THE ARCHAIC TEMPLE OF ZEUS LABRAUNDOS

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to discuss the existence of the Archaic phase of the Temple of Zeus in the Labraunda Sanctuary. Previously, the earlier temple in antis was brought to light by the technical details which were discussed by Hellström and Thieme. Then Thieme published a short article about the architectural elements from the sanctuary and made much clear the connection of the architectural elements and the temple in antis. In spite of these studies the existence and the construction date of the temple in antis is still controversial. It is aimed in this paper to investigate all the evidences including previous research, existing remains, architectural elements and historical sources for the earlier temple. For this scope, not only the published ones but also some new unpublished architectural fragments will be fully investigated and dated by the previously dated parallel examples. The architectural fragments consist of a column drum with 36 flutes, a column neck fragment, an Ionic capital fragment, 2 complete and 6 fragments of the crown blocks and 8 dentil blocks. Although, the architectural fragments, except the Ionic capital, are suggested very strongly as belonging to the Archaic temple of Zeus Labraundos, the historical sources for the temple is lacking: the terms hieron used by Herodotus and xoanon by Strabo are strong evidence for the existence of the temple. This investigation suggests that all the evidence indicate that there was a temple to Zeus Labraundos from the late Archaic period and that was enlarged during the Hekatomnid dynasty.