Abstract

Xanthus (Lycian Arñna, K?n?k) (map 15) M1 BCE–M1 CE city in Lycia in southwestern Anatolia, the largest and most important city in its region. It is located on the Xanthus r. 12 km north of the river’s mouth. Remains on its walled ‘Lycian’ acropolis, which lies at the southwestern end of the site (there is another acropolis, of Hellenistic and Roman date, at the site’s northern end), date the city’s origins back to late C8 (though a Chalcolithic axe discovered in a recent sounding may indicate much earlier settlement). Xanthus continued to be occupied through the Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods, until the Arab invasion in C7 CE. The English explorer Charles Fellows first investigated and described the site in 1838. From 1950 onwards it was excavated by French archaeological teams, whose first two directors, successively, were P. Demargne and H. Metzger. French excavations continue on the site, currently under the direction of J. des Coutils (see his annual reports in An Ant, the most recent of which is indicated below).