| This dissertation is the first systematic description and analysis of the sepulchral and commemorative monuments at Aytas Mevkii, an ancient cemetery set in the hills just north of modern Islamlar in the Elmali basin. This is a liminal location, surrounded by the better-known and more politically powerful territories of Lycia, Pisidia, and the Cibyratis. The sepulchral remains at Aytas Mevkii exhibit local characteristics unique to the region, although influence from most of its neighbors is easily detectable. I engage in a detailed examination of the iconography, style, construction methods, and chronology of the funerary monuments at Aytas Mevkii. Through this analysis I locate them within the wider cultural and political contexts of southern Anatolia.;Despite the liminal location of the Elmali basin and subsequent paucity of references to the area in ancient literature, I argue, through a close reading of these sources in conjunction with epigraphic evidence, that the region was part of an area known in antiquity as the Milyas. With this geographical context in mind, I describe, date, and analyze the monuments at Aytas Mevkii, including rock-cut tombs, sculpture, sarcophagi and chamosoria, and architecture. Having established a chronology for the physical remains, I then present the first reconstruction of the political history of the Elmali basin, creating a local context within which the monuments at Aytas Mevkii are placed.;I propose that these monuments were created by a local Milyan population, one that is difficult to define by applying modern ethnic theory to the available evidence, due mostly to the lack of a first-person voice in ancient literary accounts and clear self-identification in inscriptions. Despite this, my analysis of the evidence shows that the local population was able to adopt cultural characteristics such as tomb forms and iconography from surrounding peoples, to adapt them to their own particular requirements and tastes, and to add their own unique elements to them, thereby resulting in a distinctive, local culture. The examination of the physical evidence shows that cultural connections between the basin and other areas shifted diachronically from nearby central (Phrygian) to southwestern (Lycian) Anatolia, and that in the periods before Roman domination, these shifts may also shed light on the political situation of the local population. Within the broader political theater of Roman Anatolia, the locations of the comparanda for the monuments at Aytas Mevkii also broaden geographically, including the appearance of clear correlations with the material culture of Rough Cilicia. |
