Melia (Ionia)

Melia (Μελία), was a Carian polis of ancient Ionia that was razed by decision of the Ionian League to which it belonged. This was the earliest known explicit action of that League. There are only a few references to it in the literary sources. However, it is mentioned in a long inscription of Priene, which records a land settlement case between Priene and Samos for the possession of lands formerly belonging to Melia but redistributed to some cities of the League on conclusion of the Meliakos polemos ("Meliac War"). A board of Rhodian arbitrators awarded the land, which included Fort Karion (Carium), to Priene, having determined through due diligence that Samos had received lands on the coastline north of Mycale, while the lands around the fort were given to Priene.

Unfortunately the locations of some of the key players of the inscription remain uncertain: Melia, the Panionion, and Old Priene. (The ruins of Priene currently in evidence are of the rebuilt city, as the old had been razed.) Fort Karion is considered fairly certainly identified. Various suggestions have been made as to the locations of the others, and until the 21st century Melia was believed to have been the same as or to have included Fort Karion on the hill Kale Tepe. Early in the 21st century (2004) Hans Lohmann, an archaeologist, after a survey disputed the accepted location and proposed another he considered more likely.

The Kale Tepe theory
In this theory, Melia was Fort Karion on Kale Tepe, Güzelçamlı, Asiatic Turkey.

Location of Çatallar Tepe
In this theory Melia was on a ridge of Çatallar Tepe, an elevation of the heights of the Samsun Range, ancient Mount Mycale, modern Dilek Peninsula. The range is roughly east-west, except for its curvature. On the north is a coastal plain that once was north Ionia, now is the location of Kuşadası. Its southernmost neighborhood is Güzelçamlı, next to the range, just below the possible lowland candidate for Melia. A ravine leads from there upward through ascending hills into the heights. The heights give a view over the plain below. Typically the Aegean also is visible, and Samos across the straits. All this was Melian territory, with Ephesos at the northern end.

Lohmann in 2004 suspecting there was more to be said about the locations of Melia and the Panionion explored up the ravine reaching Kurşunlu Manastiri, the ruins of an abandoned Byzantine monastery at 37.70523°N, 27.28336°W. The site is somewhat sprawling, with a parking lot at a little higher elevation. It is accessed by a winding dirt road ascending the steep slopes through thickets of forested trees. The fact that the site has trees growing through it suggests that the area once was clear but has been allowed to become forested. The whole range is protected from development by its membership in the Dilek Peninsula-Büyük Menderes Delta National Park. The elevation of the monastery is about 600 m.

Continuing eastward on the dirt road, at a further straight-line distance of about 2.32 km, Lohmann found a hill, Findikli Kale (or Kalesi), which the road bypasses. The published coordinates are 37.69833°N, 27.31111°W. The elevation is 532 m. This hill features the ruins of a Byzantine castle.

The road continues eastward. According to Lohmann, "two kilometres east of the Byzantine fortification of Findikli Kale" is Çatallar Tepe. The peak of the mountain rises over 800 m. The prospective Melia "on the southwestern slope" is on a flat ridge at about 780 m more or less. Its coordinates are 37.70167°N, 27.32833°W. The straight-line distance to Priene (New) is 5.29 km, but there is obviously no easy connection along that line, and certainly not on a daily basis. In contrast to all the Ionian cities, this Melia was never a coastal city. Except for Mycale itself, its lands were all on the coastal plain north of Mycale.