ELMALI
Lycia, Turkey.
City and plain 64 km
N of Myra and Limyra, with Classical sites. Two
tumuli with built and painted tomb chambers, both
anciently plundered, were discovered in 1969-70. At
Kizilbel, 3.2 km SW of Elmali, a gabled chamber (2 x
2.45 x 2.3 m) had multiple friezes in archaic style of
ca. 530 B.C. The colors are red (various shades), blue,
and black, painted directly on the stone. Represented are
mythological subjects (Gorgons, Medusa, birth of Chrysaor and Pegasos), and ceremonial or biographical scenes
(a warrior's departure by chariot; processions of soldiers, horses, chariots, offering bearers; a boar hunt in
the marshes; a lion hunt; a sea voyage). The second
painted tomb chamber, Karaburun, 4.8 km NE of Elmali,
is larger (2.61 x 3 x 2.66 m). It has one frieze painted
in Graeco-Persian style of ca. 480 B.C.; the colors here
are red (various shades), blue, purple, green, white,
and black, on a white plaster over intonaco. The main
scene shows the deceased, bearded and reclining on his
couch, attended by his wife and servants with vessels,
fans, a towel, fillets, and alabastra. The lateral walls
have the ekphora with a chariot procession and a battle
scene in which the deceased and the native warriors
fight Greeks. The drawing is expert and of Greek inspiration; the proportions and general design are non-Greek. Both tombs are documents of native schools of
Anatolian wall painting of the archaic period.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
M. J. Mellink, “The Painted Tomb near
Elmali,”
AJA 74 (1970) 251-53; id., “Excavations at
Karataş-Semayiik and Elmali, Lycia, 1970,”
AJA 75
(1971) 247-55; id., “Excavations . . . 1971,”
AJA 76
(1972) 261-69; id., “Excavations . . . 1972,”
AJA 77
(1973) 297-303.
M. J. MELLINK
