Life (Crete)

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Archaeological Site of the Asclepion of Life

Leben or later Lebena ( ancient Greek Λεβήν , Λεβήνα ) was an ancient city ​​on the south coast of the Greek island of Crete . It was located in what is now Lendas . It is listed on the Tabula Peutingeriana under the name Ledena. The city was one of the ports of Gortyn , the capital of the province of Creta et Cyrene in Roman times. In life was a nationally renowned Asklepieion , one the god of medicine Asklepios consecrated sanctuary , are obtained from the residues. The physician and classical scholar of antiquity Ernst Assmann derived the name of the city from the Semitic lebi / labi for lion .

location

The small town of Lendas (also Lentas, Greek Λέντας ) stretches along the coast of the bay that was the port of ancient life. Located on the Libyan Sea , part of the Mediterranean , the bay, which is only 280 meters wide, extends between the foothills of Leontas in the west and Psamidomouri in the east. Cape Leontas ('lion's cap'), which resembles a reclining lion , gave its name to both the present-day settlement and the ancient city. This stretched from the bay to the north up the slopes. Immediately north of the former urban area, the Asterousia Mountains (Αστεροσια Όρη) rise in an east-west direction and form a natural barrier to the Messara plain , which could only be crossed on a few passes . In ancient times Strabo gave 90  stages for the removal of Gortyn (Γορτύν) in the Messara after life. Today a paved road leads from Lendas over Miamou (Μιαμού), located at an altitude of about 500 meters, to the Messara plain near Apesokari (Απεσωκάρι).

history

Clay vase (2800-2500 BC)

The Lendas area was inhabited as early as the Neolithic . This is indicated by remains from the 4th millennium BC. BC, which were found on the rocky summit of Cape Leontas. In the early Minoan period (2600–2000 BC) there was a medium-sized settlement on the Anginaropapoura hill north of the cape. The dome graves of Papoura (Παπούρα), Gerokambos (Γερόκαμπος) west and Zervou (Ζερβού) east of the bay of Lendas are assigned to this settlement . Findings from the graves show connections to Egypt and the Cyclades . These include Cretan seals and gold tiaras, Cycladic figurines , Cretan and Cycladic ceramics and stone vessels, copper daggers and obsidian blades as well as three Egyptian scarabs from the late 11th or early 12th dynasty . They are exhibited in the Archaeological Museum in Heraklion . The three scarabs, found in Papoura grave I, Gerokambos grave II and Gerokambos grave IIa, belong to the most important findings for the synchronization of the late pre- palace period of Crete ( FM II to MM I A ) with the Egyptian chronology.

Temple columns of the Asclepion

Even in the classical period of Greece, Leben was a port city 14 kilometers south of Gortyn on the Messara plain. According to ancient sources (Strabo, Philostratos ) and previous excavation results, including inscriptions, probably at the beginning of the 4th century BC. Founded the Asklepieion von Leben by the Gortynern and adopted the regulations and rituals of the central sanctuary of Asclepius in Epidauros in the Peloponnese for the sanctuary with attached sanatorium . Pausanias , however, stated that the sanctuary of life was a Cyrenian foundation, since goats were sacrificed, as in the Asclepion of Cyrene - and in contrast to Epidaurus. The cult of Asclepius followed an older cult of the gods of water, Acheloos and the nymphs, who also had healing powers . The rise of Gortyn to the capital of the Messara after the destruction of Phaistos around the middle of the 2nd century BC. BC also affected life. Since 219 BC BC Belonging to the immediate domain of Gortyn, Leben was, next to the western port of Matalia (Ματαλία), the main hub for Gortyn's goods, especially to Egypt and the Levant .

Former well house

The meaning of life increased even more when Gortyn, as a result of the Roman conquest of Crete in 69 to 63 BC. BC, in which the city allied itself with Rome against Knossos , from 67 BC. Became the capital of the entire island. After the earthquake described by Philostratus in 46 BC. BC life was quickly rebuilt. During the Roman Empire , many Libyans from Cyrenaica visited the Asklepios sanctuary of the coastal city with its medicinal baths , as well as Cretans . Starting from Gortyn , the Christianization of the island began in the 1st century AD under Titus , the first bishop of Crete . However, the Christian religion did not establish itself until the 4th / 5th centuries. Century and supplanted the ancient gods . This led to the closure of the sanctuary of Asclepius in life and the gradual decline of the port city.

