On Phoinix (Φοίνιξ) and Its Distinguishing Marks: A Karian “Type Site” or a Demos to Hellenistic Kamiros?

Abstract

The oldest known inhabitants of Taşlıca (Bozburun Peninsula, in Southwestern Turkey), recorded as Phoinix in the inscriptions, were the Tloioi people. In the light of the ancient Greek corpus reported especially from the site of Fenaket (namely Rumevlek, forming the core of the dwelling zone) and the Classical wall ruins at the Acropolis, it is understood that the village has been systematically occupied since the 5th century BC. The settlement, which grew as a dominion of Kamiros as of the 3rd century BC, expanded its territory in the NE-SW axis over the centuries. Although Phoinix’s chess-board system of insulae of the megara offers parallels with Kamiros, owing to its Hellenistic-style plan and layout, it contains clues to far more ancient codes. In this study, besides being greatly equated with the Hellenistic period, Phoinix’s identity in the historical process, which gives indications of her Karianism, is discussed with the help of selective materials, basically authentic architecture tracked over the region. Apparently, the pyramidal monoliths were not unique to Phoinix; however, the Tloans, like the other neighboring komai on the mainland, seem to have managed to keep their traditions of communication with the “other world” through such features. Hence, these monoliths, which evoke the ziggurat morphology or the famous Mausoleum at Halicarnassus to connect to the afterworld, must have been the typical manifestations of the Karian mentality, sufficiently reflected by the aboriginal communities, however inevitably overshadowed by the grandest architectural projects of the Hekatomnid dynasty.