Das Leto-Heiligtum in Asarcık am Xanthostal. Zur sog. Akkulturation in Lykienanhand seiner frühen Tempelbauten

mit einem epigraphischen Beitrag von Recai Tekoğlu

Abstract

A rock ritual site on the south-west tip of the small mountain settlement of Asarcık in the Xanthos valley allows the identifi cation of a rectangular complex directly associated with it as a cult building. This is confirmed by an inscription that has been found there, referring to the site as a »sacred place and temple of Leto«, which fits well with the nature of the Lycians’ mother goddess – equivalent to the Great Goddess of Ancient Anatolia. The structure displays the following general characteristics of early Lycian temples: its ground plan is small and modest, it possesses no canonical altar in front of the entrance, and it is associated with an open rock structure fashioned in accordance with ancient Anatolian tradition. It displays no elevation and no support base in the form of a stylobate. It is also typical in its southward orientation. The perishable timber frame superstructure indicates why so few specimens of early temples in Lycia are known. Moreover it calls into question the thesis that »not the temple buildings but rather the open precinct with a rock altar [are] characteristic« of a Lycian sanctuary of the Archaic-Classical period. The types which are divided into »sekos«, oikos and anta temple go back to the infl uence of Ionian religious architecture of the Archaic period, like the Lelegian types from neighbouring Caria. Characteristic in ground plan and attested in an inscription, the Asarcık temple of the divine trinity of the Lycian nation – the Letoides – with a trinaos and a common antechamber is known in this region also as a tower farmstead and row building. It therefore does not need to be ascribed to some foreign influence in terms of typology. It can thus be concluded that indigenous Anatolian culture and religious belief are what was decisive for the erection and decor of early Lycian sanctuaries as temple buildings and rock ritual sites both in artistic and conceptual terms, and that it is incorrect to speak of an acculturation in the sense of alien forms and ideas imported from Greece. Consequently, Anatolian-Ionian art should not be equated with Helladic-Dorian art.