DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4328#0078
CHAPTER IV
LYOIAN TOMBS : LINDUS AND CNIDUS
At Telmessus are also a great number of tombs and the ruins of a large plain theatre. It is
noted of one of the tombs that "the entrance has been effected by sliding sideways a panel of the
false door." The sliding panels or doors are indicated on several of our plates. The two rock-cut
tombs on Plate XXXV. are also from Telmessus. The original drawing of the upper one shows that
it had the inscription ANTl<MAOT, etc., given by Benndorf (i. p. 43). The lower one had the
inscription tibepiot, etc., given by Texier. As he remarks, this inscription must be later than the
tomb itself.
Antiphellus, a seaboard town on a promontory, is another of the important sites in Lycia. Here
are the ruins of a fine theatre and other buildings, also a great number of tombs, many of them very
large. Fellows says: "Many hundreds are still standing apparently unopened." He remarked that all
the inscriptions here were in Greek excepting that on one "stately monument," which had a long
Lycian inscription, from which he copied the most perfect parts. Our Plate XXXVII. represents
this monument (which has also been illustrated by Leake, Texier, and Fellows) and gives another
version of the Lycian inscription. The general form of this fine monument closely resembles the two
tombs from Xanthus in the Mausoleum Room at the British Museum, and it must be a work of
about the same date. Plate XXXVIII. is the elevation of an important rock-cut tomb; a second
monument of the same type is represented on one of the drawings now at the Royal Institute of
British Architects. Here also was a square-built tomb with Doric pilasters at the angles.
Our mission also visited Phellus. The tomb on Plate XLII. seems to be the same as that
illustrated by Benndorf and Niemann (p. 130). Fellows visited the site, which was on a mountainous
height at the back of the ancient Antiphellus where "the cyclopean walls blended with its craggy
top." Spratt and Forbes raised doubts as to this site, which must, however, have been correctly
identified by our party. In the list of drawings made here a theatre is mentioned.
Gell's party also visited Sura (Syrrha) and Apperae, and made some drawings of tombs which are
now in the Library of the Institute of Architects; a note on one of them reads, " Apirae now Cacamo."
Fellows tells us how "in coasting from Antiphellus to Myra we put in at Kakava amidst the tombs
of an ancient city; I was fortunate in finding an inscription showing this to be the city of Aperae,
the site of which had not before been discovered." Cacamo and Kakava must represent the same
place; it is on the coast several miles to the west of Myra. In an earlier visit here Fellows noted
ruins of cisterns or granaries. Here again was probably a Roman granary like those of Myra and
Patara for the export of wheat.
" Above all," says Michaelis, " Lycia is a country of tombs." These are of many types, but those
imitating wooden constructions form the most curious group, which is well represented by examples in
the British Museum. Most of them seem to be works of the fourth century and even later, but the
modes of wooden construction imitated must, in many details, be of high antiquity. Thus the cornice
cut into the form of the ends of poles laid side by side is found in both Aegean and Egyptian art.
As has been remarked, these closely set poles carried a layer of earth which formed a terrace roof,
they rested directly on the main beam or architrave without the intervention of a frieze, and we find
here the prototype of the Ionic cornice, the essential feature of which is the row of dentils directly
above the architrave. Other details of the tombs imitate an advanced and artificial school of carpentry.
Choisy has tried to explain the curved ends of some of the imitated beams by supposing they were
cut from the curved portions of timber springing from roots, but this is over ingenious. There seems,
in any case, to be a general tendency in advanced schools of carpentry to fall into some playful use
22
LYOIAN TOMBS : LINDUS AND CNIDUS
At Telmessus are also a great number of tombs and the ruins of a large plain theatre. It is
noted of one of the tombs that "the entrance has been effected by sliding sideways a panel of the
false door." The sliding panels or doors are indicated on several of our plates. The two rock-cut
tombs on Plate XXXV. are also from Telmessus. The original drawing of the upper one shows that
it had the inscription ANTl<MAOT, etc., given by Benndorf (i. p. 43). The lower one had the
inscription tibepiot, etc., given by Texier. As he remarks, this inscription must be later than the
tomb itself.
Antiphellus, a seaboard town on a promontory, is another of the important sites in Lycia. Here
are the ruins of a fine theatre and other buildings, also a great number of tombs, many of them very
large. Fellows says: "Many hundreds are still standing apparently unopened." He remarked that all
the inscriptions here were in Greek excepting that on one "stately monument," which had a long
Lycian inscription, from which he copied the most perfect parts. Our Plate XXXVII. represents
this monument (which has also been illustrated by Leake, Texier, and Fellows) and gives another
version of the Lycian inscription. The general form of this fine monument closely resembles the two
tombs from Xanthus in the Mausoleum Room at the British Museum, and it must be a work of
about the same date. Plate XXXVIII. is the elevation of an important rock-cut tomb; a second
monument of the same type is represented on one of the drawings now at the Royal Institute of
British Architects. Here also was a square-built tomb with Doric pilasters at the angles.
Our mission also visited Phellus. The tomb on Plate XLII. seems to be the same as that
illustrated by Benndorf and Niemann (p. 130). Fellows visited the site, which was on a mountainous
height at the back of the ancient Antiphellus where "the cyclopean walls blended with its craggy
top." Spratt and Forbes raised doubts as to this site, which must, however, have been correctly
identified by our party. In the list of drawings made here a theatre is mentioned.
Gell's party also visited Sura (Syrrha) and Apperae, and made some drawings of tombs which are
now in the Library of the Institute of Architects; a note on one of them reads, " Apirae now Cacamo."
Fellows tells us how "in coasting from Antiphellus to Myra we put in at Kakava amidst the tombs
of an ancient city; I was fortunate in finding an inscription showing this to be the city of Aperae,
the site of which had not before been discovered." Cacamo and Kakava must represent the same
place; it is on the coast several miles to the west of Myra. In an earlier visit here Fellows noted
ruins of cisterns or granaries. Here again was probably a Roman granary like those of Myra and
Patara for the export of wheat.
" Above all," says Michaelis, " Lycia is a country of tombs." These are of many types, but those
imitating wooden constructions form the most curious group, which is well represented by examples in
the British Museum. Most of them seem to be works of the fourth century and even later, but the
modes of wooden construction imitated must, in many details, be of high antiquity. Thus the cornice
cut into the form of the ends of poles laid side by side is found in both Aegean and Egyptian art.
As has been remarked, these closely set poles carried a layer of earth which formed a terrace roof,
they rested directly on the main beam or architrave without the intervention of a frieze, and we find
here the prototype of the Ionic cornice, the essential feature of which is the row of dentils directly
above the architrave. Other details of the tombs imitate an advanced and artificial school of carpentry.
Choisy has tried to explain the curved ends of some of the imitated beams by supposing they were
cut from the curved portions of timber springing from roots, but this is over ingenious. There seems,
in any case, to be a general tendency in advanced schools of carpentry to fall into some playful use
22