1. Location

Kelenderis (Kilindra or Gilindire in the Ottoman period and Aydincik today) is located on the coast of Rough Cilicia in Asia Minor, between Seleuceia (Silifke) on the Calycadnos River and Anemurium (Anamur).¹ Reflecting the topography of Rough Cilicia, the first hills of the Tauros Mountains rise directly from the Mediterranean Sea here and frame a wide bay, forming a narrow strip along the coast. Between the hills, which are almost completely covered with pine trees, there are narrow valleys with seasonal streams, which also connect the coast to the highland. At the west end of the bay there is a small inlet framed by a short, rocky peninsula in the south, which is nearly 20 m above sea level and formed the harbor of ancient Kelenderis. The peninsula was the acropolis and the area behind the harbor, where the ground tapers down to sea level and becomes almost flatter, was the lower city. On one hand, the topography described here protected the town from the invasions coming from the inland; on the other hand, it made it possible for Kelenderis to be one of the best harbors on the sea routes between East and West and between Rough Cilicia and Cyprus.

2. History

According to Apollodorus,² the city was founded by Sandon (Sandokos), who was one of the well-known local gods of the Cilicians. It is said that Sandon, who could be identified with Shanta, the Hittite weather god, also founded Tarsus.

There is no evidence concerning the identity of the initial population of the town. Its name, however, must have derived from the Luwians who were also the first known inhabitants of Rough Cilicia in the second and in the first half of the 1^st millennium BC. Due to its favourable location on sea routes and to resources in the plateau nearby, such as woods and mines (especially of iron, lead etc.), Kelenderis and its environment seems to have been inhabited very early. Recent research in a cave near the town has brought to light some prehistoric finds, especially pottery and other implements, which are dated to the Late Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Ages. It must be pointed out, however, that the prehistoric and proto-historic periods of the coastal part of Rough Cilicia are still waiting to be researched.

Ancient authors, such as P. Mela,³ mentioned that Kelenderis was a Samian colony. In fact, this account does not prove the colonization of the town, which was said to have occurred in the 8^th and 7^th centuries BC, quite a while after Kelenderis was founded,⁴ but recent excavations in the town have revealed that the earliest settlement here was as late as the early seventh century BC. Evidence for this suggestion is the pottery discovered during the excavations in the town, which belongs to the East Greek-Ionian Sub-Geometric and Proto-Corinthian styles. A large amount of terracotta figurines in Cypriot, Near Eastern and Ionian types were discovered in recent years in a spring pool close to the town, which may also support this suggestion. One might also speculate that these figurines were offerings of the sailors who came from various regions, such as from Syria, Cyprus and the Aegean. It should also be mentioned that this region was known as Khilakku and was controlled by the Luwians, who had their residential town at Kirshu (today Meydancıkkale), located on the highland, nearly 20 km north of Kelenderis.

By the mid 6^th century BC, the Babylonians had invaded Khilakku and Kirshu and probably succeeded the Luwians there. Then, in the forties of the same century, the Persians entered Rough Cilicia and placed a garrison at Kirshu in the old residential castle of the Luwian rulers, controlling the whole region, especially the sea routes. Buildings of the earliest level uncovered at Kelenderis had been destroyed by fire, which may be connected with either Babylonian or Persian destructions.

Archaeological evidence from the Late Archaic and Early Classical periods suggests Kelenderis' increasing commercial relationship not only with Ionia, Cyprus and Phoenicia but also with Greece, and especially Athens. According to a tribute list from Athens dating to 425 BC, Kelenderis seems to have been one of the members of the Delian League, even if the town was apparently under Persian domination. Such a membership needs to be proved, but it is a fact that the relationship with Athens was quite well developed in the 5^th and 4^th centuries BC. The earliest silver staters of Kelenderis minted between 425-400 BC were of Persian standards, but the depictions were Greek in style. They bear a jumping rider on the obverse and a kneeling goat on the reverse, and include the shortened name of the city in Greek letters: ‘KEΛE’ or ‘KEΛ’. All this evidence may prove conclusively that Kelenderis enjoyed commercial freedom, paying taxes to its political masters, e.g. to the Persians. The probably semi-autonomous mints of Kelenderis were in use until the Hellenistic period.

After the death of Alexander the Great, Kelenderis was probably under Seleucid rule for a short time. The Ptolemies captured the town in the early third century BC. It is also highly probable that the Ptolemies did not interfere with the customary commercial arrangements of the Kelendrians inherited from the previous periods. As the inscriptions reveal, they only established a garrison at Kirshu. Kelenderis became one of the important bases of the Ptolemies connecting Egypt and Asia Minor, especially during the Second and Third Syrian Wars.

The presence of the new rulers at Kelenderis has been proved by various finds.One of the most important groups is a hoard of golden tetradrachms of Ptolemy II discovered in the lower city. Beside this, a few “Hadra” hydriai found in rock cut chamber tombs, which were brought from Egypt, are also worth mentioning. It is a pity that no architectural remains dating to the late Hellenistic period have so far emerged. This situation may be connected with piracy. The role of Kelenderis in this time is not known, but it is possible that the Seleucids, especially in the time of Antiochus III, tried to gain the region back when the Ptolemies returned to Egypt.

