Telmessos Survey

Understanding the negotiated identities of ancient Telmessos expressed in its hundreds of funerary monuments, and with the aid of new digital recording technologies developed by the project team, this project will engage modern Fethiye’s diverse contemporary communities with the deep history of their city.

The aim of this is to improve the heritage awareness of its people and conservation outcomes for its surviving archaeology. This project will give critical insight into East-West cultural dynamics in Lycia by tracing the changing ethnic, linguistic and cultural character of the city of Telmessos over the past three millennia. This project is timely and important because, although Telmessos is one of the largest and most important dynastic seats of ancient Lycia, the site is almost completely unexplored due to having been covered by the rapid rebuildingof Fethiye following an earthquake in 1957. This made excavation and recording of its ruins difficult until the advent of rapid, lightweight digital recording methods and culturally sensitive long-term engagement with local stakeholders.