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62-557: The obelisk or pillar was originally topped by a tomb, most certainly belonging to Kheriga, in a way similar to the Harpy Tomb . The top most likely fell down during an earthquake in ancient times. The tomb was decorated with reliefs of his exploits, and with a statue of the dynast standing on top. The three languages are Ancient Greek , Lycian and Milyan (the last two are Anatolian languages and were previously known as Lycian A and Lycian B respectively). During its early period of study,

124-925: A firman from the Ottoman Empire for the removal of antiquities. He also sought the collaboration of Colonel William Martin Leake , a noted antiquarian and traveller and, with others, including Beaufort, was a founding member of the Royal Geographical Society . While waiting for the firman, Fellows embarked for Lycia, arriving in Xanthus again in 1840. On his return, armed with Beaufort's map, and Leake's directions, Fellows went in search for more Lycian cities, and found eleven more, accounting in all for 24 of Pliny's 36. He concentrated on coins and inscriptions. On April 17, he arrived again at Xanthus, writing: "Xanthus.— I am once more at my favourite city — ...." He noted that it

186-653: A Greek the scene might depict the worship of a hero; for a Persian, an audience before the Persian governor of Xanthus, faintly reminiscent of the audiences before the Great King in Persepolis. These portrayals of Persia on a small scale reflect in their physical dispositions the spiritual idea of maintaining promises of obedience to superiors; everyone expected from those below him what the granted those above him. Greek craftsmen appear to have done all this work for Persian patrons – with

248-466: A depth of hold of 13 feet 10 inches (4.2 m). The ship's tonnage was 378 tons burthen . The Hecla class was armed with two 6-pounder cannon, eight or ten 24-pounder carronades and two mortars , one 10 inches (254 mm) and the other 13 inches (330 mm) in size. The ships had a crew of 67 officers and ratings . Meteor , the third ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy,

310-548: A high standard of workmanship. The Harpy Tomb belongs to the Late Archaic Greek style. The Archaic Style introduced an element of realism that was developed to its fullest in the later Classical Style , but retained some of the formalism of the earlier Geometric Style in its rules of symmetry . Of the many tombs at Xanthos, the Harpy Tomb is unique in period and style. Other well-known sculptures from Xanthos include

372-597: A later king of Lycia. Kybernis is proposed as a possible identity of the occupant of the tomb. Another view is that they are generalised scenes of judgement in Hades rather than earthly rulers. Consistent with this view is the interpretation of the south figure as Persephone , the Queen of the Underworld . The figures to the left and right of the opening may be the goddesses Demeter and Persephone respectively. The repeated use of

434-406: A miniaturized official before the Great King as at Persepolis, a boy offers a cock and a rhyton of wine to the enthroned governor. Common to Greeks, Lycians, and Persians , this ritual gesture of offering had a different significance for each. All saw the same thing and understood it differently – but not differently enough to be unaware that there were other ways of understanding what they saw. For

496-463: A pedestal. Of the lettering on it, he wrote: "The characters upon the northwest side, ... are cut in a finer and bolder style, and appear to be the most ancient." Seeing an inscription in Greek on the northeast side, he realised the importance of the find, but he did not say why, only that it was written in the first person, which "makes the monument itself speak." In October, 1841, Fellows received word that

558-400: A throne, holding in his right hand a pomegranate flower and being offered a cock by a smaller standing figure. Behind the small standing figure is a male holding in his left hand a staff and advancing with a dog. Behind the seated figure are two advancing females, the first holding in her left hand a pomegranate. It is thought the carvings on the monument were originally brightly painted. At

620-484: Is 7 feet (2.1 m) in length and 3 feet 3 inches (1.0 m) in height. It was originally set upon a large oblong stone pedestal, 17 feet (5.2 m) high, making it an example of a pillar tomb . The top of the pillar has a hollowed out chamber creating a space inside the tomb 7 feet 6 inches (2.3 m) tall from the bottom of the hollow to the top of the reliefs. All four sides are carved with similar relief panels in one of which (the south side )

