Lydian Archaeology

The  ruins of the ancient Lydian city of Hypaipa are to be found in the village of Datbey/Günlüce in the Ödemiş district of Izmir. Archaeological explorations at Hypaipa started in early nineteenth century. The first and only official excavation at the site was conducted in 1882 by Demosthenes Baltazzi authorised by Osman Hamdi Bey, director of the Ottoman Imperial Museum. At Hypaipa, known for its beautiful women, the cult of Artemis Anaitis was very famous and was related to the Persian goddess Anahita; consequently, the countermark of Artemis Anaitis was frequently used on the Roman Imperial coinage of the city. The story of Arachne of Hypaipa, turned to a spider by Athena, was well known across the ancient Mediterranean. This book hopes to serve as a reminder of Hypaipa’s legacy, long sunken into silence.

Sardis became a city sometime in the early first millennium BCE, and it remained the largest urban center in Lydia for a period of about 1500 years. Over that time its fortunes and character changed, as did its relationship with its large, fertile, rural surroundings. In this paper I examine this relationship during a span of three to four hundred years, from the 5th/4th through the 2nd/1st centuries BCE. I compare locally produced and imported pottery recovered in excavations at Sardis itself with that found by the Central Lydian Archaeological Survey (CLAS), an intensive field project covering about 350 km2 around the Gygean Lake. There is an odd, counter-intuitive, correlation between the political importance of Sardis and its rural settlement. During the city's years of political stature, survey results show that many people lived out in the hinterland, far from the city. In the second century BCE the pattern switched. After the Seleucid defeat at Magnesia (190 BCE), when Pergamon took control of Sardis and its territory, and the city became just another urban center, its political glory became a thing of the past. At this precise time, according to the CLAS survey data, the countryside emptied out and people moved back into the city. I consider the reasons behind this paradoxical situation, in which political stature and urban prosperity are seemingly at odds with one another.

Simpson, E., ed. The Adventure of the Illustrious Scholar: Papers Presented to Oscar White Muscarella. Leiden: Brill, 2018.

The Adventure of the Illustrious Scholar: Papers Presented to Oscar White Muscarella, edited by Elizabeth Simpson, is a Festschrift celebrating the career of one of the foremost archaeologists of the ancient Near East. Oscar Muscarella is a former curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a formidable scholar who has excavated at sites in Turkey, Iran, and the United States. He has published eight books and nearly 200 articles, excavation reports, and reviews on topics ranging from the arts of antiquity and the importance of connoisseurship, to the difficulties of dating and the problems of forgeries, the looting of ancient sites, and the antiquities trade. The forty-seven contributors are experts in the areas of Muscarella's interests and are major scholars in their fields. This volume constitutes an unusual, important, and timely addition to the archaeological and art historical literature.

*UPDATED DRAFT* Recently, Graeco-barbarian antithetical polarities have undergone significant reassessment, with post-colonialist interpretations illuminating mutual cultural developments. The problems of studying spatial and temporal cultural interaction through the lens of competing ethnic groupings - now understood to represent social rather than genetic constructions – is likewise widely recognised. Relations between the Lydian kingdom and the East Greek polis of Miletos have previously been defined by antagonism, as represented in Herodotus' Lydian logos (1.6-94), focusing on conflict between the two. Nevertheless, novel understandings are possible through a close reading of Herodotus' text, focusing on its underlying structure and thematic topoi and reading beyond the literary constructions that pervade Herodotus' process of composition to reveal a complex underlying political and socio-cultural symbiosis. To achieve this, Herodotus' overarching narrative and its contemporary interpretation will be examined, illuminating his account of Lydian aggression and seeking to re-evaluate the scope and purpose of Lydian military activity in Western Anatolia during the Archaic period (c.700-500 B.C.). Furthermore, analysis of the importance of Mermnad patronage at Branchidai-Didyma and other sanctuaries is necessary to understand the competing cultural interfaces between the two polities. Finally, it is essential to reflect on the literary and material evidence for individuals and ideas crossing between the two and their role in furthering our understanding of the multiplicity of omni-directional interactions between Lydia and Miletos. This will facilitate a clearer picture of the temporal reality of political and cultural life in Miletos and Lydia in the seventh and sixth centuries BCE, and Herodotus' role in shaping subsequent interpretations and meta-narratives.

