Elmali
Site in Caria, not conclusively established. Kyllandos figures in the Athenian tribute lists, down to 446 B.C., as paying the remarkably high tribute of two talents. It is mentioned by Stephanos from Hekataios, but despite its apparent prosperity is otherwise unrecorded, apart from a Rhodian inscription of about 200 B.C. which refers to the recovery by Rhodes of the Kyllandia. Various locations have been proposed, most recently a site at Elmali 11 km E of the head of the gulf of Kos. Here, on a hill some 150 m high, is a citadel with tower and an outer wall circuit, house foundations, and sherds of Classical date. Just E of Elmali village is a pair of architectural rock tombs similar to those at Idyma. Roman remains appear to be lacking, and it is likely that the site was abandoned quite early and the city refounded, under the name of Kallipolis, on the commanding site above Kizilyaka a little to the S.
BIBLIOGRAPHYG. E. Bean & J. M. Cook, BSA 52 (1957) 75, 84-85.
G. E. BEANCity and plain 64 km N of Myra and Limyra, with Classical sites. Two tumuli with built and painted tomb chambers, both anciently plundered, were discovered in 1969-70. At Kizilbel, 3.2 km SW of Elmali, a gabled chamber (2 x 2.45 x 2.3 m) had multiple friezes in archaic style of ca. 530 B.C. The colors are red (various shades), blue, and black, painted directly on the stone. Represented are mythological subjects (Gorgons, Medusa, birth of Chrysaor and Pegasos), and ceremonial or biographical scenes (a warrior's departure by chariot; processions of soldiers, horses, chariots, offering bearers; a boar hunt in the marshes; a lion hunt; a sea voyage). The second painted tomb chamber, Karaburun, 4.8 km NE of Elmali, is larger (2.61 x 3 x 2.66 m). It has one frieze painted in Graeco-Persian style of ca. 480 B.C.; the colors here are red (various shades), blue, purple, green, white, and black, on a white plaster over intonaco. The main scene shows the deceased, bearded and reclining on his couch, attended by his wife and servants with vessels, fans, a towel, fillets, and alabastra. The lateral walls have the ekphora with a chariot procession and a battle scene in which the deceased and the native warriors fight Greeks. The drawing is expert and of Greek inspiration; the proportions and general design are non-Greek. Both tombs are documents of native schools of Anatolian wall painting of the archaic period.
BIBLIOGRAPHYM. J. Mellink, “The Painted Tomb near Elmali,” AJA 74 (1970) 251-53; id., “Excavations at Karataş-Semayiik and Elmali, Lycia, 1970,” AJA 75 (1971) 247-55; id., “Excavations . . . 1971,” AJA 76 (1972) 261-69; id., “Excavations . . . 1972,” AJA 77 (1973) 297-303.
M. J. MELLINK