At what time the Asklepieion was closed is not known. In early Christian and Byzantine times, life continued as a settlement, as evidenced by the remains of buildings on Cape Psamidomouri and a three-aisled basilica northwest of the cape from the 5th or early 6th century . For the construction of the basilica, components of the pagan cult site of the Asklepieion, which served as a quarry, were used. On the foundations of the former basilica, 150 meters east of the ruins of the Asklepieion, the small church of Agios Ioannis (Άγιος Ιωάννης), consecrated to the Apostle John , with remains of wall paintings that the historian Giuseppe Gerola dated to the 14th or 15th century , stands today . When Onorio Belli visited the Bay of Lendas in the second half of the 16th century and created a floor plan of the Asklepieion, which he published in 1586, he found a "destroyed and devastated city". Even Thomas Abel Brimage Spratt described the place in 1865 in his book Travels and Researches in Crete as abandoned.

Period of excavations (1900)
Gerokambos' country house

The first excavations of ancient life took place in 1900 by the Missione Archeologica Italiana di Creta under Federico Halbherr and were continued in 1910 and 1912–1913 by the Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene under Luigi Pernier . Further excavations were carried out in 1971 by Stylianos Alexiou and Angeliki Lebessi from the Athens Archaeological Society . Most of the ancient sculptures found by Halbherr and Pernier are lost today, but known through photos. At the end of the 20th century, the Greek Archaeological Service researched the area around Lendas Bay. The remains of a Hellenistic-Roman country house were found 2.3 kilometers to the west on the Gerokambos plateau.

After only two houses stood on the bay in 1928, the current town of Lendas with around 120 inhabitants developed on the shore of the sea in the last decades of the 20th century. The small settlement Dytiko (Δυτικό) arose on the west side of Cape Leontas .

Excavations

From the sanctuary in life, the Asklepios Temple, the West Stoa with the “treasure house”, the North Stoa and the well house were exposed. The roughly square temple from Roman times stood in the south-western area and faced east. Like the western stoa adjoining to the north, it stood on an artificial terrace, an excavation of the natural rock in the west and embankments in the east, which were supported by a limestone wall. The walls of the Asklepios Temple on its north, west and south sides, still up to 3.40 meters high, were made of clay bricks clad with white veined marble . The floor of the cella was laid in the middle with marble and on the edges with a mosaic of white and black stones, of which only a small remainder has survived.

South side of the temple

On the west wall of the temple was a six-meter long marble pedestal. The statues of Asclepius and his family members, such as his daughter Hygieia, stood on it . On the south side, the base of a statue of Asclepius is preserved, the inscription of which points to the consecration by a person named Xenion (Ξενίων). Xenion may be the same one mentioned on the inscriptions on the statues of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus on the Capitol of Cyrene. The two preserved marble columns of the Temple of Life, standing up to 4.70 meters high, are striking. They have a groove in the lower area of ​​the sides facing each other, which was used to accommodate a grid.

Hippocampus portrait in the "treasure house"

The west stoa north of the temple, built in a north-south orientation, is 27 meters long. Of the stylobate on the east side, only the north end made of bricks, a marble base and the foundations of further column bases remain. Inside the northern part of the west wall there are swell stones from three entrance doors that led to small rooms. The western stoa, like the temple, dates from the Roman Empire. An older building from the Hellenistic period with a mosaic floor made of black, white and red stones was found under the southern area of ​​the portico . The mosaic depicts two of scrolls growing out Anthemien and a white hippocampus is derived from a meander in the form of " Running Dog is surrounded." The western wall of the Roman building overlaps the picture surface with the hippocampus.

The western side of the Hellenistic mosaic field, which was not built over, was destroyed in antiquity in order to gain access to the treasury below, in which the objects consecrated to Asclepius were kept. The square shaft, lined with seven rows of limestone blocks, has a side length of 0.95 and a depth of 1.90 meters. Two marble fragments with parts of the dedicatory inscription of the foundation of the treasury of Asclepius by the Gortyners were found here. Below them was the round stone opening to the treasury with a cylindrical lid that could only be opened with a key. The lid lay broken in the chamber, the construction of which is estimated not to date before the 3rd or the beginning of the 2nd century BC. Is dated.