682-409: Is a cow suckling its calf. This design is also seen on coins from the reign of Sppndaza (475 to 469 BC). On the right of the opening three female figures advance towards the seated figures. The second advancing female holds in her right hand a fruit and in her left a pomegranate flower. The third holds in her raised right hand an object, possibly an egg. On the east side is a male figure seated on

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744-533: Is a marble chamber from a pillar tomb that stands in the abandoned city of Xanthos , capital of ancient Lycia , a region of southwestern Anatolia in what is now Turkey. Built in the Persian Achaemenid Empire , and dating to approximately 480–470 BC, the chamber topped a tall pillar and was decorated with marble panels carved in bas-relief . The tomb was built for an Iranian prince or governor of Xanthus, perhaps Kybernis . The marble chamber

806-410: Is a small opening to allow a body to be placed in the tomb. This aperture may originally have been closed with a stele . The tomb is roofed with what appear to be three large slabs, one above the other. In fact, the capstone is one single piece, weighing 15 to 20 tons, carved to give the appearance of three layers. Each false slab overlaps the ones below to form an entablature . All the parts, except

868-504: Is carved in the Greek Archaic style. Along with much other material in Xanthos it is heavily influenced by Greek art, but there are also indications of non-Greek influence in the carvings. The reliefs are reminiscent of reliefs at Persepolis . The monument takes its name from the four carved female winged figures, resembling Harpies . The identities of the carved figures and the meaning of

930-637: Is found in Lycia from an early date. The Lycian alphabet is derived from Rhodian Greek, with borrowings from other alphabets, possibly Phoenician . The country was conquered by Harpagus in 540 BC, who was acting for the Persians. Lycia's culture was influenced by its annexation into the Persian Empire, but also by its neighbours, the Ionian Greeks . The influence of Greek culture increased after Xerxes ' army

992-566: The British Association and man of independent means, arrived in an Arab dhow from Constantinople at the port of Tékrova, site of ancient Phaselis. On Friday he had arrived in Constantinople from England to seek permission to explore. According to him he was bent on an Anatolian "excursion" around Lycia. Although his journal is in the first person, it is clear from the text that others were present, and that he had some equipment with him. He

1054-585: The Classical period onwards, when Lycian architecture and sculpture were very much in the Classical Greek style. But the Lycians had a distinct culture of their own, and their religious and funerary rites can be distinguished from the Greek. The Lycian language , although it is Indo-European , isn't closely related to Greek and was instead more closely related to Hittite and most probably directly descended from

1116-453: The Horse Tomb , were left in situ because they were so large that they could only be handled if first sawn into pieces. This Fellows would have done, but the stone-sawyers arrived from Malta with Graves so late in the season that they immediately succumbed to malaria and the task was abandoned. Nevertheless, 80 tons of material were put on board. HMS Beacon (1832) HMS Meteor

1178-611: The Lion Tomb , Pillar of the Wrestlers, and the pillars at Isinda and Trysa are all distinctly Greek in style with little eastern symbolism. Pillar tombs are the earliest form of tomb found in Lycia and go back to the sixth century BC, first appearing c. 540 BC. The pillar tombs appear to be reserved for leading dynasts. House tombs and sarcophagi appear from the mid-5th century BC onwards. Xanthos has 43 monumental tombs of which 17 are sculptured and 35 are pillar tombs, usually to

1240-759: The British Museum to bring back artefacts after they learned of his 1838 exploration of the region. Until then, Lycian culture was virtually unknown in Western Europe. The tomb was (and still is, minus its reliefs) located in the Acropolis of Xanthos. Fellows received permission in October 1841 from the Ottoman Sultan to remove stone artefacts from the region. A Royal Navy ship, HMS Beacon commanded by Captain Graves ,

