By creating a distinct satrapy of Caria in the 4th century B.C. and by giving its lead to the Hekatomnid dynasts, the Persian rulers seem to have offered the Carians the opportunity to emphasize the existence of a proper Carian identity, the famous “carianization” mentioned by several scholars. The definition (construction?) of this identity took many forms, among these the emergence of a Carian culture based both on local traditions and borrowings from neighbours. One of the clearest manifestations of this cultural upheaval can be seen through the “Ionian Renaissance”, which shows how Carians utilized the Greek, Ionian, architectural tradition and turned it into something new and Carian. Although it has been recently the main area to focus on the subject, architecture is not the only topic to reveal such kind of influences that can also be detected in Carian religion, coinage and language. The main goal of this session is to investigate the 4th century Carian identity through its cultural influences, from the widest possible range of archaeological sources, and to analyze its formation from a political, economical and social point of view.

1. Lars Karlsson (Uppsala University, Sweden)

Combining Greek architectural orders and orientalising sculpture at Labraunda: a political statement

2. Ignasi Adiego (University of Barcelona)

Hecatomnid ‘Carianization’: Carian language and Hellenization

3. Koray Konuk (CNRS/ Institut Français d’Etudes Anatoliennes, Istanbul)

Coins and Identities under the Hekatomnids

4. Olivier Henry (Koç University, Istanbul)

4th Century Carian Funerary Architecture: a Cross-cultural Outcome

5. Pierre Debord (Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux 3)

Zeus Pigindenos (Bargasa): au carrefour de deux cultures

6. Poul Pedersen (University of Southern Denmark)

The 4th century BC ‘Ionian Renaissance’ in European architecture:the synthesis of a meeting of Persian financial cul-ture with Greek architectural tradition and Karian cultural ambitions?