TYBERISSOS
or Tyberisos (Tirmisin Asari) Turkey.
Site in Lycia 3 km S of Kyaneai, 15 km W of
Myra. The city is known only from its inscriptions and
has no history. The name was at first read erroneously
as Tybenissos; the true name is preserved in that of the
village. The antiquity of the site is proved by two Lycian
rock tombs with inscriptions in the epichoric script. Some
rare coins of Lycian type inscribed
ΤΥ are probably to
be ascribed to Tyberissos; otherwise there is no coinage.
The inscriptions indicate that the principal deity was
Apollo Tyberisseus, with the epithet Patroos, and that
Tybenissos was united in a deme with Teimiusa.
The hill, high and steep, has a summit in two parts.
The higher N part formed the acropolis, and has remains
of a fortification wall in solid ashlar, and some small
buildings; on the lower S part is a church built largely
from the stones of a Doric temple. Among the ruins are
many sarcophagi with so-called Gothic lids of the familiar Lycian type. At the foot of the mountain, immediately
above the E end of the plain of Tirmisin, is a glade
containing a dozen more Gothic sarcophagi and a number of pigeon-hole tombs; at the lower end is an unusual
tomb with the door and two sides cut from the rock,
and the two other sides of masonry. In several cases the
epitaphs make the fine for violation payable to Myra.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Petersen & F. von Luschan,
Reisen
in Lykien II (1889) 52-54; L. Robert,
Hellenica x
(1955) 194-95.
G. E. BEAN