1302-695: The Lycian either could not be understood, or was interpreted as two dialects of one language, hence the term, bilingual. Another trilingual from Xanthus, the Letoon trilingual , was subsequently named from its three languages, Greek, Lycian A and Aramaic . They are both four-sided, both trilingual. The find sites are different. The key, unequivocal words are bilingual, Letoon , Aramaic, Lycian B, Milyan. The equivocal words are stele, trilingual, Xanthus or Xanthos. "The Xanthus inscription" might refer to any inscription from Xanthus. The stele lay in plain sight for centuries, though

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1364-417: The Lycians actively encouraged this synthesis in order to promote themselves as part of the Greek family. Another story from Greek mythology concerns the origin of the name of the country. According to the myth, Lycia is named after Lycus , the son of Pandion , king of Athens. Prior to Lycus becoming their leader, the Lycians were known as Termilae. Lycus was later to help remove the usurper Metion from

1426-659: The Xanthian marbles. The stele is an important archaeological find pertaining to the Lycian language . Similar to the Rosetta Stone , it has inscriptions both in Greek and in a previously mysterious language: Lycian, which, on further analysis, turned out to be two Luwian languages, Lycian and Milyan. Although not oriented on the cardinal directions, the stele presents four faces of continuous text that are traditionally described directionally, south, east, north and west, in that order, like

1488-540: The banks of the Xanthus and, on April 19, camped among the tombs of the ruined city. Fellows took note of the obelisk architecture and the many inscriptions in excellent condition, but he did not linger to examine them further. After making a preliminary survey, he returned to Britain to publish his first journal, and to request the Board of Trustees of the British Museum to ask Lord Palmerston (Foreign Secretary) to request

1550-402: The carvings that definitely suggest a non-Greek origin. The female faces have full lips and large eyes that are typically Lycian. The reliefs show seated figures receiving gifts from standing figures. At the left and right edges on the north and south sides are winged female creatures with bird bodies (the "Harpies"). The winged creatures are carrying away small childlike figures. Between

1612-421: The coast was so slow that Fellows disembarked at Kas, obtained some horses, and proceeded to cross Ak Dağ, perhaps influenced by his interest in mountaineering. Climbing thousands of feet, Fellows observed tombs and ruins over the entire slopes of the mountains. The party cut short its mountain climbing, scrambling down to Patera, to avoid being blown off the slopes by heavy prevailing winds. From Patera they rode up

1674-469: The country rapid Hellenisation took place in Lycia, and its culture became subsumed in the Greek. Lycia features heavily in Greek mythology. The Titan goddess Leto fled to Lycia after giving birth, or in order to give birth, to Apollo and Artemis . The Lycians play a part in the Iliad , under their leader Sarpedon , as allies of Troy . Bellerophon killed the fire-breathing monster Chimera which

1736-502: The earlier Lion Tomb and the later Tomb of Payava and Nereid Monument . The tomb was built in Xanthos in the Persian Achaemenid Empire (present-day Antalya Province , Turkey), for an Iranian prince or governor of the city. The Harpy Tomb is in the Acropolis of Xanthos to the north of where the Roman theatre now stands and on its west side. It would have originally stood on the edge of

1798-449: The exception of objects found in graves and seal rings (impressions of many of which were found at Dascylion ), which are of Persian manufacture. The seated figures are thought to be Lycian gods or deified ancestors. Among the possible identities for the seated figures on the north and south sides are Harpagus , the Median general who became the founder of the Lycian dynasty, and Kybernis ,

1860-470: The firman had been granted. The preliminary work was over, and events began to move rapidly. HMS Beacon , commanded by Captain Graves , had been reassigned to transport objects designated by Fellows, and Fellows was to board the ship in Malta. He wrote immediately to the British Museum offering to manage the expedition himself gratis, if he could receive free passage and rations on British naval vessels. The offer

1922-423: The inscription, he said: "as the letters are beautifully cut, I have taken several impressions from them." His intent was to establish the forms of Lycian letters. He observed that "an earthquake has split off the upper part, which lies at the foot." As it weighed many tons, he could not move it. He excavated the obelisk from which it had been split, still standing, but embedded in the earth, and found that it stood on

