Votive Reliefs from Balboura and its Environs with an Epigraphical Appendix

Seventy-five votive reliefs have been identified from the survey of the Balboura city site and the west part of its territory. Several reliefs include inscriptions, yielding crucial information about their date and function in Greco-Roman northern Lycia; these are studied by N. P. Milner in the epigraphical appendix. This paper presents a catalogue of the reliefs, an analysis of the iconographic types and distribution outside the survey area, and an examination of their location and function. Prior to extensive survey of the Balboura area many of the reliefs were undiscovered and unpublished. This treatment of the votive reliefs aims to increase our knowledge of religious life and art at Balboura—first during its period of hellenisation (fromc.200 B.C.), and later as a small urban centre of the eastern Roman Empire. The majority of reliefs are rock-cut and remainin situ; the others are carved on slabs. The general condition of the reliefs is poor. Many are badly weathered, as well as being of a generally low artistic standard.