North stoa of the sanctuary

The Roman West Stoa was accessible from the east via an approximately 35 meter long marble staircase. Eight steps of this are still preserved in the north. They end at the back wall of the north stoa, which bordered the sanctuary in the north. The north stoa stretched over 18 meters from northwest to southeast to the fountain house on a lower level. The orientation of the northern stoa, which deviates from the western stoa and the temple, results from the older construction period. Inscription fragments date from the 2nd century BC. They report miraculous healings and remedies by Asclepius and suggest that this was the Adyton or Abaton of the sanctuary, the incubation place where the sick slept in order to awaken healed. It was later integrated into the new Roman buildings. What remains of the construction are the pillars, parts of the shafts and panels of the marble wall cladding. An extension with two outwardly protruding brick apses in the east of the North Stoa was probably a lustration room for cultic cleansing or a nymphaeum .

Arched niche in the fountain house

Six meters south of the eastern end of the north stoa are the remains of a well house. A stone border with a vaulted niche made of clay bricks was built around the outlet of the spring water, which was said to have a healing effect. The fountain house is the oldest point of the healing cult. To the south of the Asklepieion towards the sea there were two large cisterns made of brick, possibly for medicinal baths. They were connected to one another by clay pipes.

In the urban area around the Asklepieion, further buildings are emerging. Many remains of the wall are on a hill in the north-west of the sanctuary. Almost on the seashore and almost parallel to it, the foundation walls of a building over 100 meters long and 10 meters wide with several small transverse walls can be seen. The end in the west is an almost circular exedra . The facade was decorated with half-columns made of bricks. To the southwest, right on the western corner of the bay, was another large building. Hardly anything has survived from him. This also applies to a former bridge over the stream that flows into the northeast corner of the bay. There are only two foundations of the ancient bridge, six meters apart.

