, training as a painter under Gustave Boulanger and Jean-Léon Gérôme. On returning to Turkey he served in various official positions, including two years in Baghdad as chargé d’affaires, while at the same time continuing to paint. In 1873 he worked on a catalogue of costumes of the Ottoman empire, with photographic illustrations, for the Weltausstellung in Vienna. In 1881 he was appointed director of the Archaeological Museum at the Çinili Köşk, Topkapı Palace, in Istanbul. He persuaded Sultan Abdülhamid II (reg 1876–1909) to issue an order against the traffic in antiquities, which was put into effect in 1883, and he began to direct excavations within the Ottoman empire. As a result he brought together Classical and Islamic objects for the museum in Istanbul, including the Sarcophagus of Alexander, unearthed in Sidon in ...

Article

Martin Robertson

(fl 1st half of the 2nd century bc).

Greek mosaicist working in Pergamon (now in Turkey). The inscription Ephaistion epoiei (Gr.: ‘Hephaistion made’) appears in two lines on a cartellino in an emblema in the middle of a tessellated floor (Berlin, Pergamonmus) from a peristyle building (Palace V) at Pergamon associated with Eumenes II (reg 197–159 bc). The emblema was divided horizontally by a strip of marble; nothing remains of either part except traces of a myrtle garland at the top of the lower part and at the bottom centre a blue-grey area with the off-white piece of parchment on which the letters are in black. The cartellino is shown as held at the corners by blobs of scarlet wax, but that on the bottom right has broken, and the corner curls up, casting a shadow. This charming touch of untidiness recalls the account by Pliny (Natural History XXXVI.clxxxiv) of a famous floor, also at Pergamon, called the ‘Unswept Floor’, by ...

Article

Sarah Cormack

Ancient site in Caria (south-west Turkey) that flourished from c. the 5th century bc to the 2nd century ad. It lies on the lower slopes of Mt Latmos (Bes Parmak), some 35 km from Miletos. It was once accessible from the sea but is now situated on the shore of Lake Bafa, which was created by the silting of the River Maeander. The original settlement, Latmos, which lay east of the Hellenistic fortification wall of Herakleia, was a member of the Delian League in the 5th century bc. By the late 4th century bc the city had moved to Herakleia, Latmos becoming a necropolis; the site remains unexcavated. Its most outstanding feature is its system of Hellenistic fortifications, a 6.5-km circuit with 65 towers, well-preserved sections of curtain wall, gates and posterns of isodomic, trapezoidal and Cyclopean masonry; foundation cuttings are visible in the bedrock where the walls themselves do not survive. The layout of the town is orthogonal, perhaps influenced by that at Miletos. The most important buildings are the Temple of Athena, a Doric temple ...

Article

F. E. Winter

(fl ?late 3rd century bc–early 2nd).

Greek architect. He may have been the Prienian and son of Harpalos who is referred to in an inscription from Priene as having dedicated the plan of a building (?temple) constructed by him (see Hiller von Gaertringen, pp. 143–4, no. 207). Like his predecessor Pytheos and his probable contemporary Arkesios, Hermogenes considered the Doric order inappropriate for temples (Vitruvius IV.iii.1), and he changed to Ionic the Doric design proposed for a temple of Dionysos, possibly the one at Teos. He wrote descriptive and theoretical treatises, frequently cited by Vitruvius, to whom his later reputation is largely due, on two of his most important works: the Temple of Artemis at Magnesia on the Maeander (begun late 3rd century bc; Vitruvius III.ii.6; VII.Preface 12) and the Temple of Dionysos at Teos (c. 200 bc: restored in Roman times). The former was pseudodipteral, a type of temple plan probably systematized, rather than invented, by Hermogenes; the latter employed the eustyle scheme for Ionic peristyles, which he developed (Vitruvius III.iii.6–9). He may also have designed the entire Sanctuary of Artemis at Magnesia, as well as the agora, and perhaps the early ...

