Opuscula 11 (2018) is available for purchase at Amazon.com, Adlibris, Bokus and bokorder.se. Distributed by eddy.se ab. The use of miniature pottery in Archaic–Hellenistic Greek sanctuaries. Considerations on terminology and ritual practice By Signe Barfoed (Independent scholar, Norway). Abstract Miniature pottery is a widely encountered group of archaeological material that has been found in domestic, funerary, and predominantly in ritual contexts. Despite the ubiquitous presence of these small vessels, this group is generally understudied and interpretations of its meaning are lacking. Scholarship in the past perceived miniature pottery as cheap, non-functional and unimportant and therefore this pottery was often neglected or sometimes not even published. Interpretations have been sparse and by default it is believed that miniatures were the cheapest dedications the worshipper could buy. Within the last decade(s) the perceptions among scholars have changed somewhat and when miniature pottery and other votives appear together in an excavation it is often interpreted as a votive deposit stemming from a ritual context, such as a temple, shrine or sanctuary. Below a tentative terminology of miniature pottery will be presented and it will be argued that there is more to be learned about Greek ritual practice from this understudied group of archaeological…

Opuscula 11 (2018) is available for purchase at Amazon.com, Adlibris, Bokus and bokorder.se. Distributed by eddy.se ab. Tokens of piety. Inexpensive dedications as functional and symbolic objects By Gina Salapata (Massey University). Abstract This article engages with some methods and theories of disciplines outside the traditional sphere of Classics to open up new perspectives on the interrelationship between material culture, religion and society. It focuses on dedicatory practices and, in particular, on modest offerings and the multiple ways these were valued in Greek society. It concludes that, even though small inexpensive offerings were affordable by poorer people, their dedicators likely came from various socio-economic backgrounds. Dedications of low economic value and modest appearance may have had high symbolic value because they embodied social and religious ideas or the desires and identities of the dedicator; or they could derive their value from the function they performed in ritual. If the messages carried by such offerings were of primary concern and their value symbolic and emotional rather than material, the choice of a small or inexpensive offering would not necessarily reflect lower socio-economic status. Moreover, if the main concern of gift giving were communication and reciprocity, the act of giving would have…

Opuscula 11 (2018) is available for purchase at Amazon.com, Adlibris, Bokus and bokorder.se. Distributed by eddy.se ab. Two Early Helladic II terracotta rollers from Asine and their glyptic context By Michael Lindblom (Uppsala University), Gullög Nordquist (Uppsala University) & Hans Mommsen (Universität Bonn). Abstract Two Early Helladic II terracotta rollers from the Third Terrace at Asine are presented. The objects, used to impress relief decoration on pithoi and hearths, are unique in that no other examples are known from the Early Bronze Age Aegean. Their origin is discussed based on chemical characterization and their depositional contexts are reviewed from an archaeological perspective. Although there are no known impressions from these rollers on pithoi and hearths at Asine, it is shown that their owners surrounded themselves with different objects featuring similar glyptic impressions. Two such impressions find identical parallels at Tiryns and the combined evidence strongly suggest that Asine was the home for one or several potters who produced Early Helladic impressed hearths and pithoi. Bibliographical information Michael Lindblom, Gullög Nordquist & Hans Mommsen, ’Two Early Helladic II terracotta rollers from Asine and their glyptic context’, Opuscula. Annual of the Swedish Institutes at Athens and Rome (OpAthRom) 11, Stockholm 2018, 81–96….

Opuscula 11 (2018) is available for purchase at Amazon.com, Adlibris, Bokus and bokorder.se. Distributed by eddy.se ab. The New Swedish Cyprus Expedition 2017: Excavations at Hala Sultan Tekke (The Söderberg Expedition). Preliminary results By Peter M. Fischer (University of Gothenburg) & Teresa Bürge (Austrian Academy of Sciences). With contributions by Magda Ausiayevich, Bebelyn Placiente Robedizo, Victor Barrera Alarcón, Laerke Recht & Dominika Kofel. Abstract During the eighth field season at the Bronze Age city of Hala Sultan Tekke, excavations in City Quarter 1 (CQ1) exposed massive industrial and domestic structures belonging to three phases of occupation (Strata 3–1) dating to the 13th and 12th centuries BC (LC IIC–IIIA). Georadar survey, penetrating to a maximum depth of approximately 1 m, guided the excavation of walls of Strata 1–2, both of which were destroyed by conflagration. Excavations 1.5–2 m below the surface and also below the maximum penetration depth of the radar revealed a heretofore buried phase of occupation with substantial architectural units. For the first time, massive Stratum 3 structures with a markedly different building technique were exposed. Copper smelting installations, much ash and slag, and storage facilities also belong to this phase of occupation. Additional excavations guided by results from…

Opuscula 11 (2018) is available for purchase at Amazon.com, Adlibris, Bokus and bokorder.se. Distributed by eddy.se ab. Preliminary report of the Malthi Archaeological Project, 2015–2016 By Rebecca Worsham (Smith College), Michael Lindblom (Uppsala University) & Claire Zikidi (Independent scholar, Greece). Abstract This article offers preliminary results and tentative interpretations of new work at the previously excavated settlement of Malthi in Messenia, south-west Pelopponese. The work included an intensive survey of the site architecture, as well as test excavations of spaces within and outside of the fortification wall. We propose updated observations on the chronology and phasing of the site based on pottery dates from the new excavation and comment on the preserved architecture as it compares to other settlements of the period. The settlement appears to have been first inhabited in the second half of the Middle Helladic period. Little, if any, architecture from this phase can be securely identified today. At the beginning of the Late Helladic period a fortification was erected, and the entire layout of the site was transformed. The construction likely took place as a single project, as argued by the original excavator, and so indicates a significant investment of labor and capital. Such an undertaking…