When the Roman senate decided to send an army to prevent piracy in the early first century BC, the people of Kelenderis supported the Romans with their fleet, and then, when Cilicia became a Roman Province around 64 BC, the town must have been annexed to Rome. On the semi-autonomous coins of Kelenderis dating to the first century BC, the head of Tyche appears on one side, and Apollo on the other, together with an inscription carrying the name of the town including its region: ‘KEΛENΔEPITΩN’. In the first century AD, Rough Cilicia was given to the Kommagenian King Antiochus IV for a short period of time. On the coins of this period, the head of Antiochus was depicted on one side, and Apollo with an inscription containing the name of the town on the other. It is clear that this situation went on up to the Flavian period. On an inscription on a statue base recently discovered at Kelenderis, the name of a Roman officer appears together with the name of Emperor Vespasian, which proves that the Kommegenian hegemony disappeared in that time. In Pliny,⁵ the name of the town is the same with the name of the region (regio celenderitis cum oppidum). This may imply that the land belonging to Kelenderis covered an area between Anemurium and Seleuceia. Nevertheless, during the Roman period ― beginning from the time of Domitian (81-96) up to the time of T. Decius (249-251) ― the town had the right to mint its own bronze coins for local use. In this period, as the remains have shown, Kelenderis was still an important harbor town and new buildings, such as baths, tombs and a theatre-bouleuterion were erected and older ones were renovated. By the middle of the third century AD, the town was invaded by the King Shapur of Parthia. In the time of Diocletian, Kelenderis became an Isaurian city. In Late Antiquity, Kelenderis must have been protected by its importance, but in the mediaeval period the town's size was reduced by means of a new fortification wall encircling only the peninsula.

3. Archaeological Remains

There are very few remains of ancient Kelenderis preserved today. Medieval fortification walls encircling the peninsula on the southern part of harbor were constructed over the Classical walls, only a part of which can be seen today. The cavea of the theatre-bouleutherion is filled almost completely with earth and has been used as a cemetery in recent years. During recent excavations, a part of the cavea was unearthed. Remains of a bath located near the harbor seem to have been of Roman date originally, but were reduced and rebuilt for the same purpose later. Drinkable water is available in Kelenderis, but the water for this bath was brought from the hills behind the town by means of an aqueduct.

The necropolis of the town is spread in a wide area from the east to the west and contains various types of tombs. The older and most common type is the rock-cut chamber tomb, where inhumation was the main burial custom and burial offerings are comprised of Attic and non-Attic clay and metal vases and other gifts from the Archaic and Classical periods, which may be compared with the burials discovered in Cyprus. It is also worth mentioning that each tomb contains at least one trade jar, which is mainly of Phoenician type. As the hydriae used as ash-urns reveal, cremation must also have been a used in the Hellenistic period, although no intact grave has survived up until today. In the Roman period, barrel-vaulted tombs constructed on the slopes became popular, some of which contained sarcophagi inside their chambers. One of the outstanding examples of such tombs from the Roman period is a tetrapylon with a pyramidal roof, which is preserved almost completely. This extraordinary grave monument represents a type widespread from Syria to North Africa, the examples of which have been dated to the second or third century AD.

Excavations at Kelenderis started under the direction of the author in 1987. The harbor bath was cleaned and part of the theater has been unearthed. In order to determine the habitation levels of the town, two trenches ― one in the lower city and the other on the acropolis ― were also opened. The trench in the lower city has revealed settlement layers from the Archaic period to Late Antiquity. The most outstanding find discovered here in 1992 was a pavement mosaic placed on the uppermost level of the trench, which is 12 m long and 3 m wide. On one part of a panel, which is finished in fish-eye style and covers nearly 9 sq.m, there is a landscape of a town on both sides of a harbor. On one side (N), we see a long warehouse with a colonnaded façade and tiled roof and a bath with high windows and domed and vaulted roofs. On the other side (S), fortification walls and buildings of a small town on a peninsula are depicted, and these form one side of the harbor. First of all, there is a long city wall with towers, which are connected to a dockyard with three vaults placed on the promontory. Next, in front of the city wall, there is a building, which may be a tavern. The city gate has two entrances (dipylon) placed between two towers. A huge building raised on the city wall on the other end of the fortification may be identified as a kiosk of the governor. In front of the wall on this side, which is close to the mainland, is a round shaped tower constructed separately from the city wall. Behind the city wall, on a higher point of the peninsula, there is a building with a tiled roof and a round opening on its pediment in three-quarter view, which may be identified as a church. In the harbor, two vessels can be seen. One of these is extremely large and two sailors bending the sailcan be seen. This may be a transport ship, which has just entered the harbor. The other ship in the harbor is smaller and may be used for passengers. The rest of the mosaic was decorated with geometrical designs, and lotus flowers frame both parts of the pavement. Judging from the style and the technique, this mosaic may be dated to the late 5^th and early 6^th century A.D.

Another important discovery in this trench was a metal workshop from the Roman period, of which the stone plasters bearing the roof are preserved quite well. Inside one room, a melting oven and cooling pool have been found in situ. In the next room there is a well to serve the needs of the cooling pool. In the third room, a large amount of iron slag and a few moulds were found.⁶ Excavations on the acropolis started in 2000 and have revealed buildings of the Late Roman and mediaeval periods, but pottery discovered here shows that the earliest settlement goes back probably as early as the Archaic period.