Achaemenid Anatolia: Persian rule and local monuments

The frame

Here the site follows the Met's timeline for Anatolia, 1000 B.C.-1 A.D. Its overview states that from the mid-sixth century B.C. "the area is ruled by Persian satraps (governors) as part of the vast Achaemenid empire", and the key event headed "7th-4th century B.C." says that the successive Median and Achaemenid empires conquer Anatolia and the Southern Caucasus from their capitals in Iran. The site's range, approximately 547-334 BCE, applies to all of Anatolia: it begins with the end of the Lydian kingdom in the source's chronology chart (ca. 685-547 B.C.) and ends where the chart starts the Alexandrian empire (334-ca. 301 B.C.). Source 1.

Boundaries and overlaps

The source's own dates do not coincide with the period's bounds on this site. In the chart, the Achaemenid empire is listed at ca. 559-331 B.C., so it overlaps both the Lydian kingdom before it and the Alexandrian empire after it. In the text, the attack of Alexander's armies on the Persian empire is dated 333 B.C., and the entry headed 333 B.C. says that Alexander defeated Darius III (r. 336-330 B.C.) in a battle at Issus near modern Iskenderun: a year after the chart's 334. The site keeps 547 and 334 as navigation bounds only. An item dated close to either bound should be read by its own source's wording, not by the bound. Source 1.

On this site

Two items are placed in this period. "The Mausoleum of Halikarnassos: a royal tomb in Karia" reads the British Museum's gallery page on a tomb dated about 350 BC and on its model, the Nereid Monument of Xanthos. "Xanthos-Letoon: an inscription in three languages" deals with the inscription of 337 B.C., in Lycian, Greek and an Aramaic summary, according to UNESCO. Neither of these two sources mentions Persian rule; the link to the empire comes here from the timeline alone, and both articles say so explicitly.