Review

The extent of cultural and artistic hybridization in Archaic Anatolia is explored through close examination of an ivory figurine of a mother with two children from Tumulus D at Bayindir, near Elmali in southwestern Turkey.
Along with other figurines from that tomb and from Archaic Ephesos, this
family group testifies to the late-Tth-century b.c. birth of a western Anatolian
style in the minor arts that anticipates the Ionian style in Greek sculpture.
The author suggests that the figurines served as handles of sacred implements
and that they represent elite participants in the cult of an Anatolian goddess,
perhaps Artemis Ephesia.
Among the remarkable archaeological discoveries of the past century is
an ivory figurine of a mother with two children recovered from atumulus
adjacent to the village of Bayindir, near Elmali in Antalya province, southwestern Turkey (Figs. 1-4, below).1 Since its discovery in 1987, the grouphas stimulated scholarly debate over its date, style, and the workshop that
produced it, as well as the identity of the figures it represents. The proposed
dates for the figurine range from the late 8th to the early 6th century b.c.
Some scholars consider the group to be the product of a Neo-Hittite workshop, while others suggest an Ionian, Lydian, Phrygian, or Lycian workshop;some identify the figures as the Anatolian Kybele with her children, while
others identify them as Leto with Apollo and Artemis.