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1984-513: The marketplace. The original pillar is still in place; Fellows took only the sculptures, which have been replaced with cement casts of the originals. The tomb is the only Late Archaic tomb in Xanthos to have survived the extensive redevelopment of the acropolis in the Roman period , and was left standing as an isolated historical artefact. Many other Lycian tombs survive in Xanthos, but there are no others from this particular period. The space inside

2046-411: The museum had allocated no funds for the expedition. Fellows offered to pay for it himself, to which no answer was received immediately. At the mouth of the Xanthus, Captain Graves found no safe anchorage. Much to Fellows' chagrin, he was forced to anchor 50 miles away, but he left a flotilla of small boats under a lieutenant for the transport of the marbles. The flow of the Xanthus, according to Fellows,

2108-469: The museum in advance, were the subject of Leake's first analysis and publication. In all they crated 80 tons of material in 82 cases, which they transported downriver in March, 1842, for loading onto the ship temporarily moored for the purpose. In Malta Fellows received a few pleasant surprises. The museum was going to pay for the expedition. Fellows was invited to stay on at the museum. The marbles became known as

2170-522: The name of the monument. A better match is to the Sirens but many sources doubt either of these claims. The small figures they are carrying away may represent the souls of the dead. Another suggestion for the small figures are that they are the daughters of the hero Pandareus who were carried away to become the Furies . The sculpted reliefs were taken to England by Charles Fellows , who had been commissioned by

2232-419: The next few months was frenzied, with Fellows deciding ad hoc what was best to remove, rushing desperately to pry the objects from the earth, while the crews crated them. The largest objects were the Horse Tomb and parts of the Harpy Tomb , which they had to disassemble, cutting them up with saws. The obelisks were unthinkable. Fellows contented himself with taking paper casts of the inscriptions, which, sent to

2294-405: The original pomegranate on Cyprus. It is not a suitable gift for an intellectual goddess such as Athena . The pomegranate can have an overtly sexual meaning; Demeter complains that her daughter Persophone was "forced to eat the seed of a pomegranate" in the underworld, by which it is understood that she was raped. The winged creatures are likely not Harpies, but this misidentification has stuck in

2356-643: The pages of a book. They are conventionally lettered a, b, c, and d. The whole book is inscription TAM I 44. The text of each page was inscribed in lines, conventionally numbered one through the number of the last line on the page. There are three pieces of text: The pillar sits atop a tomb, and the inscription celebrates the deceased: a champion wrestler. In a section, Lycian Inscriptions , of Appendix B of his second journal, Fellows includes his transliterations of TAM I 44, with remarks and attempted interpretations. He admits to being able to do little with it; however, he does note, "some curious analogies might be shown in

2418-442: The pomegranate in the symbolism is not accidental. Not just in Lycia, but throughout Asia Minor, the Greek world, and Palestine, the pomegranate was widely recognised as a symbol of fructification and procreation. Conversely, it is also a symbol of change and death. This symbolism can be helpful in identifying the deities in the reliefs. The pomegranate is a suitable gift for a goddess of sexuality such as Aphrodite who herself planted

2480-450: The pronouns of the other Indo-Germanic languages ". He had already decided, then, that the language was Indo-European. He had written this appendix from studies performed while he was waiting for the firman in 1840. The conclusions were not really his, however. He quotes a letter from his linguistic assistant, Daniel Sharpe, to whom he had sent copies, mentioning Grotefend 's conclusion, based on five previously known inscriptions, that Lycian

2542-656: The related Luwian language. Several groups speaking Hittite-related languages continued to exist in Asia Minor for many centuries after the Hittite Empire had passed into history. Lycia occupied a strategic position between Europe and the Near East. The Greek and Persian worlds met in Lycia, and the Lycians were heavily influenced by both. At one period Persian influence would dominate and at another, Greek, resulting in Lycian culture being an amalgam of both. Greek influence

