Sanctuary of Hemithea at Kastabos

by John Manuel Cook

Originally published in 1966, this is an account of the excavation of a Greek sanctuary in the south-west corner of the mainland of Asia Minor opposite Rhodes - once known as the Carian Chersonese. The excavation took place in 1959–1960. This was the first Greek temple of any size to be uncovered in that part of Asia Minor, and the discovery of the site of Kastabos, whose existence was known from book V of Diodorus' world history, entailed the re-siting of several ancient towns in the region. The sanctuary itself, whose main buildings dated from c. 300 BC, was dedicated to the healing Goddess Hemithea. The excavations showed that, although it was an Ionic temple, the style of the great contemporary temples in Ionia (such as that at Ephesus) is modified and the design is somewhat similar, in plan and proportion, to that of the temple at Epidaurus.

226 pages, Paperback

First published August 26, 2010

About the author

John Manuel Cook was Professor of Ancient History and Archaeology at Bristol University from 1958 until his retirement in 1976. He was educated at Marlborough College and King's College, Cambridge, where he won winning the Sir William Browne Gold Medal for a Greek Ode and the Members' Prize for a Latin Essay. He taught at Edinburgh University from 1936 to 1946, first as Assistant to the Professor in Humanities and then as Lecturer in Classical Archaeology. During the Second World War he served with the Royal Scots and in the British Military Mission in Greece. After the war he took up the Directorship of the British School of Archaeology, a position in which he served until he took up a lectureship at Bristol University in 1954.