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The Carian Princess exhibit evokes
the last days of the ancient greatness
of Halicarnassus, the capital city
of Caria and the site on which today's
Bodrum stands. It is a reminder of
the Hecatomnid dynasty that ruled
Caria from ca. 392 B.C. until the
city fell to the Macedonian armies
of Alexander the Great, a disaster
from which it never recovered. It
is a tribute to the memory of Ada
I, a ruler deposed by her own brother
and reinstated by the conqueror whom
she had adopted as her son.
 The
beginnings of this exhibition go back
to April 1989 when a construction
crew digging the foundations for a
new building came upon a buried ancient
structure. Since the construction
site was located near to a known necropolis
(cemetary) of the ancient city of
Halicarnassus, the excavations were
being carried out under the supervision
of archaeologists of the Bodrum Museum,
and it is they who investigated the
uncovered structure to discover a
burial chamber with an intact sarcophagus
containing the remains of a human
female. In the space between the burial
chamber and the sarcophagus was a
funereal wine decanter (oinochoe)
with black glazing. As the well-preserved
interred skeleton was surrounded by
gold jewellery and ornaments, it was
immediately clear that the deceased
was a woman of wealth, and preliminary
dating placed the remains as belonging
to the Late Hellenistic-Early Roman
period. This caused great excitement
in Bodrum since it suggested that
the remains may belong to the last
Hecatomnid ruler of ancient Caria,
Ada I.
 This
thrilling find and its possible historical
importance triggered detailed research
into the period and initiated proceedings
very rarely resorted to by archeologists:
forensic reconstruction of the head
of the deceased using the skull as
the foundation. This science, excelled
in by the Department of Forensic Science
of the University of Manchester Medical
School, has been successfully applied
in several criminal investigations
of otherwise-unidentifiable victims.
The painstaking reconstruction of
the head was carried out by Dr. Richard
Neave and his team in collaboration
with Dr. John Prag of the Museum of
Manchester University and the result,
now on display in this Hall, shows
a woman whose facial features would
not look out of place in a group of
women native to this area. Based on
the investigation of the teeth, performed
by Dr. D.K. Whittaker of the Department
of Basic Dental Science, Dental School,
University of Wales College of Medicine,
the age of the deceased at death was
estimated at 44 years, with a possible
range of 38-50 years, the estimate
confirmed by the Pathologist's Report
of Dr. R.W. Stoddard.
 The
scientific investigations have not
proven - or disproven - conclusively
whether the disinterred remains are
truly those of the Carian queen, but
there is no doubt that they belong
to a person of consequence, a woman
of the noble or ruling class, and
it appears to be more than likely
that she was indeed a Carian princess,
and not impossible that she was Ada
I of the Hecatomnid Dynasty. The rich
and delicate gold jewellery and ornaments
that grace her figure as she may have
appeared greeting guests in her banqueting
hall evoke a regal hostess about to
entertain her equals some 2400 years
ago. At the very least the tableau
probably closely approximates how
the deposed Ada appeared to Alexander
of Macedon when he paid her a visit
in Labranda, before his troops conquered
Halicarnassus and reinstated her to
rule over Caria.
 The
exhibition of the Carian Princess
was created and opened to the public
in 1993 with the support of the Turkish
Ministry of Culture, the Center of
Administration of Circulating Capital
Funds of the Ministry of Culture,
the Directorate for Documentation
of Monuments in Izmir, Dr. Richard
Neave and his team from Manchester
University, Dr. John Prag, Keeper
of Archaeology of the Museum of Manchester
University, Sun Med Holidays, Go Turkey,
the Bodrum Lions Club and John and
Alison Simpson.
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