ROMANIZATION OF LYCIA FROM AN ARCHITECTURAL AND URBAN PERSPECTIVE

Located on the southwest coast of Asia Minor, the historical region of Lycia harbors many ancient cities containing comparatively well-preserved architectural and urban remains from various periods (Figure 1). Despite having material traces of prehistoric activity in the region and Bronze Age epigraphy mentioning the cities (Becks, 2016; Bryce, 1986), early traces of settlements with discernible architectural and urban patterns are currently dated to the Late Archaic Period. The cities, which emerged mainly in central and western Lycia during this period, were occupied by the Lycians, an Anatolian civilization with a distinct culture, language, administrative system, art, architecture, and urban planning. Together with the rest of Asia Minor, Lycians were heavily influenced by the Hellenistic movement following the arrival of Alexander the Great. During this process, Lycian language was abandoned in favor of Greek and the Greek institutions like agora (central public space), bouleuterion (council houses), prytaneion (seat of government) and theater spread across the region. The beginning of cultural and then political encounters with the Romans as early as the third century BCE initiated Romanization in Lycia and resulted in the gradual transformation of social, cultural, architectural, and urban characteristics of the Lycian cities. During this transformation, some local architectural practices survived within the diversity inherent in Roman architecture, resulting in a unique architectural and urban harmony in Lycian cities. This paper approaches the Romanization of Lycia from an architectural perspective by examining the architectural remains dated between the Late Archaic Period and the end of the Roman Imperial Period and ponder upon how the dynamics between local and Roman architecture participated in the construction of collective identities. After a brief discussion about Romanization, the paper approaches the Romanization process of Lycia in three broad periods, determined according to the transformation of architectural and urban practices under key political and cultural turning points; and discusses how urban narratives generated by ROMANIZATION OF LYCIA FROM AN ARCHITECTURAL AND URBAN PERSPECTIVE (1)