The ruins of Bubon are located at a site known as Dikmen Tepe, near the village of İbecik in the Gölhisar district of Burdur. The city was one of the members of the Kibyratis Tetrapolis. After the defeat of the tetrapolis army by Rome, Bubon joined the Lycian League together with Oinoanda and Balboura, while Kibyra was incorporated into the Roman province of Asia. It is situated on the northwestern border of Lycia. An inscription discovered in the theater preserves a copy of a letter from the Roman emperor Commodus, honoring the people of Bubon for their success in repelling bandit raids along the frontier by increasing their representation in the Lycian League from two to three votes. Although Bubon was a relatively small city, its strategic location enabled it to obtain voting rights equal to those of the largest and most privileged cities of the Lycian League, such as Patara and Xanthos.
T. A. B. Spratt and E. Forbes were the first to mention Bubon in the modern period, following their visit to the site in 1842. Today, due to the extensive destruction of the remains, it is difficult to identify structures beyond the acropolis fortification walls, the agora, the sebasteion, the theater, and various tombs. Illegal excavations have also significantly contributed to this destruction. In subsequent years, apart from a salvage excavation conducted at the sebasteion (see below), no systematic archaeological excavations were undertaken.
Sebasteion of Bubon and Bronze Statues
Investigations into the provenance of several bronze statues that appeared on the American and Swiss antiquities markets in the 1960s revealed that they had been smuggled abroad as a result of illicit excavations at Bubon during that period. In 1990, a salvage excavation carried out by Jale İnan at the sebasteion of Bubon demonstrated that the majority of these statues had originally stood within this structure. According to inscriptions on the statue bases found inside the building, this relatively small sebasteion housed approximately a dozen bronze statues of Roman emperors and empresses. These statues, notable for their exceptionally high craftsmanship, were produced at life size. A Roman Imperial cult sanctuary of this type and level of preservation is unique in the archaeological record. The sebasteion was constructed during the reign of Emperor Nero in the first half of the 1st century CE and remained in use for approximately two centuries, until the mid-3rd century CE, with additional imperial statues being installed over time. It is thought that some statues were later removed and replaced—possibly as a result of damnatio memoriae—while others were relocated. A small number of these statues, most of which had been smuggled abroad, have since been returned to Türkiye.
References:
Çevik, N. 2021. Lykia Kitabı: Arkeolojisi, Tarihi ve Kültürüyle Batı Antalya, Türk Tarih Kurumu, Ankara.
Hülden, O. 2021. Bubon und sein Umland. Eine Nachlese, Mit Beiträgen von J. Gebauer & K. Kugler, Einzelstudien des Kibyratis-Projekts 1, Gerda Henkel Stiftung Digital Edition.
Kokkinia, C. 2008. “Boubon: The Inscriptions and Archaeological Remains. A Survey 2004–2006,” Meletemata 60, Athens.
İnan, J. 1977/78. “Der Bronzetorso im Burdur-Museum aus Bubon und der Bronzekopf im J.Paul Getty Museum,” Istanbuler Mitteilungen 27/28, 267–287.
İnan, J. 1993. “Neue Forschungen zum Sebasteion von Boubon und seinen Statuen,” in Akten des II. Int. Lykien-Symposions, eds. J. Borchardt & G. Dobesch, 213-239, Wien.
İnan, J. 1994. Boubon sebasteionu ve heykelleri üzerine son araştırmalar, Kazı Monografileri Dizisi 2, İstanbul.
Gliwitzky-Moser, Y. 2009. “Die Rekonstruktion des Nordpostaments im Sebasteion von Bubon (Lykien). Ein Korrekturvorschlag,” Boreas 32, 115–119.
Lubos, M. 2016. “Bubon Bronzes – New Perspectives,” Proceedings of the XVIIth International Congress on Ancient Bronzes, Monographies Instrumentum 52, 265–273.
Images:
iDAI Arachne ID:1145406
Indianapolis Museum of Art Exhibition Catalogue, 1974
J. İnan, 1993
J, İnan, 1994
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Fordham Museum of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Art
Antikenmuseum Basel
Atlas Dergisi, Oct 2000
Kürşad Türkeli, 2009
O. Hülden, 2021
Carole Raddato, 2013
Tayfun Bilgin, 2022
Bora Bilgin, 2024