Tumulus at Belevi

Tumulus near Belevi village and famous Hellenistic Belevi Mausoleum is a huge barrow ca 65 m in diameter comletely made of  stone blocks along a circular trench cut into the bedrock. Sandor Kasper of the Austrian Archaeological Institute unearthed around the wall some sherds of drinking cups or bowl dates from ca 600 to the forth century BC. There were no human remains and any other objects, what allowed  S. Hasper to suppose that in was cenotaph not a tomb and that he sherds of pottery are  remains of the libation in honour to the death. Ekrem Akurgal dates the tumulus to the third century BC¹.

Sources:

1. Ekrem Akurgal, Ancient Civilisations and Ruins of Turkey: From Prehistoric Times Until the End of the Roman Empire, II ed., Istanbul 1970, p. 171
2. Sandor Kaspar, "Der Tumulus von Belevi. Grabungsbericht". in: Jahreshefte des Österreichischen Archäologischen Institutes in Wien. 51B.1976-77, pp. 127-180
3. Sandor Kasper,  "Der Tumulus von Belevi: in: The proceedings of the Xth International Congress of Classical Archaeology, Ankara - Izmir 23. - 30.IX.1973, pp.387-398
4. Alessandro Naso, "Tumuli in the Western Mediterranean, 800–500 BC. A review before the Istanbul Conference", in: Ute Kelp and Olivier Henry (Eds.), Tumulus as Sema. Space, Politics, Culture and Religion in the First Millenium BC , Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2016, 9–32 [p.14]
5. Matthias Grawehr, Agathokles als Grabherr des Mausoleums von Belevi?, Antike Kunst 57, 2014, pp; 38–46.
6. http://lah.ru/expedition/turkey2015-2/Belevi2.html - ilustration, text in Russisch

Bronverwijzingen

1. ↑Ekrem Akurgal, Ancient Civilisations and Ruins of Turkey: From Prehistoric Times Until the End of the Roman Empir, II ed., Istanbul 1970, p. 171