The town of Bodrum is founded on the ancient Halicarnassus, one of the most famous cities antiguity.The archaeological  evidences in the museum reflect a past of five thousand years in Bodrum and it is neighborhood.The region, as it can be understood from the various artifacts displayed , was invaded throughtout the centuries by many civilizations. The invaders came mainly from the islands to the region called Caria in the antique age.The region of Caria included the the province of Muğla and part of what is Aydın today Anatolia, then also, was divided into many regions.

According to the writers of antiquity, Caria extended from the Menderes river in the west to the Dalaman creek in the east. The native inhabitants of the region were the Carians and the Legians.In the Iliad, Homer mentios the Carians as the inhabitants of Anatolia and allias of the Trojans againts the  Greeks.

Herodotus of Halicarnassus (484-425 B.C.), considered as the father of history says :’’The Carians have crossed over to the mainland from the islands when still living on the islands they were called Legeians and were ruled by King Minos’’ Heredotus adds that, according to the Cretans, they were the first to make use of sings and handles on shield and crests on helmets. The Creants also recounted, he says, that the Carians were a maritime folk but the carians would have none of this, maintaining that they have always lived on the mainland.’’

The carians and Lelegeians lived near the coast in villages built on high hills which they surrounded with walls. Herodotus writes that Halicarnassus was founded by the Dorians who came from Trozen on the east coast of the Pleponnese.

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