The location of Arykanda

Arykanda is twice cited in the Map-by-Map directory of Map 65 Lycia-Pisidia (as well as in the Gazetteer). The complete citations are as follows:

Grid - Name - Period - Modern Name / Location - Reference

D4 - Arykanda - HRL - Aykirca - NPauly

D4 - Arykanda - L - Arif - Harrison 1979, 232

In the Barrington Atlas the two are located across from one another with the Arycandus River presented as flowing between them. The location south of the river is not capitalized but is underlined in orange. According to the Barrington Atlas Map Key this means that the location was occupied in the Late Antique period (AD 300 - AD 640) and that it is relatively less important than its homonymous location which is written in all capitals and illustrated north of the river. The northern Arykanda is also not underlined, which indicates that it was occupied in more than one period: the Hellenistic, Roman and Late Antique periods. Der Neue Pauly, the work cited for the first and larger of our homonymous cities, locates Arykanda "north of Finike" in the Arycandus valley; a description which is not entirely helpful. Evidence is cited in the encyclopedia for the location's being considered a polis from the Hellenistic period and well into Late Antiquity, but archaeological finds can trace the town back to the Classical period and, according to Der Neue Pauly the "name indicates a greater age". Thus, the HRL period of our first entry is correct since we cannot be certain of the entities status prior to the Hellenistic age.

The second toponym, the smaller and later settlement, is attested by Harrison (1979), who wrote: "A deux kilometeres d’Arykanda, sur un promontoire, au pied duquel se précipite le fleuve, nous avons étudié les restes d’une autre ville, bien conservés. Pour la distnguer d’Arykanda, nous avons pris le nome du village moderne, Arif" (232). Harrison also includes a map (224) on which both Arykanda and Arif are located on the north side of the river. In an another article also published in 1979, Machteld J. Mellink described Arykanda/Arif separately from the older and larger Arykanda in a section covering the Byzantine period. Mellink provided the following: "Two km. SE of Aykirça, just below the Finike road and about 1 km. S of Arycanda, is a small fortified town, on a spur which drops precipitously to the river bed. ... Fragments of architectural carving and surface pottery suggest that the town was built about the 6th century, and it is a reasonable hypothesis that Arycanda’s diminished population was at some stage removed to this smaller, better defended site. The size of the largest of the churches suggests that it may have been the new seat of Arycanda’s bishop" (344). An opinion with which Harrison evidently agreed (234).

Presumably the ancient river is dried up which accounts for the modern difficulty of location. Judging by the descriptions offered, however, both Arif and Arycanda ought to be located north of the Arykandos Riverbed. Arif should be located right on the river and Arykanda still located along the roadway between Choma and Limyra as it now appears in the Barrington Atlas. Arif's small size (100 metres by 250 metres - see plan in Harrison 1979: 232) confirms its size in relation to the older settlement. This as already been correctly illustrated in the Barrington Atlas through the use of lowercase letters. Since the secondary sources imply a position north of the river, but the Atlas illustrates a position south of the river, future contact with visitors to the area could only be helpful in solving this problem for certain.

Bibliography:

Schuler Tübingen, Christoph. “Arykanda” in Der Neue Pauly: Enzyklopädie der Antike. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, 1997, Band 2 Ark – Ci., col. 70

Harrison, M. "Nouvelles Découvertes Romaines Tardives et Paléobyzantines en Lycie." CRAI (1979): 222 - 240.

Mellink, Machteld J. "Archaeology in Asia Minor." AJA 83.3 (1979): 331 - 344.

More recent studies can be found in the 2004 "Lykein und Pamphylien", published in the Tabula Imperii Byzantini, series which includes references to both Arif and Arykanda.