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2604-578: The reliefs are now on display. According to Melanie Michailidis, though bearing a "Greek appearance", the Harpy Tomb, the Nereid Monument and the Tomb of Payava were built according main Zoroastrian criteria "by being composed of thick stone, raised on plinths off the ground, and having single windowless chambers". Lycian culture was at one time viewed as a branch of Greek culture by scholars, especially from

2666-410: The right hand. On the west side are two females seated on thrones and facing each other. Their breasts are large and the nipples and areolae can be seen through their thin clothing. The one on the right holds in her right hand a flower and in her left a pomegranate. The one on the left holds in her right hand a phiale . The opening for insertion of the body is in front of this figure. Above the opening

2728-445: The scenes depicted are uncertain, but it is generally now agreed that the winged creatures are not Harpies. The Lycians absorbed much of Greek mythology into their own culture and the scenes may represent Greek deities, but it is also possible they are unknown Lycian deities. An alternative interpretation is that they represent scenes of judgement in the afterlife and scenes of supplication to Lycian rulers. The carvings were removed from

2790-549: The sculptured reliefs, are made from local grey-blue limestone. The tomb, along with many other artefacts from Lycia of the period, is in the Greek Archaic style. If the dating is accurate (480–470 BC) the Archaic style continued in Lycia for some time after it had become unfashionable in Greece. The sculptures may have been carved by Ionian Greek craftsmen, if not they are heavily influenced by them. There are some features of

2852-452: The sculptures of the Harpy Tomb the capstone, which may have weighed as much as twenty tons and was resting on the sculptured sides, had to be lifted off, causing the sides of the tomb to fall in. Fellows, who had left the sailors to carry out this task in their own way, remarked "but the sculptured parts did not receive more injury than they probably would have done from a more scientific operation". The sculptures of another monument at Xanthos,

2914-528: The throne of Athens. The real origin of the name, however, would appear to be a derivation of Lukka , the name of the country found in Hittite records. Lycian architecture and sculpture depicts skills similar to the Greeks, but to the Greeks, the Lycians, along with other non-Greek peoples of southwestern Anatolia, were often viewed as barbarians. From c. 550 BC, Greek pottery is found in quantity in Lycia;

2976-491: The time of Fellows' discovery of the monument, the remains of blue paint were found in the backgrounds of the reliefs. Traces of red paint have also been found on other parts. [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The reliefs on the tomb show "a Greek–Lycian version of the audiences depicted at Persepolis ". Leo Raditsa, in the Cambridge History of Iran adds; Instead of

3038-529: The tomb in the 19th century by archaeologist Charles Fellows and taken to England. Fellows visited Lycia in 1838 and reported finding the remains of a culture that until then was virtually unknown to Europeans. After obtaining permission from the Turkish authorities to remove stone artefacts from the region, Fellows collected a large amount of material from Xanthos under commission from the British Museum in London, where

3100-435: The tomb was later occupied by an early Christian hermit. Fellows noted that the backs of the reliefs still bore the remains of the hermit's religious paintings and monograms. Fellows speculates that this man was a disciple of Simeon Stylites (390–459 AD), one of the eponymously named Christian ascetics known as stylites , who lived on the top of tall columns. The tomb is a large square of carved marble panels. Each side

3162-600: The upper portion was broken off and toppled by an earthquake at some time in antiquity. While charting the Lycian coast, Francis Beaufort , then a captain in the Royal Navy , surveyed and reported on the ruins. Most of the ruins stood at elevated locations to which not even a mule trail remained. Reports of the white marble tombs, which were visible to travellers, attracted the interest of Victorian Age explorers, such as Charles Fellows . On Saturday, April 14, 1838, Sir Charles Fellows, archaeologist, artist and mountaineer, member of

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3224-457: The walls of operational military fortresses. A further delay was caused by a disagreement with Graves. It transpired that the ship had not brought suitable tackle for lifting the heavier pieces. Fellows wanted Graves to return to Malta immediately to fetch the necessary equipment, but Graves requested further orders from his superiors before doing so, which took some time to arrive. The Beacon did not finally return until March 1842. To remove

