L'Artemision. Tome I

The main sanctuary of Artemis at Delos is associated with that of Apollo. In 1878, Th. Homolle undertook excavations there, unearthing two overlapping temples, an altar, an L-shaped portico and a collection of ancient sculptures including a number of korai. Homolle's work was carried on by F. Courby, who understood that the ancient temple was preserved within the Hellenistic temple, and by R. Vallois, who was the first to outline the boundaries of the Artemision, and to rule out the edifice which was later identified as the Pythion. R. Vallois also discovered exceptional material that dates from between the Mycenian era and the second half of the 8th century in the Hellenistic Temple's Pronaos. This book describes the main phases of the exploration of the Artemision, which continues today, and also contains the corpus of the literary and epigraphic testimonia related to the sanctuary, as well as a presentation of all of its components. The second part is devoted to the Hellenistic Temple. It begins with a description of the foundations and the euthynteria that remain in place, and goes on to describe the various remains that can be attributed to the elevation. The crepidoma, the toichobate, the columns, the antae, the walls, the entablature, the pediments and the roof are all presented one after the other. Their analysis forms the basis for the restitution of the monument, a hexastyle, prostyle, ionic edifice that was built in Cycladic marble. The interior of the naos was most likely decorated with engaged columns. The construction process, which took place mainly between 190 and 180 BC, was hampered by the monuments that adjoined the new temple and by the attempts, during the first phase of the construction process, to preserve the naos of the ancient temple, incorporated into the Hellenistic building. The edifice is very much in line with the Athenian ionic, prostyle, hexastyle temples and the koine Hellenistic style that emerged at the start of the 2nd century, and to a certain extent, took over from the specific style developed by the Delians that emerged at the end of the 4th and went on until the end of the 3rd century BC.