literature

  • Edward Herbert Bunbury:  Life . In: William Smith : Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London 1854.
  • Ludwig Bürchner : Λεβήν. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XII, 1, Stuttgart 1924, column 1053 f.
  • Keith Branigan:  Lebena (Lendas) Kainourgiou, Crete . In: Richard Stillwell et al. a. (Ed.): The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1976, ISBN 0-691-03542-3 .
  • Ian F. Sanders: Roman Crete. Aris Phillips, Warminster 1982, ISBN 0-85668-150-4 , pp. 80-83. 159.
  • Despina Chatzi-Vallianou: Λεβήν: Η αρχαία Λεβήνα και το ιερό του Ασκληπιού. Athens 1989 = Despina Chatzi-Vallianou: Lebén. The ancient city and the sanctuary of Asclepius . Ministry of Culture, Treasury for Archaeological Funds and Expropriations, Athens 1989.
  • Holger Sonnabend : Lebena. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 6, Metzler, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01476-2 , Sp. 1206 f.
  • Milena Melfi: Il santuario di Asclepio a Lebena. (= Monograph della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni Italiane in Oriente 19). Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene, Athens 2007. ISBN 978-960-87405-8-7 (basic, not used here)
  • Wilma Simmerstatter: Lebena . In: Melissa Vetters (Ed.): Kreta-Excursion 2017: Guide to the sites and museums . Part 2. University of Salzburg, Salzburg 2017, p. 142–146 ( digitized version [PDF; 4.6 MB ; accessed on February 8, 2018]).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tabula Peutingeriana. www.euratlas.net, accessed on April 12, 2013 .
  2. ^ Ernst Assmann : On the prehistory of Crete . In: Philologus 67 - Journal for Classical Antiquity . Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Leipzig 1908, p. 165 ( online [accessed December 24, 2013]).
  3. ↑ Strabon 10, 4 ( German translation ).
  4. ↑ a b Margret Karola Nollé: Kreta in Flugbildern by Georg Gerster (=  Zabern's illustrated books on archeology, special volumes of the ancient world ). Zabern, Mainz 2009, ISBN 978-3-8053-3832-5 , Lebena - Kuren am Löwenkap, p. 98 .
  5. ^ Stylianos Alexiou, Peter Warren: The early Minoan tombs of Lebena, Southern Crete. Sävedalen, P. Åströms Förlag, 2004 ( Studies in Mediterranean archeology 30).
  6. ↑ a b c d e Despina Chatzi-Vallianou: Lebén. The ancient city and the sanctuary of Asclepius . Ministry of Culture, Treasury for Archaeological Funds and Expropriations, Athens 1989, p. 7-9 .
  7. ^ Corpus of the Minoan and Mycenaean seals Volume: II, 1 No. 180. Arachne , accessed on March 4, 2016 .
  8. ^ Corpus of the Minoan and Mycenaean seals Volume: II, 1 No. 201. Arachne, accessed on March 4, 2016 .
  9. ^ Corpus of the Minoan and Mycenaean seals Volume: II, 1, No. 204. Arachne, accessed on March 4, 2016 .
  10. ^ Felix Höflmayer: The synchronization of the Minoan old and new palace times with the Egyptian chronology . Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3-7001-7065-5 , Archäologische Synchronisierung, p. 52-58 .
  11. ^ A b Antonis Vasilakis: Crete . Mystis, Iraklio 2008, ISBN 978-960-6655-30-2 , Das Asklepieion, p. 201 .
  12. ↑ a b c d Despina Chatzi-Vallianou: Lebén. The ancient city and the sanctuary of Asclepius . Ministry of Culture, Treasury for Archaeological Funds and Expropriations, Athens 1989, p. 6 .
  13. ^ Pausanias 2, 26, 9 ( English translation ).
  14. ↑ a b c Lendas. History. www.lentas-online.com, August 22, 2012, accessed April 12, 2013 .
  15. ↑ Strabon 10, 4, 11 ( English translation ).
  16. ↑ Flavius ​​Philostratos , Life of Apollonius 4, 34 ( English translation ).
  17. ^ Antonis Vasilakis: Crete . Mystis, Iraklio 2008, ISBN 978-960-6655-30-2 , The Early Byzantine Basilica, p. 203 .
  18. ↑ a b c Despina Chatzi-Vallianou: Lebén. The ancient city and the sanctuary of Asclepius . Ministry of Culture, Treasury for Archaeological Funds and Expropriations, Athens 1989, p. 18 .
  19. ↑ Edward Falkener: A Description of some important Theaters and other remains in Crete, from a Ms. History of Candia by Onorio Belli in 1586 (=  Museum of Classical Antiquities. Supplement ). Trübner & Co., London 1854, At Lebena, p. 18-19 ( online [accessed April 12, 2013]).
  20. ↑ Edward Falkener: A Description of some important Theaters and other remains in Crete, from a Ms. History of Candia by Onorio Belli in 1586 (=  Museum of Classical Antiquities. Supplement ). Trübner & Co., London 1854, Punta di Leonda, p. 19 ( online [accessed April 12, 2013]).
  21. ^ TAB Spratt: Travels and researches in Crete . tape 1 . John van Voorst, London 1865, chapter 28, p. 348–353 ( online [accessed April 12, 2013]).
  22. ^ John A. Gifford: The Aerial Atlas of Ancient Crete . University of California Press, Berkeley 1992, Lebena - Asklepieion, p. 161 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  23. ↑ Milena Melfi: Lost sculptures from the Asklepieion of Lebena . In: Creta Antica . tape 10 , 2009, p. 607-618 ( online [accessed April 12, 2013]).
  24. ↑ Arn Strohmeyer: Where medicine and psychotherapy began: The place of the healing God - The Asklepios sanctuary in Lentas (South Crete). (No longer available online.) Www.vm2000.net, formerly in the original ; Retrieved April 12, 2013 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.vm2000.net  
  25. ↑ a b Despina Chatzi-Vallianou: Lebén. The ancient city and the sanctuary of Asclepius . Ministry of Culture, Treasury for Archaeological Funds and Expropriations, Athens 1989, p. 14 .
  26. ↑ Inscriptiones Creticae I xvii 25 .
  27. ^ A b Antonis Vasilakis: Crete . Mystis, Iraklio 2008, ISBN 978-960-6655-30-2 , Das Asklepieion, p. 202 .
  28. ↑ a b Despina Chatzi-Vallianou: Lebén. The ancient city and the sanctuary of Asclepius . Ministry of Culture, Treasury for Archaeological Funds and Expropriations, Athens 1989, p. 16 .
  29. ↑ a b c Despina Chatzi-Vallianou: Lebén. The ancient city and the sanctuary of Asclepius . Ministry of Culture, Treasury for Archaeological Funds and Expropriations, Athens 1989, p. 11 .

Web links

Commons : Life  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 34 ° 56 '  N , 24 ° 55'  E