Article

Michael Bird

(b Halikarnassos [now Bodrum, Turkey], c. 484 bc; d ?Thurii [nr Sibari, Calabria], c. 425 bc). Greek historian. His life is poorly documented, but after early political exile from Halikarnassos he seems to have spent time on Samos and in the Athenian colony of Thurii in southern Italy, as well as in Athens itself. His travels included voyages to Egypt and to the Black Sea region (see Scythian and Sarmatian art, §1). Herodotus is known as the ‘father of history’, since he was the first to approach the writing of history in a systematic manner with an attempt to authenticate evidence and present it cogently. He left one work, the Histories, which centres on the Greco-Persian wars of 499–479 bc; these ended with the defeat of the Achaemenid forces by Athens around the time of Herodotus’ birth. The first half of the Histories explores the background to the might of the Achaemenid empire, while the second follows the course of the wars with Greece. Herodotus’ narrative, later divided into nine books (‘Muses’), embraces a wealth of geographical, historical and political commentary, as well as a repertory of fantastical travellers’ tales. These last have earned him the alternative sobriquet ‘father of lies’, although many of his other observations have been endorsed by modern scholarship and archaeology. Herodotus is not only an important source for Greek history in the period ...

Article

Wolfram Hoepfner

(fl 5th century bc).

Greek city planner. He designed the plan of the new port of Athens at Peiraeus immediately after the end of the Persian wars (480/479 bc). More than thirty years later (444/443 bc) he took a leading part, together with philosophers and other experts, in the foundation of the ideal city of Thourion. Although he is attributed with the rebuilding of his home town of Miletos, which was begun immediately after 479 bc, this is doubtful.

The ‘division’ of Peiraeus mentioned by Aristotle (Politics, 1267b) apparently referred not only to a grid system of streets and to the ‘Hippodamian Agora’ that was connected with it, but also to a sophisticated overall plan, in which the functional uniform dwellings were an important constituent; the practical private houses of the city are expressly mentioned in connection with the ‘Hippodamian principle’ (Politics, 1330b). Moreover, a scholion to Aristophanes (...

Article

R. A. Tomlinson

[Gr. ‘underground’]. The term was used by Herodotus, for example, to refer to the underground tomb chambers of Egypt as well as the sapping tunnels of Persian siege craft. As a specifically architectural term, it can be used for the underground rooms or cellars of buildings, such as the Hypogeum of Hal Saflieni (c. 3000 bc) at Malta (anc. Pawla). Rules for their construction were given by Vitruvius (On Architecture VI.viii), but there is no single type or use for these structures. Vitruvius’ instructions can be applied equally to the extensive cryptoportici that run underneath some colonnades, particularly those of Roman fora, for example at Arles (Anc. Arelate; see Arles §1, (i)) or Thessaloniki. The function of these is uncertain, although they were ventilated and lit through openings cut into the steps of the colonnade above; they may well have been general storerooms.

Underground chambers were also used for cult purposes, often oracular. Small underground crypt chambers existed in temples, such as that of ...

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R. S. Merrillees

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R. S. Merrillees

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A. Papageorghiou

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Ionia  

William E. Mierse

Ancient region covering the central part of the west coast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) from the Bay of Izmir south to Bargyla. It included the cities of Miletos, Myous, Priene, Ephesos, Kolophon, Teos, Lebedos, Erythrai, Klazomenai, Phokaia and Smyrna, and the adjacent islands of Samos and Chios. Herodotus (Histories I.cxlv–cxlviii) and Thucydides (History of the Peloponnesian War I.xii) claimed that Greeks fleeing the Dorian invasion colonized the region in the 11th century bc, but excavators have discovered Late Bronze Age (13th century bc) Mycenaean objects in the area, and Miletos may have been a Mycenaean trading port.

There is evidence for small urban settlements at about 1000 bc at Miletos as well as at Old Smyrna (see Smyrna §1), where one-room oval mud-brick cottages with straw roofs were replaced, probably in the 8th century bc, by small rectangular mud-brick houses on stone foundations. By then other urban enclaves existed in the region, and in the late ...

Article

(fl c. 250–200 bc).

