Lycia
The ancient region of Lycia, south-west Turkey, occupies a crucial position between the Aegean, Eastern Mediterranean, and inland Anatolia. It is famous for its spectacular Graeco-Roman tombs and cities (e.g. Xanthos and Oinoanda) of the late 1st millennium BC.
The seas around the Lycian coasts have also yielded remarkable Bronze Age shipwrecks (e.g. Gelidonia, Uluburun). Egyptian and Hittite documents of the 2nd millennium BC refer to this region and its population as the Lukka lands and people, and Lycian heroes (e.g. Sarpedon) appear as Trojan allies in the Homeric poems. So far, however, our knowledge of pre-Classical Lycian settlements is extremely limited, especially for the 2nd and early 1st millennia BC.
The Çaltılar Project
Our archaeological project focuses on the site of Çaltılar höyük in the yayla (upland) region of Lycia, and on the history and archaeology of this area from the 3rd to the early 1stmillennium BC. This site is located in the Fethiye district of Muğla province, close to the modern Fethiye-Antalya highway, which follows an ancient communication route between the mountains and the sea. Our fieldwork, publications and other reports are advancing our understanding of these poorly understood periods in this intriguing region. Our team consists of academics and students from a number of British and Turkish universities working in close collaboration.
