Antiquities.—Few parts of Asia Minor were less known in modern times than Lycia up to the 19th century. Visits of Sir Charles Fellows to the country in 1838 and 1840 were followed by an expedition sent by the British Government in 1842 to trans port to England the valuable monuments now in the British Museum. The monuments thus brought to light are among the most interesting of those discovered in Asia Minor, and prove the existence of a distinct native architecture, especially in the rock cut tombs. But the theatres found in almost every town, some of them of very large size, are sufficient to attest the influence of Greek civilization ; and this is confirmed by the sculptures, which are for the most part Greek.
Numerous inscriptions have been discovered in the native language of the country, written in an alphabet peculiar to Lycia. A few of these inscriptions are bilingual, in Greek and Lycian, and the clue thus afforded to their interpretation has been fol lowed up. (See ASIANIC LANGUAGES.) The alphabet was derived from the Doric alphabet of Rhodes, but ten other characters were added to it to express sounds not found in Greek. The attempts to connect the language with the Indo-European family have been unsuccessful. Most of the inscriptions are sepulchral; by far the longest and most important is that on an obelisk found at Xanthus.
Lycian art was modelled on that of the Greeks. The rock-cut tomb usually represented the house of the living, with an elabo rate facade, but in one or two instances, notably that of the so-called Harpy-tomb, the facade is surmounted by a tall, square tower, in the upper part of which is the sepulchral chamber. Lycian sculpture followed closely the development of Greek sculpture, and many of the sculptures with which the tombs are adorned are of a high order of merit. The exquisite bas-reliefs on a Lycian sarcophagus now in the museum of Constantinople are among the finest surviving examples of classical art. The bas reliefs were usually coloured. For the coinage, see NUMISMATICS: Asia Minor.