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Tomb of Amyntas

Sepulcrum Amyntae

TombLycia et Pamphylia · Fethiye, TurkeyBuilt 350 BCE

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.

In ancient writing

Anonymous, Dedicatory inscription, Tomb of Amyntas, Telmessos TAM II 30
The Greek inscription carved beside the tomb's entrance names its occupant — Amyntou tou Hermagiou, "[tomb] of Amyntas, son of Hermagias" — and its letterforms date it to around 350 BCE, which is how the monument got its name.