A pithos with Lycian inscription from Patara

Abstract

Abstract The excavations at the Tepecik settlement, which is situated East of Patara’s city center directly overlooking the ancient harbor, furnishes new and important data regarding the city’s largely unknown and much debated administrative organization in the 6th century BC. This evidence is based preliminarily on a pithos fragment found in the tower house’s eastern side, dated to ca. 500 BC, and bearing an inscription made ante cocturam in Lycian script. This graffito, which is one of the oldest inscriptions of the Lycian corpus, is incomplete but has eight legible letters that allow its reconstruction: it probably corresponds to the official title [pd]ḍẽnehm̃mi “ruler, commissioner”, attested in two other Lycian inscriptions. The graffito could indicate that the pithos was to be stored in the house of this official.