The Shrine of Mên Askaenos at Pisidian Antioch

Abstract

Our party was camping this summer near Yalowadj on the actual site of the ancient Pisidian Antioch, when Mr. Kyriakides, a Greek resident in the town, brought us news of buildings and ‘written stones’ on the summit of a neighbouring peak. Such news in Asia Minor not infrequently leads to a mare's nest, as Prof. Sterrett found in this very district, but Mr. W. M. Calder of Brasenose College determined to test the information. Next day, accordingly, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Kyriakides, he and I set out for the mountain, and we were fortunate enough to find the long-lost ἱɛρόν of Men Askaenos. On the two following days Sir William and Lady Ramsay also visited the shrine, and took up some Turkish workmen to clear away a little of the débris encumbering the remains. Having no permit, we could not make any proper excavations, but merely opened up some of the inscriptions, and this only on a very limited scale. In the circumstances, we were unable to give, either to the inscriptions or to our more general observations, such a careful and minute study as we could have wished, so that this report is only provisional and nothing is to be taken as final until excavation confirms each point.