LETOUM
Lycia, Turkey.
A city 4 km SW of
Xanthos, near the W bank of the river, and 3 km from
the present coastline. The site was occupied from the
8th c. B.C., but archaic and Classical levels are beneath
the modern water table. There are early dedications to
Leto, Artemis, Apollo, and the Nymphs; and later inscriptions indicate that the federal sanctuary of the
Lycian League was established here. Since 1962 it has
been the scene of annual excavation, which in 1973
yielded a lengthy trilingual inscription in Aramaic,
Greek, and Lycian.
The main temple is an Ionic peripteros (6 x 11) of
local limestone, facing S and datable to 150-100 B.C.
A similar temple is E of it, slightly smaller and later in
date. Between the two temples, and much earlier than
either, is a small oblong building enclosing a rocky outcrop. The precinct is delimited on W and N by stoas, on
the E by rising ground; to S and W the ground drops
sharply, and excavation (below the water table) has disclosed a large Nymphaeum (3d c. A.D.), which replaced
a Hellenistic building, both evidently providing the
architectural framework around a water supply fed by
the sacred spring (cf. Ov.
Met. 6.317-81). North of the
precinct a theater of Hellenistic form and date was built
against the hillside; there is no trace of a stage building,
and access to the cavea is by two barrel-vaulted passages.
The stadium (known from inscriptions) has not yet been
found, and the limits of the settlement have not been
defined.
The sanctuary became the site of a small Christian
community, and there is evidence that the main temple
was deliberately destroyed. Column drums from it were
subsequently incorporated in a 6th c. (monastic?)
church, whose outbuildings partly overlay the Nymphaeum. There is no evidence for occupation after the
mid 7th c., a time of Arab raids. There is a small
museum on the site.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
O. Benndorf & G. Niemann,
Reisen in
Lykien und Karien, I (1884) 118f;
TAM 2, 1, 118f and
2, 2, 180f; G. B. Bean,
JHS 68 (1948) 45; H. Metzger,
“Fouilles du Létoon de Xanthos (1962-65),”
RA (1966)
lOlf; id., “Fouilles du Létoon de Xanthos (1966-1969),”
RA (1970) 307-22; id., annual reports in
TürkArkDerg,
AnatSt, and (apud M. I. Mellink)
AJA since 1963.
For the trilingual inscription, cf.
CRAI (1974) 1. 82-93, 115-25, 139-49.
R. M. HARRISON