The book attempts to present –for the first time in the international bibliography– a detailed description of the historical life of Abydos (Άβυδος) of Hellespont (Ελλήσποντος, Δαρδανέλλια); the latter was an important ancient and medieval Greek city, situated on the Asiatic shore of Dardanelles, at the once narrowest part of the local Straits (usually named "Stenon of Abydos") and in the surrounding area of the promontory of Nara (an Ottoman and modern Turkish naval base, where free access is prohibited). The monograph also detects the  relations between Abydos and other known settlements in the wider region of northwestern Asia Minor (Troad, Hellespont, Mysia, Hellespontine Phrygia).

Αbydos was founded predominantly as a colony of Miletus (ca. 680-650 BC) and had a continuous historical life that lasted about 2.000 years (mid. 7th c. BC - early 14th c. AD). The prosperous ancient city minted various coins between 6th c. BC - 3rd c. AD. Its lively port was used for centuries as a key point for the passage from Europe to Asia and the cruise from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea (and vice versa) as well as a major customs station ("telonion Abydou" during the Roman imperial years, "demosion teloneion" or "kommerkion" or "dekateuterion Abydou" during the medieval period of the city). Byzantine Abydos was also an important administrative center, a military and naval base and an ecclesiastical seat (bishopric and later metropolis).

However, the long and turbulent history of Abydos and its region is virtually unknown in modern years, despite the fact that the city's reputation was particularly widespread during ancient and medieval times in the Mediterranean world. Moreover, for many reasons noted in the book, the settlement does not exist archaeologically in the last two centuries. In short, Abydos constitutes a very interesting case of a virtually lost city during the modern times.

For various reasons, also described in the book, the importance of Abydos had declined during the 13th c. AD and the city was finally abandoned by its population in the early 14th c. AD., mainly because of the Turkish threat in the area. From mid. 15th c. AD the new city of Çanakkale was established gradually (initially named as Kale-i Sultaniye) 5-6 km to the south of Abydos. The ruins of the abandoned urban area of ​​the latter have been systematically pillaged -mainly for construction and other purposes- between the 14th - early 19th c. AD.

For the reconstruction of  the long historical life of Abydos (mid. 7th c. BC - early 14th c. AD) and an in-depth analysis of its numerous and largely unknown institutions, the study relies though on the information providing by the written (ancient and medieval) texts but also on the scarce and dispersed epigraphic and the much richer numismatic (the city minted coins between 6th c. BC - 3rd c. AD) and sigillographic data and other archaeological findings regarding (or deriving from) the city. It also takes into account all the contemporary related publications.

[VANIAS publications,  Thessaloniki 2017,  752 pages,  ISBN: 978-960-288-342-6,  text in Greek language with an English summary]

The terrace of Pasargadae, Tall-i Takht, is one of the few Achaemenid period monuments in the Persian heartland that “directly” feature characteristics of Ionian-Lydian architecture. According to earlier scholarship, the beginning of construction of the platform of Tall-i Takht dates to the reign of Cyrus, but it remained unfinished when Cyrus died, and Darius changed its function. In fact, leaving aside some few blocks at the center of the western facade and on the southern one, the majority of blocks of the terrace still await final dressing. A new analysis of the unfinished state of these blocks has provided significant information about the construction of the terrace, including the organization of labor, allowing for a reconsideration of the origins of Achaemenid masonry and indeed of cross-cultural interaction between Persians and the West.

