Book reviews
Book review , Content / 2020-11-02

All content of Opuscula 13 is available with open access. Printed edition distributed by Eddy.se AB. Also available at Amazon.com, Adlibris, and Bokus. View volume at ERIH PLUS. Book reviews Troels Myrup Kristensen (Aarhus University, Denmark) | J. Siapkas, Från Olympia till Leonidas (Antikvetenskapens teoretiska landskap, 2), Lund: Nordic Academic Press 2018. 368 pp. ISBN 978-91-88661-69-2. https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-13-10 Filmo Verhagen (Uppsala University, Sweden) | W. Scheidel, Escape from Rome. The failure of empire and the road to prosperity, Princeton: Princeton University Press 2019. xvii + 670 pp., 56 figures and 5 tables. ISBN 978-0-6911721-8-7. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691198835 https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-13-11 Georgia Galani (Stockholm University, Sweden) | V. di Napoli, F. Camia, V. Evangelidis, D. Grigoropoulos, D. Rogers, S. Vlizos (eds.), What’s new in Roman Greece? Recent work on the Greek Mainland and the islands in the Roman period. Proceedings of a conference held in Athens, 8–10 October 2015 (ΜΕΛΕΤΗΜΑΤΑ, 80), National Hellenic Research Foundation/Institute of Historical Research: Athens 2018. 646 pp.,16 pls. ISBN 978-960-9538-79-4. https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-13-12 Johannes Siapkas (Stockholm University, Sweden) | L.M. Andersen Funder, T. Myrup Kristensen, & V. Nørskov, Classical heritage and European identities. The imagined landscapes of Danish classicism. Abingdon: Routledge 2019. 125 pp. ISBN: 978-1-138-31750-5. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429455179 https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-13-13 Åke Engsheden (Stockholm University, Sweden) | J.-L. Fournet, The rise of Coptic. Egyptian versus Greek…

Erik Wetter and the genesis of the San Giovenale excavations

All content of Opuscula 13 is available with open access. Printed edition distributed by Eddy.se AB. Also available at Amazon.com, Adlibris, and Bokus. View volume at ERIH PLUS. Erik Wetter and the genesis of the San Giovenale excavations By Fredrik Tobin-Dodd (Swedish Institute of Classical Studies in Rome, Italy) Abstract The Swedish excavations at San Giovenale (1956–1965) had a major impact in the field of pre-Roman archaeology in Italy, primarily through the discovery of remains of both Etruscan and earlier domestic architecture. This article examines the genesis of the project, and suggests that the early history of the project has sometimes been misrepresented. While the excavations came to serve as a training-ground for young Swedish archaeologists and made very important contributions to the study of ancient domestic architecture, these were not explicit goals at the conception of the project. The article also studies the peculiar role of Admiral Erik Wetter in the San Giovenale excavations. Despite not being an archaeologist himself, Wetter was both the instigator and, in many ways, the driving force behind the project. The result was an unusual and unclear leadership situation, something that in the long run created problems for the project. Bibliographical information Fredrik Tobin-Dodd,…

The Old Cemetery for Foreigners in Rome
Article , Content / 2020-11-02

All content of Opuscula 13 is available with open access. Printed edition distributed by Eddy.se AB. Also available at Amazon.com, Adlibris, and Bokus. View volume at ERIH PLUS. The Old Cemetery for Foreigners in Rome with a new Inventory of its burials By Nicholas Stanley-Price (Non-Catholic Cemetery for Foreigners, Rome, Italy) Abstract From at least 1716 until formal closure of the Cemetery in 1822, non-Catholic foreigners dying in Rome were usually buried adjacent to the Pyramid of Gaius Cestius in Testaccio. Some 80 stone monuments in the Old Cemetery were systematically recorded in the 1980s. To these can now be added a similar number of burials known from travel accounts and archival sources. This new, combined Inventory of 157 entries provides notes on the life and death in Rome for each individual. Its information modifies current perceptions that the Old Cemetery burials reflect mainly an élite, male population of Grand Tourists and aristocrats. Women are better represented, as are a wide range of professions, crafts, and domestic roles. A reassessment of the Cemetery’s layout leads to conclusions about its original extent, the first appearance of stone memorials in the 1760s, and the deliberate planning of graves in a burial-ground usually…