Opuscula 10 (2017) is now available for purchase at Amazon.com, Bokus.com, Adlibris.com, and Bokorder.se. The last occupation of Asine in Argolis By Nektarios-Peter Yioutsos Abstract Kastraki Hill on the eastern Argolic Gulf, with visible remains of impressive fortifications, has been identified since the mid-19th century as the position occupied by the acropolis of ancient Asine. The first systematic excavations were carried out by the Swedish Institute in the 1920s and revealed the continuous habitation of the site from the Early Helladic period (3rd millennium BC) up to the late 4th-early 5th century AD. Many additions and repairs on the acropolis were made during the Byzantine period and the 2nd Venetian Occupation of the Peloponnese (1686–1715). However, the most destructive interventions in the area are the works carried out by the Italians during World War II. Fearing an invasion of the Allies on this side of the Peloponnese, the Italians fortified the acropolis by making additions to the ancient walls and constructing auxiliary buildings, pillboxes, observation posts and trenches around the rocky outcrop using materials from buildings of the Lower Town. Their departure after the war revealed the extent of the destruction of the antiquities. During the past few decades we…

Opuscula 10 (2017) is now available for purchase at Amazon.com, Bokus.com, Adlibris.com, and Bokorder.se. The lower city of Asea, Arcadia. Results from a geophysical project 2001–2012 By Jeannette Forsén, Tatiana Smekalova & Esko Tikkala Abstract Between 2001 and 2012 a geophysical survey project was carried out on and around Asea Paleokastro in Arcadia, Greece. The results of this work complement the archaeological surface survey carried out in the same area in 1995 and the cleaning session of the acropolis walls in 2000. We have now a fair idea of how the lower city was laid out and how the city wall encompassed the city blocks. Detailed information concerning a residential block was supplied in part by the excavation published by Erik J. Holmberg in 1944, and this supports our results. We have an orthogonal town plan consisting of rectangular city blocks of c. 38 x 56 m. The city wall has several towers and a postern gate, as well as at least one more complex city gate. The agora is more elusive, but we think that it could be placed in an area mostly devoid of anomalies downhill from a built-up area revealed by the magnetometer survey and bordered by…

Opuscula 10 (2017) is now available for purchase at Amazon.com, Bokus.com, Adlibris.com, and Bokorder.se. Symbolic connotations of animals at early Middle Helladic Asine. A comparative study of the animal bones from the settlement and its graves By Stella Macheridis Abstract This paper is a contribution to the zooarchaeological research on animals or animal parts found in human graves during the Middle Bronze Age in Greece. The animal bones from the early Middle Helladic settlement (MH I-II, c. 2100–1800 BC) and contemporary burials at Asine are presented. The goal is to compare the animal bones from the settlement with those from the burials, in terms of species composition and body part distribution. Through this comparison, this paper aims to discuss any symbolic connotations of bone waste from everyday-life practices. The results show that the most common domesticates from settlement contexts, pig, sheep/goat and cattle, also appear to be the most abundant animals deposited in the early MH graves at Asine. This is consistent with mortuary data from other sites on the Peloponnese, especially Lerna. The pig was most abundant in both settlement and graves at Asine. The similarities between wild and domestic pigs might be important, and are discussed as a…

Opuscula 10 (2017) is now available for purchase at Amazon.com, Bokus.com, Adlibris.com, and Bokorder.se. The stadion of Labraunda By Paavo Roos Abstract The stadion of Labraunda is situated south-west of the sanctuary, above the Sacred Way down to Mylasa. As the terrain is not well suited for a stadion the ends had to be elongated by the addition of built-up ‘towers’; nevertheless the racecourse was rather short at 172 metres. It is situated on a slight slope, and in the middle of the northern side there are cuttings in the rock that may have been used for spectators; otherwise there are no provisions for such. There is a line of starting blocks at either end, more or less in their original place, although few of the blocks are exactly in situ and some of them are missing. They are large blocks and have one single continuous groove for the toes of the runner and square holes that separate the lanes. Evidently the number of lanes was 14, and each line was 1.38 m wide. There is nothing that can give an exact date of the establishment, but the outline of the wall structure as well as the historical evidence suggest…

Opuscula 10 (2017) is now available for purchase at Amazon.com, Bokus.com, Adlibris.com, and Bokorder.se. Power and coinage. The portrait tetradrachms of Eumenes II By Marie-Christine Marcellesi Abstract Among other innovations in coinage, the portrait tetradrachms of Eumenes II testify to the interest that the Attalid king showed in coinage. It is difficult to date these coins using purely numismatic criteria. The generally favoured late dating is based on the notion that this was a short-lived coinage, but it may well have been struck – possibly at intervals – over a relatively long period of Eumenes II’s reign. In this paper I defend an early dating for the starting point of this coinage, in the first half of the reign and even in the first years, before the Treaty of Apamea. The historical context of the rising power of Rome in the Eastern Mediterranean after the Second Macedonian War may explain the original features of this coinage and its iconography, which shows a will to affirm a personal power and also suggests a connection with Rome through the Pergamene cult of the Kabeiroi. Bibliographical information Marie-Christine Marcellesi, ‘Power and coinage. The portrait tetradrachms of Eumenes II’, Opuscula. Annual of the Swedish…