This work focuses on the persistence of the ‘Gates of Hades’ iconographic theme among the peoples of the ancient Mediterranean. The analysis considers both the written tradition and the iconographic evidence surviving in funerary contexts, showing how the idea of the nether world among the eastern civilizations constituted a background for Greek and Etruscan imaginary. The chronological period considered begins with Egyptian tombs of the Ancient Kingdom and moves on to concentrate on the period between the 7th and 5th centuries B. C., when the ‘Gates of Hades’ theme appears in Etruscan and Lydian necropoleis and on Attic vase painting. (Text in italian)

A case is made in recent books by Lascelles and Crowe that Homer’s Trojan War setting was not at Schleimann’s Hisarlik site of King Priam’s Ilium, but at Pergamon. We review their case, the places frequented by Homer as possible clues, and the Iliad’s revision as compiled and promoted by Athens and followed by Alexander the Great and the Romans. We then focus on numismatic evidence in the alternative regions of Northwest Anatolia (NWA) and Central West Anatolia (CWA). NWA includes the regions known as Troas, North Mysia, Hellespontic Thrace with nearby islands, and Bithynia. CWA regions include South Mysia with nearby islands, Aeolis, Ionia, Lydia, and Phrygia, as well as Cilician expatriate lands. We find that NWA coins are rich in early Iliadic mythology, indicating that Ilium was a Trojan War setting. However, we also find indications that the war was more extensive than commonly envisioned. It was led in CWA by King Telephus, who spearheaded an East versus West world war whose campaigns ended at Ilium.

Da Lydien die Region ist, in der die Münzprägung ihren Anfang nahm, sind die frühesten lydischen Prägungen seit langem von besonderem Interesse. Seit 1890 wird vermutet, dass die Aufschriften, die einige frühe lydische Münzen tragen, mit lydischen Königen zu verbinden sind. Seit rund 20 Jahren sind fast alle diese
Aufschriften zur Gänze lesbar, und tatsächlich scheint sich die alte Vermutung zu bestätigen. Allerdings stimmt die Abfolge der Prägungen mit der aus Herodot bekannten Abfolge der lydischen Könige nicht überein. Eine Revision der lydischen Königsliste – und damit auch der Ereignisgeschichte im Kleinasien des 7. und frühen 6. Jahrhunderts – steht also an.

En: Ferrer Albelda, E., Oria Segura, M. García Vargas, E., García Fernández, F.J., Pliego Vázquez, R., coords.  (2021): Arqueología y Numismática. Estudios en homenaje a la profesora Francisca Chaves Tristán. Editorial Universidad de Sevilla, pp. 49-90.

On 26 June 2012, the Israel Museum opened a spectacular exhibit of early electrum coinage entitled “White Gold,” and, in the days before, hosted an important academic conference reexamining the many economic, political and numismatic problems associated with these early coins. The papers of the academic conference are to be published this year under the auspices of Haim Gitler, Catherine Lorber, and Koray Konuk. What follows is the keynote address from the exhibit opening summarizing the results of the conference and where we now stand in our understanding of the earliest western coinages.

This paper will reconsider the archaeological excavations of the Artemision and the City of Ephesus. Uncovered fragments of Greek and Lydian inscriptions indicate that Croesus made offerings to the sanctuary. Considering the Lydian inscription, we can suggest a new interpretation in light of the works dealing with the Lydian kings' onomastic. This paper will also reconsider the results of excavations of the Archaic City, for which no defensive wall has ever been uncovered so far. Thus, the comments of Herodotus and even Polyaenus cannot find any archaeological confirmation. Moreover, it appears that the story of the rope linking the Artemision to the City of Ephesus has probably been a fictional tale written by Herodotus in his Histories (then repeated by Polyaenus). Eventually , it seems that Croesus never besieged the city, because Ephesus surrendered to the Lydian king without any conflict.

Résumé. – Le présent article analyse la crédibilité à reconnaître à l’alliance qu’aurait conclue le roi de Lydie Crésus avec la cité de Sparte. Cet examen se penche sur la consultation des oracles opérée par Crésus ainsi que le rôle joué par les offrandes du roi lydien en Grèce suite à celle-ci ; il étudie également le statut de Sparte en tant que la plus puissante cité en Grèce vers 550. Enfin, ces quelques pages tentent de préciser la nature des liens qui unissaient la cité de Lacédémone au roi lydien en comparaison de ceux qu’il entretenait avec les Delphiens.
Abstract. – This article analyses the credibility we have to recognize to the alliance that would have been concluded between the king of Lydia Croesus and the city of Sparta. This study focuses on the oracles consultation by Croesus and the role played by the Lydian king’s offerings in Greece following it. This article deals also with the status of Sparta as the most powerful city in Greece near 550 BC. Finally, those few pages try to establish the nature of the ties between Lacedaemon and the Lydian king in comparison to those he had with the Delphians.

