LABRAUNDA
or Labraynda,, Labranda, Caria, Turkey.
An important religious center, a sanctuary
rather than a town, about 48 km SW of Miletos and 13
km N of Mylasa (under whose control Labraunda usually was). It was the seat of the cult of Zeus Stratios or
Labraundos, a local Mylasan deity. The site was occupied in archaic times, and Herodotos speaks of a large
grove of sacred plane trees there (5.119). The first cult
temple seems to have been erected in the 5th c. B.C., and
the site was much embellished by the Hecatomnids, particularly by the brothers Mausolos and Idrieus, in the
next century. Strabo (
14.2.23) mentions the temple and
the Sacred Way from Mylasa, and Aelian (
NA 12.30)
describes a basin at Labraunda stocked with tame and
bejeweled fish. The Hecatomnid complex remained more
or less unchanged until buildings were added to it in
Julio-Claudian times. Perhaps the main buildings were
destroyed about the middle of the 4th c. A.D. There are
remains of a Byzantine church built of reused materials.
Part of the paved Sacred Way up from Mylasa is still
visible. About 7.5 m wide, it runs straight, being partly
constructed by cut-and-fill. The site, well supplied with
water, is steep; the several terraces and numerous buildings were connected by ramps and stairs. Apart from
the sanctuary there is an acropolis ca. 90 m in length,
and on the slopes above the sacred precinct there are the
fragmentary remains of a stadium. The Hecatomnids
seem to have had a palace at Labraunda.
There were many tombs around the sanctuary and
along the Sacred Way, usually cut from the living rock,
room-style, or sunk into it. Of particular interest is one
N of the temple, built up of carefully finished cut stone.
Two rooms are vaulted with projecting corbel-stones, the
undersides of which, however, are cut back to form the
impression and surface of a true, curved vault. Above
both chambers is a low second story, roofed with monolithic stone slabs up to 5 m in length. The doorway to
the inner chamber was originally closed by a six-ton
stone; the whole may be of the 4th c. B.C. There are
fragments of two sarcophagi in the outer chamber, and
three well-preserved sarcophagi in the inner chamber.
The original Temple of Zeus Stratios was a small
structure in antis of megaron-like plan in part preserved
by the Hecatomnid builders, who added to it an Ionic
peristyle (6 x 8 columns); part of Idrieus' dedicatory
inscription has been found. He and his brother constructed two interesting and all but identical andrones or
religious meetinghouses, one W and one S of the temple
terrace. These were well built of local stone, with rectangular plans and numerous large windows. Each had
a porch with two columns in antis (recalling the plan of
the original Temple of Zeus) and a large main room lit
not only by side windows but also by windows in the
thick wall separating the room from the porch. Both
buildings have broad niches at the ends of their interior
chambers, rectilinear in plan and elevated, shelf-like,
from the floor. In the 1st c. A.D. a third andron was
built, just S of the Hecatomnid one farther S. East and
S of the temple are the remains of several priests' houses,
one with a porch of four Doric columns. Flanking the
broad terrace to the E of the temple were two stoas, the
N one built for Mausolos, the S one for Idrieus. By the
N one there is an exedra, perhaps of Roman date; beyond
this was another large house. Below the S colonnade is a
fairly elaborate well-house, probably of the 1st c. A.D.
East of this are sizable ruins which may be of the Hecatomnid palace.
About 45 m SE of the well-house two staircases, one
a grand, well-preserved structure nearly 12 m wide, lead
to a lower courtyard faced on two sides by grand propylaea; it was to these that the Sacred Way led. Here stood
a house with a facade of Doric columns which was later
incorporated in a Roman bath building. Nearby, and
also between the two propylaea, are the remains of the
Byzantine church, a three-aisled basilica with a narthex
and a deep apsidal sanctuary flanked by side chapels. Still
farther SE, alongside part of the precinct wall, was an
unusual two-story building partly constructed of granite
columns. It has been suggested that Aelian's pool was
here, that the fish were sacred to the god and were connected with those oracular functions for which there is
some evidence at Labraunda (the use of fish as oracular
agents is well attested in the ancient world).
There are several small, ruined fortresses of ancient
date in the general vicinity. Some Labraunda finds can
be seen in the Archaeological Museum in Izmir.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
RE XII (1924) 277-82; A. Laumonier,
Labraunda, Swedish Excavations and Researches
(1955ff)
PI; id.,
Les cults indigenes en Carie (1958) 45-101;
EAA 4 (1961) 440-42
P; A. Westholm,
Labraunda
(1963); G. E. Bean,
Turkey Beyond the Maeander (1971)
56-68
MPI; E. Akurgal,
Ancient Ruins and Civilizations
of Turkey (3d ed. 1973) 244-45.
W. L. MAC DONALD
