Sepulcrum Amyntae

About

An Ionic temple facade with columns carved straight out of the cliff, rather than built up in front of it, marks this rock-hewn tomb above ancient Telmessos. A Greek inscription beside the entrance names it for Amyntas, son of Hermagios, and dates the monument to around 350 BCE. It remains the grandest of a whole cliffside cluster of Lycian house-tombs overlooking the harbor. The city below, later renamed Fethiye, remained a landmark of Lycian territory throughout Roman rule.

What happened here

Roman burial is a family matter conducted in public. The dead are carried out of town, cremated or laid in the ground, and mourned with formal noise; the funeral of anyone important is a procession with masks of the ancestors carried by hired men. The tomb that follows is designed to be read by strangers on the road: name, age, offices, sometimes a trade shown in relief, often a line addressed directly to the passer-by. Ordinary people appear here as they nowhere else — a baker with his ovens carved on the front, a freedman naming the woman he could finally marry, a child's age given in days. Anniversaries bring the family back with food and wine.

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomb_of_Amyntas