Through an analysis of the textual and archaeological material, this article presents a new, up-to-date overview of the history and mechanisms of Iron Age Anatolian overland interaction, a much-neglected subject. Among other points, the overview demonstrates the importance of Phrygia in this context, and that Lydia did not take over its international contacts completely. A case study of the transmission of the alphabet in light of the insights gained concludes the article. A new theory is proposed, according to which the Phrygian and Greek alphabets had a common origin in Cilicia, in the late ninth century BC.

In his Book I, Herodotus relates the war between Lydia of Alyattes and Media of Cyaxares. This war ended with the well-known occurrence of the total solar eclipse, which astronomical researchers propose to date to 585 BC. After these hostilities, a treaty between the two kingdoms was concluded, and was sealed by a royal wedding. This paper analyzes this event, better known as the " battle of the eclipse ". It will revisit the problem of the location of the battle and that of the identity of the Lydian and Median kings who reigned during this conflict. The paper will study the role that the eclipse played on the conclusion of hostilities and its impact on the minds of the Greeks; it will also examine the nature of the treaty concluded between the Lydians and the Medes. Finally, the paper will examine the problem of the Halys border that separated the Lydian and the Median kingdoms, modern scholars asserting that this border was chosen during the Lydo-Median treaty. This examination will allow us to study the view of the ethnic, geographical and political space that the river played in Herodotus's mind.

The book is the first of two volumes presenting an extraordinary collection of Greek and related metal ware. The present pdf comprises the introduction and only a selection of 11 vases out of the 146 gold, silver and bronze vessels included in the original volume. These luxurious artifacts pertain mostly to the Greek and Achaemenid cultural domains and range from the 8th to the 1st centuries BC. The book has 356 pages lavishly illustrated with 110 drawings, 388 colour pictures and 111 b/w pictures. Besides the rich bibliography (more than 800 entries), it includes three indexes (personal names, place names, and general index), and three folding geographical maps in a pocket, showing more than 500 cities and sites mentioned in the text. More than half of the vases are published here for the first time, including a series of masterfully decorated Attic silverware.

İnsanın Dünya üzerinde vücut bulmasının başından itibaren gereksinimini duyduğu en temel ihtiyaclarından birinin su olduğu bir gerçektir. Pleistosen Dönemde, yani Buzul Çağları boyunca insanın su gereksinimini herhangi bir araç-gereç kullanmadan, sadece ellerini veya doğrudan ağzını kullanarak gidermiş olduğu, bu dönemlere ait herhangi bir su kabı bulunmamasından anlaşılmaktadır. Diğer taraftan, ağaç veya ağaç kabuklarının sağladığı doğal oluşumlar, bir su kabı olarak bu dönem insanları tarafından kullanılmış olabilir.
Günümüzden 12000 yıl kadar önce Dünya’nın Holosen “Yeni Isı” Dönemi’ne girmesi ile insanların sosyo-ekonomik yaşamlarında çok belirgin değişimlerin oluştuğu yapılan arkeolojik araştırmalar sonucunda ortaya çıkmıştır. Mağara ve sığınakları terk ederek uygun sulak açık alanlarda yerleşim yerleri kurmaları ve toplayıcılık ile avcılıktan tarım ve hayvan yetiştiriciliğine geçmeleri, insanların daha çok araç-gereç kullanmalarına neden olmuştur. Yerleşik düzendeki yaşamlarında yiyeceklerini depolamada ve pişirmede, doğadan kolaylıkla elde edilebilen kilin plastik özelliği nedeni ile çok kullanışlı olduğunu keşfeden insanın, su ihtiyacını karşılamada da kili fırınlayarak elde ettikleri kapları kullanmış olduğunu arkeolojik araştırmalarda ele geçen örnekler göstermektedir..........

