The Artemis Sanctuary of İnarası Cave (Burdur/Bucak)

Abstract

İnarası is located within the borders of Taşyayla village in Bucak district of Burdur province. This place was discovered in 2008 by F. Gülşen from Burdur Museum, who went with the court committee to investigate the illegal excavation incident in İnarası; the registration efforts were completed in 2009, and the boundaries of the area were determined and added to the cultural inventory in 2014. The data obtained during the rescue excavations carried out in the cave, which was determined to be used as a sacred area and naos in 2016-2017, belong to the Late Neolithic Age and the Ottoman Period. One of the most striking issues in this study is the inscriptions. The first of the inscriptions is the one that documents that the sanctuary was dedicated to the goddess Artemis. The second inscription, it is learned that it is not the name of the person who had votived, but the name of his father. In addition, it is suggested that a fragmentary inscription containing the letters MHTPI˂O may have been associated with Meter Oreia or Demeter. Another important subject of the study is the architectural elements that provide important clues regarding the restitution of the two facade arrangements of the sanctuary. It is known that in the Anatolian theological tradition, the continuity of the cult was ensured by the identification of the Mother Goddess with the belief in Ephesian Artemis. For this reason, the presence of worship areas related to the Mother Goddess on the main rock surrounding the sacred area in İnarası and on the hill to the north, and the construction of the Artemis sacred area in the same region later, are important evidence of the continuity of the cult.