Patara and Research History through the Eyes of Travelers

 

Research in the ancient city of Patara is based on a long tradition of travel, exploration and study going back 250 years. Patara first appears on modern maps in the first volume of the French ambassador Count Choiseul-Gouffier's Voyage pittoresque de la Grèce, published in 1782. Many of his contemporaries, including Colonel Leake, successively visited the region and described the monuments at Telmessos and Patara. In 1810/11 a research expedition was organized by the Society of Dilettanti under the leadership of Sir William Gell. The comprehensive study published by this team in 1840 included a detailed map of the city and detailed drawings of the Theater, Peripteros Temple, Horrea (storehouse), Mausoleum and City Gate by the famous British architect Francis Octavius Bedford. In 1812, many travelers, including Captain Francis Beaufort, visited the Lycian region and Patara, but their work focused on short descriptions of the Lycian coast.

 

In 1836, the French traveler Charles M. F. Texier stayed in Patara for a longer period than the previous travelers and published drawings of the monuments found here and in other coastal Lycian settlements in the third volume of his Descriptions de l'Asie Mineure (1849). When Charles Texier came to Patara in 1836, he found no traces of human life on the plain at the northern end of the ancient harbor (today’s Gelemiş village), except for the remains of a dismantled nomadic yurt.

 

It was Charles Fellows who really discovered Lycian art and language. Starting from his base in Antalya in the spring of 1838, the British explorer traveled around the Lycian Peninsula and discovered the city of Xanthos after stopping at Finike, Kas, Kalkan and Patara. In 1842, Thomas B.A. Spratt and Edward Forbes traveled to the region and published their discoveries in 1857. In 1881, Otto Benndorf led a group of scholars commissioned by the Austrian Academy of Sciences, including several inscription experts, to visit the Lycian region. The results of their research were published in 1884 under the title Reisen im Südwestlichen Kleinasien, and included many photographs of Patara taken at the time.

 

Archaeological studies of the ancient city of Patara date back to the second half of the 20th century. In the first half of the 20th century, antiquity research focused mainly on the Aegean and the western coasts of Anatolia. However, due to the world wars and the political conditions of the time, archaeological studies in Lycia and Patara remained limited until 1950.

 

The first excavations in Patara were carried out in 1952 as a rescue excavation under the direction of F. J. Tritsch and the director of the Antalya Museum, Ahmet Dönmez. The artifacts found in these excavations were transferred to the Antalya Museum.

 

Following this first attempt, the famous archaeologist George Ewart Bean organized a series of research trips to Patara and published his findings in his book Lycian Turkey: An Archaeological Guide in 1978. Bean's pioneering work was followed in 1974 by a seasonal survey conducted by G. Kenneth Sams in cooperation with the Middle East Technical University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

 

Between 1974 and 1976, German archaeologist Wolfgang W. Wurster produced the first comprehensive city plan and map of Patara, shedding light on the topography of the city. In the early 1980s, another survey was conducted under the direction of Sevim Buluç.

The first long-term excavations in Patara began in 1988 under the direction of Fahri Işık on behalf of Erzurum Atatürk University. This process was made possible after seven years of preparation and permission.

 

Since 1991, excavations have been carried out on behalf of Akdeniz University, enriched with modern archaeological methods to better understand this unique city of the ancient world.