Since mankind appeared on the face of the earth, his most immediate need has been water. In the Pleistocene Era, that is to say throughout the Ice Ages, human beings could quench their thirst without any help, using their hands or indeed only their mouths; they left no evidence of vessels and containers. Of course they may have used perishables found in nature: wood or the bark of trees may have served as water glasses.
It was first at the beginning of the Holocene post-glacial period some 12,000 years ago that mankind first left traces in the archaeological record that signified a clear socioeconomic development. Leaving their caves and rock shelters behind, the population sought out well-watered sites to settle in, relinquishing hunting and gathering for a new life of husbandry and agriculture—and enlarging their toolkits accordingly. Facing the need to store their food as well as cook it, these community dwellers discovered the plastic qualities of the clay so abundant in nature and learned to fire it, creating durable vessels among them those for water and other drink that have survived for the trowel of the archaeologists.........

The mid-sixth century BC saw the formation of one of the ancient world’s largest and richest empires, the first Persian Empire under the Achaemenid dynasty. After the conquests of Cyrus the Great its vast realms stretched from the Aegean Sea in the west to the Jaxartes River in the east. The empire’s cosmopolitan policies, based on a shared economic relationship and a pluralistic administrative structure, heralded a period of astonishing cross-cultural fertilisation and innovation in different spheres of culture, trade and learning. These new developments were embraced and carried out in, among other regions, the highly multicultural setting of Achaeme- nid Anatolia.
This volume contains twelve articles from an international symposium (2017) on the relationships between the Iranian world and Anatolia in the Achaemenid period with an emphasis on Persian structures, presence and impacts on local populations and cultures. The contributions discuss a wide range of topics and address a variety of perspectives, from material culture, archaeology, architecture, and art history to philology, history, literature, numismatics, and religion.

French : Le présent article analyse la crédibilité à reconnaître aux alliances que le roi Crésus de Lydie aurait conclues avec Amasis d’Égypte d’une part et le roi de Babylone d’autre part. Par la même occasion seront étudiées les relations diplomatiques établies par Amasis avec les Cyrénéens et Polycrate de Samos ainsi que les rapports qui unissaient la Lydie à l’Égypte. De même, cette étude se penchera sur les liens diplomatiques tissés par le roi de Babylone contemporain de Crésus, afin de mieux dégager quelle était la nature des rapports unissant ce dernier au dernier roi de Lydie.

English : This article analyses the credibility given to the alliances, which were supposedly formed by the king of Lydia Croesus with Amasis of Egypt and with Nabonidus king of Babylon. At the same time, the diplomatic relations of Amasis with Cyrene and with Polycrates of Samos are studied, as well as the connection between the Lydian Kingdom and Egypt. Further, this study focuses also on the diplomatic ties built by the king of Babylon in order to determine what was the nature of the links between him and Croesus.

Turkish : Bu makale, Lydia kralı Kroisos’un Mısırlı Amasis ve Babylonlu Nabonid kralı arasında yapılan ve kabul etmek durumunda kaldığımız ittifakların güvenilirliğini araştırmaktadır. Aynı zamanda, Amasis’in Kyrene ve Samoslu Polykrates ile olan diplomatik ilişkilerinin yanı sıra Lydia Krallığı ve Mısır arasındaki bağlantıda incelenmiştir. Bu çalışma ayrıca Babil Kralı tarafından oluşturulan diplomatik bağlara da odaklanarak, Kroisos ile olan bağlantılarının doğasını tespit etmeyi amaçlamaktadır.

