Antandrus or Antandros () was an ancient Greek city on the north side of the Gulf of Adramyttium in the Troad region of Anatolia. Its surrounding territory was known in Greek as (Antandria), and included the towns of Aspaneus on the coast and Astyra to the east. It has been located on Devren hill between the modern village of Avcılar and the town of Altınoluk in the Edremit district of Balıkesir Province, Turkey.
Location
The geographer Strabo located Antandrus in the Troad on the southern flank of Mount Ida, east of Assos and Gargara, but west of Aspaneus, Astyra, and Adramyttium. The first clue which led to its rediscovery in modern times was found by the German geographer and Classical scholar Heinrich Kiepert in 1842. He found an inscription relating to Antandrus in the wall of a mosque at Avcılar. Returning in 1888, he found a further inscription at Avcılar and, due to the discovery by locals of many Greek, Roman, and Byzantine era coins in the vicinity of a nearby hill called Devren, he was also able to locate the acropolis of Antandrus on this spot. The British archaeologist John Cook surveyed the site in 1959 and 1968, discovering further evidence of a Greek settlement.
Foundation
Conflicting traditions regarding the foundation of Antandrus circulated in antiquity. According to the Lesbian poet Alcaeus at the turn of the 7th century BC, Antandrus was founded by the Leleges, a people whom the Greeks believed to be aboriginal to Anatolia. The 5th century BC historian Herodotus likewise posited non-Greek origins for Antandrus, stating that it was a Pelasgian foundation. Thucydides, writing a few decades after Herodotus in the late 5th century BC, is the first source to suggest Greek origins to Antandrus by saying it was an Aeolian foundation, a claim also found in the Byzantine lexicographer Stephanus of Byzantium, who named a leader of the Aeolians called Antandrus as the city's founder. However, a tradition of non-Greek origins persisted. A century later Aristotle explained its epithets (Edonis) and (Kimmeris) as referring, respectively, to the city's foundation by a Thracian tribe, the Edonians, and to a period of a century when the nomadic Cimmerians from southern Russia had controlled the city. Demetrius of Scepsis (c. 205 - c. 130 BC) gives a different version again in which Antandrus was originally inhabited by Cilicians from the plain of Thebe facing the Gulf of Adramyttium (not to be confused with Cilicia in south-east Turkey).
Finally, in the reign of Augustus the Greek mythographer Conon provided two alternative explanations for the origins of Antandrus. Both etymologize (Antandros) as (ant' Androu), exploiting the meaning 'in the stead of' of the Greek preposition (anti). In the first, Ascanius the son of Aeneas used to rule the city of Antandrus until he was captured by the Pelasgians; the ransom for his release was to give over the city, thus meaning '(a city) in the stead of/in exchange for a man (so from , the Greek genitive singular of , 'man', i.e. Ascanius)'. This interpretation combines the reference to the city's Pelasgian origins in Herodotus and its brief role in Virgil's Aeneid as the place from which Aeneas and the Trojans flee to the west. In the second explanation, the founders of Antandrus were exiles from the Cycladic island of Andros, who on being expelled set up a new home called Antandrus, hence meaning 'in place of Andros'.
Excavation
Until recently, the site of Antandrus had only been subjected to a basic surface survey, and so there was no archaeological evidence available to determine whether early Greek traditions about a pre-Greek settlement at this site had any historical validity. Recent Turkish excavations at the site may change this picture: finds of Greek pottery from the necropolis have been announced on the excavation's website which date to the late 8th and early 7th century BC, pre-dating previous surface finds by almost two centuries. Early indications suggest that the material culture of Antandrus in this period was overwhelmingly Greek, suggesting that it was already a Greek settlement at this period, rather than an Anatolian community which traded extensively with neighbouring Greek communities. However, firm conclusions regarding this and many other aspects of the site's archaeology must await the final publication of the site report.