3286-441: The winged creatures on the north side is a seated figure receiving a helmet from a standing warrior; under the chair is a bear. Under the winged creature on the right is a kneeling female supplicant. Between the winged creatures on the south side is a seated figure of uncertain sex receiving a dove from a standing female. The seated figure is holding a pomegranate in the left hand and an unidentified object (possibly fruit or an egg) in

3348-811: Was Indo-Germanic. By now he was referring to "the inscription on the obelisk at Xanthus." He had perceived that the deceased was mentioned as arppagooû tedēem , "son of Harpagos," from which the stele also became known as "the Harpagos stele." Fellows identified this Harpagus with the conqueror of Lycia and dated the obelisk to 500 BC on the historical Harpagus . His view has been called the Harpagid Theory by Antony Keen. 36°21′26″N 29°19′07″E  /  36.35722°N 29.31861°E  / 36.35722; 29.31861 Harpy Tomb 36°21′24.5″N 29°19′4.7″E  /  36.356806°N 29.317972°E  / 36.356806; 29.317972 The Harpy Tomb

3410-425: Was a Hecla -class bomb vessel built for the Royal Navy during the 1820s. In July 1832 she was renamed Beacon and reclassified as a survey ship, and was sold in 1846. Meteor had a length at the gundeck of 106 feet (32.3 m) and 87 feet 1 inch (26.5 m) at the keel . She had a beam of 28 feet 11 inches (8.8 m), a draught of about 10 feet 9 inches (3.3 m) and

3472-448: Was accepted immediately and unconditionally. Once he boarded the ship unforeseen difficulties arose with the firman, and they found it necessary to voyage to Constantinople. There they received a firm commitment from the Sultan: "The Sublime Porte in interested in granting such demands, in consequence of the sincere friendship existing between the two governments." An additional problem was that

3534-511: Was defeated at the Battle of Plataea by Greek forces in 479 BC. Kybernis , for whom the Harpy Tomb is thought to have been built, may have died as a consequence of wounds he received in the defeat of Xerxes, either at Plataea or the naval battle of Salamis . He was succeeded by Kuprlli, and then Kheriga, who took an Iranian name and appeared to be pro-Persian. After Alexander the Great 's conquest of

3596-694: Was greater than that of the Thames. The boats could make no headway in the strong currents, which Fellows estimated at 5 mph. Instead they pulled the boats upstream from the shore. The locals were exceedingly hospitable, supplying them with fresh edibles and pertinent advice, until they roasted a boar for dinner one night, after which they were despised for having eaten unclean meat. They reached Xanthus in December, 1841. Loading began in January. On site they were limited as to what they could carry in small boats. The scene for

3658-510: Was known also to the British Museum and to the Royal Geographical Society , with whom he collaborated immediately on his return. The Ottoman Empire was on good terms with the British Empire , due to British support of the Ottomans during their defence against Napoleon . They granted permission and would cooperate in the subsequent removal of antiquities to the British Museum. Progress along

3720-414: Was ravaging Lycia. These stories may well not have originally been part of Lycian mythology, but may have been borrowed from the Greek. The Greek goddess Leto, for example, may have been equated with the Lycian mother goddess. Having incorporated Leto into their pantheon, the rest of the Greek stories followed naturally. Certainly, the temple to Leto was of some importance in Xanthos. It would appear that

3782-536: Was tasked with recovering and transporting the items identified by Fellows. The ship sailed from Malta on 30 October but did not arrive on site until 26 December, delayed largely by unanticipated and protracted negotiations with the Turkish authorities. Fellows' documents did not give him the permissions he thought they did (he had not had them translated), and some of the British Government's requests were seen as unreasonable, such as removing stones from

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3844-405: Was undespoiled; that is, the building stone had not been reused. He saw Cyclopean walls, gateways, paved roadways, trimmed stone blocks, and above all inscriptions, many in Greek, which he had no trouble reading and translating. Fellows states that he had seen an obelisk on his previous trip, which, he said, he had mentioned in his first journal (if he did, it was not in the published version). Of

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