Regional styles of early Greek pottery have played a major role in discussion of the construction of identities in Early Iron
Age communities. Methodologically, it is necessary to differentiate historical from ‘analytical’ regions, the latter being defined by
the distribution of certain kinds of artefacts. The major production centres of East Greek pottery have mostly now been located,
thanks to archaeometric analyses and the excavation of kiln sites. Eastern Aegean potters were involved in a discourse at an intraregional
level as well as with other regions of the Aegean and of Western Anatolia. Archaeometric analyses help us to understand
these interactions and to trace the mobility of individual craftsmen or the foundation of branch workshops.

This article discusses the extent and interactions of the Phrygian kingdom in the period of ca. 1000–650 BCE, i.e. from the emergence of monumental architecture in Gordion until the Lydian occupancy of the city. It argues that Phrygia initially just encompassed the wider area around the city of Gordion. By the ninth century, it additionally controlled the entire region of the Sangarios River Bend, and was in close contact with the Syro-Hittite states. Evidence for the presence of Phrygians or Phrygian cultural elements elsewhere starts to be found only in the eighth century. In the west, Phrygian territorial expansion reached the city of Daskyleion by the middle of the century. In the east, the region of the Halys River bend was conquered at the latest in the following decades. Then and afterwards, Phrygia was heavily involved in politics in Tabal and Tyana, while it was also in contact with Urartu. Further, in the late eighth and seventh centuries a certain level of prestige came to be attached to Phrygian culture, causing elites throughout Anatolia to look for ways to be associated with it. Thus, Phrygia developed into a state of supraregional political and cultural importance. By the mid or late seventh century, however, Gordion was conquered by the Lydians, spelling a definitive end to the Phrygian kingdom.

Anadolu, tarih öncesi ve sonrasında da birçok medeniyete ev sahipliği yapmıştır. Medeniyetler kendi kültürlerini yaratmış çevre kültürlerini de etkilemiş ve etkilenmişlerdir. Medeniyetler arasındaki mücadele zamanla savaşlara dönmüş ve her devlet (kent devleti gibi) korunma ihtiyacı hissetmiştir. Bu bağlamda günümüze gelmiş en önemli nesne olarak kaleler, surlar gösterilebilir. Anadolu’da sur duvarlarının çeşitleri fazladır. Yöreden yöreye değişen sur duvarlarının değişmesindeki en büyük etkenlerden biri de o kentin maddi imkanı olmasıdır. Bu çalışmada Arkaik Dönem Lydia'sının sur duvarları ile Batı Anadolu sur duvarları karşılaştırılmış ve bunun üzerine yeni sonuçlara varılmıştır.

Various theories about the collapse of superpowers in the Aegean and in Anatolia at the end of the Bronze Age have been suggested. In Anatolia where one or more than one of these theories are effective, it has been generally accepted that the collapse of the Hittite Empire has to be dated at the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age. In the Iron Age, which lasted about 900 years, the Urartian Kingdom in East Anatolia, the Lydian Kingdom in West Anatolia and the Phrygian Kingdom in Central Anatolia are known from written sources and the archaeological material. Apart from these kingdoms Iron Age peoples can be mentioned whose names appear in the Assyrian written sources. Last not least the influence of the Persians-Achaemenids, who were dominant in all parts of Anatolia towards the end of
the period, can be cited. The vicinity of Uşak due to its location was a crossroad between Lydian and Phrygian Kingdoms. During the Iron Age influences and traces of western (Aegean and Greek) and eastern (Persian-Achamenid) as well as Anatolian culture can be noticed in this region. In this
article, cultural traces of the Iron Age in the vicinity of Uşak are explained in the light of the latest research. Before that the place of the region in the chronological sequence is summarized.

L’Halys chez Hérodote.

