Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Anadolu Araştırmaları, cilt.28, ss.146-158, 2023 (ESCI)
The history of Lycian archaeology has a long tradition dating back to the late
18th century. In contrast to the earlier periods spanning from prehistory to Late
Antiquity , however, Lycia in the Ottoman period has been generally overlooked
by archaeologists, being dismissed as either uninteresting or not worthy of study.
This is due, not to a lack of body of knowledge, but to intellectual and ideological
boundaries on what constitutes the archaeological past of Lycia, and/or what its
relevance to the archaeology of Anatolia could be. In this regard, all the historical
narrations identifying Ottoman Lycia make particular reference to the Nomads
and illustrate them as either the barbaric destroyers or the glorious conquerors
of Greco-Roman antiquities. In doing so, they push the Yuruks into an eccentric,
ambitious, or exclusive past and thus marginalise them as permanent ‘others’ in
the long-term history of the region. Hence, the present paper shifts the research
focus from history to archaeology, and based on comparative analysis, it provides
theoretical and practical insights into the cross cultural interactions between the
Yuruks and Greco-Roman antiquities in Lycia. Contrary to previous works, I argue
here that the Yuruks were one of the components that composed the long-term
history of Lycia, and they contributed to the preservation of Lycian heritage by
providing different concepts, meanings, and contexts to the surviving antiquities