ABSTRACT
The city of Priene was founded by Ionian Greeks fleeing from the mainland at the turn of the second and first millennia BC.1 Its existence is attested historically, for instance in the fifth century BC, when it was recorded as a member of Athens’ Empire, paying tribute. It occupied the territory on the north side of the estuary of the River Maeander (which is now silted up, confusing the geography), a promontory formed by the mountain Mycale. Yet in the whole of this area there is no archaeological trace of the city whatsoever until the fourth century, when a grid-plan city was created on a shelf of land close to but above the estuary itself. It is generally assumed that the original city was not only situated elsewhere (which is obvious), but also that its earlier site has been completely obliterated. Other Greek cities in Asia Minor seem to have experienced a similar change of locality. Priene’s neighbour to the east, Magnesia, was refounded, perhaps a little later, on a new site by an important and existing temple. This too has a grid-plan layout. The city of Knidos, further to the south, again has a grid-plan layout, and no evidence for early occupation; it has been suggested that it was moved from a different site, known to have been abandoned about the time of the refoundation, and therefore known as Old Knidos, some 30 km distant, but part of the same territory.2