Dans son logos lydien du Livre I, et plus particulièrement dans le cadre de son histoire de Crésus, Hérodote mentionne la campagne du roi lydien contre les troupes du roi des Perses Cyrus II le Grand après sa prise d’Ecbatane. Lorsque Crésus s’apprête à entrer en Cappadoce et à envahir la cité de Ptérie, le père de l’Histoire précise que la frontière qui séparait la Médie de la Lydie était le fleuve Halys. Après la description géographique de celui-ci, Hérodote précise en effet qu’un conflit avait opposé les Lydiens d’Alyatte (le père de Crésus) aux Mèdes de Kyaxare (le père d’Astyage, roi détrôné par Cyrus). Cette guerre se serait terminée sur un épisode célèbre qui est fixé en 585 av. J.-C. : l’éclipse totale du soleil qu’aurait prédite Thalès de Milet. C’est à la suite de ces hostilités, qu’un traité aurait été conclu entre les Lydiens et les Mèdes fixant leur frontière commune sur l’Halys. C’est du moins ce que la tradition fixée par l’historien des guerres médiques a retenu. Après cette incise, Hérodote reprend son récit en traitant du franchissement de son cours par Crésus ; il devait s’ensuivre sa débâcle en Ptérie, un désastre qui annonçait du coup aussi la fin de l’autonomie des cités grecques réduites à tomber sous le joug des Perses.
Dans notre exposé, nous reviendrons sur cette vision que la tradition a gardée et qui fait de l’Halys la frontière entre la Médie et la Lydie. Ensuite, nous analyserons la description du cours de ce fleuve laissée par Hérodote. De plus, nous reviendrons sur les diverses mentions qu’en a faites le père de l’Histoire tout au long de son récit. Nous nous pencherons ainsi sur le rôle que le fleuve a rempli dans la vision de l’espace politique, ethnique et géographique au regard de l’historien d’Halicarnasse et les problèmes que sa présentation soulève. Enfin, nous verrons que chaque franchissement de ce fleuve par les barbares se révéla un mauvais présage pour les Grecs d’Asie mineure mais aussi pour ceux de la Grèce même.

This article focuses on the tumuli that lie in the western and central parts of the Troad; as a group, they functioned as attraction points, landscape markers, and social-cultural phenomena. The tumuli along the northwest coast of the Troad, in the shadow of Ilium, probably began to be associated with the graves of the Homeric heroes during the early Archaic period. Two of the mounds were often linked to Achilles and Patroclus; others have been connected with Antilochus, Protesilaus, and Ajax. Athens' first overseas colony of Sigeum was probably founded here in order to co-opt the legendary framework that these tumuli represented. They also formed the nucleus of a tourism industry centered on Ilium, and the tumulus of Achilles appears to have been monumentalized in the 3rd century BC to increase its tourism potential. The tumuli in the center of the Troad, along the Granicus and Aesepus rivers, date primarily to the Archaic and Classical periods, and were set up by wealthy Anatolians associated with the Persian satrap in Dascylium. These served both as estate markers and as components in a system of aristocratic competition. The sarcophagi and tomb chambers contained within them are among the earliest examples of Proconnesian marble monuments, and most were sited along the principal roads and waterways for easy viewing. The estates that produced these tumuli were largely abandoned after Alex-ander's conquests, and the area would not become inhabited again until a series of late Roman earthquakes prompted the inhabitants of the coastal cities to return to the interior.

Discussion of recent numismatic studies on finds in the Cayster River Valley: SENCAN ALTINOLUK, HYPAIPA. A LYDIAN CITY DURING THE ROMAN IMPERIAL PERIOD, Istanbul, Ege Yayinlari, 2013, 303 p. ISBN 978-605-4701-18-6. 29E.
OĞUZ TEKIN, SENCAN ALTINOLUK AND E. SAĞIR, SYLLOGE NUMMORUM GRAECORUM. TURKEY 5. TIRE MUSEUM. VOLUME 1, ROMAN PROVINCIAL COINS FROM IONIA, LYDIA, PHRYGIA AND ETC., Istanbul, Turkish Institute of Archaeology, 2011, 40 plates. ISBN 978-605-5607-62-3. 80E.
OĞUZ TEKIN AND SENCAN ALTINOLUK, SYLLOGE NUMMORUM GRAECORUM. TURKEY 7. ÖDEMIŞ MUSEUM. VOLUME 1, ROMAN PROVINCIAL COINS OF IONIA, LYDIA AND ETC., Istanbul, Turkish Institute of Archaeology, 2012, 30 plates. ISBN 978-605-5607-93-7. 60E.