Editing Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (section)

==History==
[[File:Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, British Museum (8244599061).jpg|thumb|Colossal statues of a man and a woman from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, traditionally identified as [[Mausolos]] and [[Artemisia II of Caria|Artemisia II]], around 350 BC, British Museum.]]
Modern historians have pointed out that two years would not be enough time to decorate and build such a complex and extravagant building. Therefore, it is believed that construction was begun by Mausolus before his death or continued by the next leaders.<ref name="autogenerated30">{{Cite book |last=Colvin |first=Howard |title=Architecture and the after-life |publisher=New Haven Press |year=1991 |isbn=978-0300050981 |edition=1st |location=Yale University |pages=30–31}}</ref> The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus resembled a temple and the only way to tell the difference was its slightly higher outer walls. The Mausoleum was in the Greek-dominated area of Halicarnassus, which in 353 was controlled by the [[Achaemenid Empire]]. According to the Roman architect [[Vitruvius]], it was built by Satyros and Pytheus who wrote a treatise about it; this treatise is now lost.<ref name="autogenerated30"/> Pausanias adds that the Romans considered the Mausoleum one of the greatest wonders of the world and it was for that reason that they called all their magnificent tombs mausolea, after it.<ref name="autogenerated10">Fergusson, p. 10.</ref>

It is unknown exactly when and how the Mausoleum came to ruin: [[Eustathius of Thessalonica|Eustathius]], writing in the 12th century on his commentary of the ''[[Iliad]]'', says "it was and is a wonder". Because of this, Fergusson concluded that the building was ruined, probably by an earthquake, between this period and 1402, when the [[Knights of St John of Jerusalem]] arrived and recorded that it was in ruins.<ref name="autogenerated10"/> However, Luttrell notes<ref>A. Luttrell, The later history of the Maussolleion and its utilization in the Hospitaller castle at Bodrum. In Kristian Jeppesen, et al. The Maussolleion at Halikarnassos. 1986.</ref> that at that time, the local Greeks and Turks had no name for – or legends to account for – the colossal ruins, suggesting a destruction at a much earlier period.

Many of the stones from the ruins were used by the knights to fortify their [[Bodrum Castle|castle at Bodrum]]; they also recovered [[bas-relief]]s with which they decorated the new building. Much of the marble was burned into lime. In 1846, Lord Stratford de Redcliffe obtained permission to remove these reliefs from the castle.<ref>Fergusson, p. 6.</ref>

At the original site, all that remained by the 19th century were the foundations and some broken sculptures. This site was originally indicated by Professor Donaldson and was discovered definitively by Charles Newton, after which an expedition was sent by the British government. The expedition lasted three&nbsp;years and ended in the sending of the remaining marbles.<ref>Fergusson, p. 7.</ref> At some point before or after this, grave robbers broke into and destroyed the underground burial chamber, but in 1972, there was still enough of it remaining to determine a layout of the chambers when they were excavated.<ref name="autogenerated30"/>

This monument was ranked the seventh wonder of the world by the ancients, not because of its size or strength but because of the beauty of its design and how it was decorated with sculpture or ornaments.<ref>Fergusson, p. 65.</ref> The mausoleum was Halicarnassus's principal architectural monument, standing in a dominant position on rising ground above the harbor.<ref name="autogenerated30" />

===Jar of Xerxes I===
{{main|Jar of Xerxes I}}
{{multiple image
| align    = right
| caption_align = center
| total_width=350
| image1   = Xerxes Jar from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.jpg
| caption1 = Jar of [[Xerxes I]] from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.
| image2   = Xerxes Jar from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (detail).jpg
| caption2 = Detail of the inscription in Egyptian: "The great king Xerxes".
}}
A jar in [[calcite]] or [[alabaster]], an ''[[alabastron]]'', with the quadrilingual signature of Achaemenid ruler [[Xerxes I]] (ruled 486–465 BC) was discovered in the ruins of the Mausoleum, at the foot of the western staircase.<ref name="JB">{{cite book |title=Cambridge Ancient History |date=1924 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0521228046 |page=283 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nNDpPqeDjo0C&pg=PA283 |language=en}}</ref> The vase contains an inscription in [[Old Persian]], Egyptian, Babylonian, and Elamite:<ref name="JB"/><ref name="Livius">{{cite book |title=A Jar with the Name of King Xerxes – Livius |url=https://www.livius.org/sources/content/achaemenid-royal-inscriptions/a-jar-with-the-name-of-king-xerxes/}}</ref><ref name="CN">{{cite book |last1=Newton |first1=Charles Thomas |title=A History of Discoveries at Halicarnassus, Cnidus and Branchidae |date=1863 |publisher=Day & Son |page=[https://archive.org/details/ahistorydiscove00pullgoog/page/n243 667] |url=https://archive.org/details/ahistorydiscove00pullgoog |language=en}}</ref>

{{Quotation|
[[Wikt:𐎧𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎠|𐎧𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎠]] 𐏐 [[Wikt:𐏋|𐏋]] 𐏐 [[Wikt:𐎺𐏀𐎼𐎣|𐎺𐏀𐎼𐎣]]<br>
('' Xšayāršā : XŠ : vazraka'')<br>
"Xerxes : The Great King."
|Old Persian inscription on the Jar of Xerxes, Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.<ref name="Livius"/>}}

Such jars, of Egyptian origin, were very precious to the Achaemenids, and may therefore have been offered by Xerxes to Carian rulers, and then kept as a precious object.<ref name="CN"/> In particular, the precious jar may have been offered by Xerxes to the Carian dynast [[Artemisia I]], who had acted with merit as his only female Admiral during the [[Second Persian invasion of Greece]], and particularly at the [[Battle of Salamis]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mayor |first1=Adrienne |title=The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World |date=2014 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1400865130 |page=315 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rboWBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA315 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Livius"/><ref name="JB"/> The jar testifies to the close contacts between Carian rulers and the Achaemenid Empire.<ref name="JB"/><ref name="Livius"/>