What is it about?

This paper is about the appearance of a new type of building at Xanthus in Lycia (southwest Turkey) in the middle of the fifth century BC. It considers what the buildings were for and why they were designed to look as they did. It agrees with the traditional term 'heroa' used for the buildings, because they seem to be sealed sepulchral buildings designed to look shrine-like, but unpacks this in more detail than previous publications and addresses the historical significance of this urban embellishment for a small but flourishing city trying to make its mark in a busy Mediterranean world.

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Why is it important?

The importance of this paper lies in the approach that it takes, which sees the monuments addressed as an historical phenomenon, which can add much to the history of not just Lycia, but the Mediterranean in the early Classical period - a period which is dominated by the narrative of the Greco-Persian wars and the introduction of the Classical style in Greek art, and in which the quite considerable activities of non-Greeks (other than 'the Persians') are underrepresented.

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This page is a summary of: ‘Heroa’ and the city. Kuprlli’s new architecture and the making of the ‘Lycian acropolis’ of Xanthus in the early Classical period, Anatolian Studies, January 2015, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/s0066154615000083.
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