Greek sculptors. They were employed by the Attalid kings of Pergamon to create monuments to Pergamene victories over the Gauls. Isigonos is mentioned only once (Pliny: Natural History, XXXIV.xix.84) and may be identical with Epigonos, whom Pliny credits with a Trumpeter and a Weeping Child ‘pitifully caressing its murdered mother’ (XXXIV.xix.88), and who also signed eight bases for bronze statues on the Pergamene acropolis, two celebrating victories over the Gauls. No originals by Epigonos survive, but the famous Dying Gaul (Rome, Mus. Capitolino; see Greece, ancient §IV 2., (iv), (b)) may reproduce his Trumpeter and be copied from one of the signed monuments of c. 223 bc. The warrior wears a Celtic torc and is bleeding from a chest wound, his broken trumpet and sword by his side. The realism of the statue emphasizes its pathos and, by stressing the dignity of the conquered, the statue exalts the achievement of the conquerors. Epigonos signed his work as a native Pergamene, while Stratonikos (who also made ‘philosophers’) was from Kyzikos; Antigonos came from Karystos in Euboea if, as some scholars think, he is the same person as the antiquarian of that name. This Antigonos combined the formal analysis of art pioneered by ...

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Michael D. Willis

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C. Hobey-Hamsher

Greek painter of unknown date. According to Pliny (XXXV.16), it was either Kleanthes or the otherwise unknown Philokles of Egypt who invented outline drawing. Athenagoras (xvii) gave credit to the otherwise unknown Saurios of Samos for the invention of this technique, but included Kleanthes in his list of the earliest artists (those who worked before the gods were depicted), incorrectly assuming that secular subjects were depicted before divine ones. Indeed, deities were shown in at least two of the three paintings by Kleanthes held in the Temple of Artemis Alpheiosa in the territory around Olympia (Strabo: VIII.343; Athenaeus: VIII.346b–c): the Birth of Athena and Poseidon Offering a Tunny Fish to Zeus (Zeus was in labour, perhaps with the second birth of Dionysos). The third painting was the Fall of Troy. No other painting by Kleanthes is recorded, and none of his work survives.

Pauly–Wissowa; Thieme–Becker Athenaeus: Deipnosophists Athenagoras: Intercession Concerning the Christians...

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Knidos  

Margaret Lyttleton and Iris Cornelia Love

[Cnidus]

Turkish town on the site of the ancient Greek city of the same name at the tip of the Resadiye Peninsula in south-west Asia Minor. The city was celebrated in antiquity for the nude statue of Aphrodite by Praxiteles, which stood in the circular temple dedicated to the goddess. Knidos was founded, according to tradition, by colonists from Sparta or Argos in the 2nd millennium bc or earlier and it reached the zenith of its wealth and power in the 4th century bc; it was abandoned in the 7th century ad. From early in the 1st millennium bc it was the capital of the Dorian Hexapolis. First excavated by Sir Charles Newton for the British Museum in 1857–9, the site’s antiquity was not established until the Long Island University Archaeological Expedition under Iris Love began excavations in 1967.

Margaret Lyttleton

The remains of the city occupy the headland of Cape Krio and the western tip of the peninsula; the cape was originally an island but was joined to the peninsula by a mole, forming two harbours: the trireme harbour to the north and the commercial harbour to the south. Knidos owed its prosperity to trade and was a noted exporter of wine. The residential quarter was laid out along terraces on the headland, while the public buildings and sanctuaries stood beyond the harbours at the tip of the peninsula. Remains include two theatres, a Hadrianic Corinthian temple, a Doric stoa and the Sanctuary of Demeter, where a life-size marble statue of the goddess was found (mid-...

Article

Kos  

Christopher Mee and William E. Mierse

Greek island off the south-west coast of Turkey. The island, the second largest in the Dodekanese, is long and narrow (l. 45 km) and very fertile on its northern side. The most important site is Kos town (founded 366 bc) at the island’s north-east end. In the Hellenistic period Kos was famous for its Sanctuary of Asklepios. The Knights Hospitaller ruled the island from 1315 to 1522, but they were driven out by the Turks. After World War I it was under Italian control; it was ceded to Greece in 1947.

Christopher Mee

Only two of the prehistoric sites on Kos have been systematically excavated, both by Luigi Morricone between 1935 and 1946: the settlement on the Serraglio in the town of Kos and the associated cemetery at Eleona and Langada. The earliest, unstratified, pottery from the Serraglio is of Early Bronze iii date (c. 2400–c. 2050...