Vidracco, Braone, and San Lorenzo
Article , Content / 2020-11-02

All content of Opuscula 13 is available with open access. Printed edition distributed by Eddy.se AB. Also available at Amazon.com, Adlibris, and Bokus. View volume at ERIH PLUS. Vidracco, Braone, and San Lorenzo. Recruitment or dilectio? By Svante Fischer (Independent scholar, Sweden) & Ian N. Wood (University of Leeds, United Kingdom) Abstract This paper is a study of three solidus hoards located at strategic passages through the Italian Alps. It is argued that the hoards are connected to barbarian mercenaries in Roman service. The hoards are analysed and compared to historical sources and solidus hoards from Scandinavia. It is argued that it may be possible to distinguish between hoards that contain solidi used to pay for barbarian recruits and hoards that are proof of dilectio, bonus payments. In the latter case, it is argued that freshly minted solidi from northern Italy are more likely to represent dilectio than older and imported coins. Bibliographical information Svante Fischer & Ian N. Wood, ‘Vidracco, Braone, and San Lorenzo. Recruitment or dilectio?’, Opuscula. Annual of the Swedish Institutes at Athens and Rome (OpAthRom) 13, Stockholm 2020, 165–186. ISSN: 2000-0898. ISBN: 978-91-977799-2-0. https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-13-07

Religion and family politics in Hellenistic Kalaureia

All content of Opuscula 13 is available with open access. Printed edition distributed by Eddy.se AB. Also available at Amazon.com, Adlibris, and Bokus. View volume at ERIH PLUS. Religion and family politics in Hellenistic Kalaureia. Three new inscriptions from the sanctuary of Poseidon By Nikolaos Papazarkadas (University of California, Berkeley, USA) & Jenny Wallensten (Swedish Institute at Athens, Greece) Abstract This article presents three unpublished Hellenistic inscriptions from the sanctuary of Poseidon in Kalaureia (modern Poros): two found during archaeological excavations on the site and one recorded in a letter that was once part of Ioannis Kapodistrias’ official correspondence. All three inscriptions were dedicatory and carved on bases supporting portrait statues. Interestingly, they were offered to Poseidon by members of a single family already known from other documents in the Kalaureian epigraphic corpus. Remarkably, eight out of the 18 inscriptions discovered in Kalaureia make repeated references to men and women of this very family, which appears to have materially dominated Poseidon’s temenos and its environs during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC through the careful placement of portraits of its members. Most of these statues were conspicuously placed by the entrance to the sanctuary, though at least one of them…

A Protocorinthian aryballos with a myth scene from Tegea

All content of Opuscula 13 is available with open access. Printed edition distributed by Eddy.se AB. Also available at Amazon.com, Adlibris, and Bokus. View volume at ERIH PLUS. A Protocorinthian aryballos with a myth scene from Tegea By Erik Østby (University of Bergen, Norway) Abstract During the preparation of the new exhibition in the Museum of Tegea it was discovered that one composed fragment from a Protocorinthian aryballos with a complicated, figured representation, found during the excavations of the Norwegian Institute at Athens in the Sanctuary of Athena Alea in the 1990s, joined with another fragment found by the French excavation at the same site in the early 20th century. After the join, the interpretation of the scene must be completely changed. The aryballos has two narrative scenes in a decorative frieze: a fight between two unidentified men over a large vessel, and an unidentified myth involving the killing of a horse-like monster by two heroes, with the probable presence of Athena. Possibly this is an otherwise unknown episode from the cycle of the Argonauts, involving the Dioskouroi, perhaps also Jason and Medea. The aryballos was produced by an artist closely related to and slightly earlier than the so-called Huntsmen…

A Mycenaean pictorial vase from Midea

All content of Opuscula 13 is available with open access. Printed edition distributed by Eddy.se AB. Also available at Amazon.com, Adlibris, and Bokus. View volume at ERIH PLUS. A Mycenaean pictorial vase from Midea By Katie Demakopoulou (Director Emerita, National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece) Abstract The Greek-Swedish excavations on the Mycenaean acropolis of Midea have brought to light a large amount of fine decorated pottery, which includes numerous fragmentary vases and sherds with pictorial decoration. This material has firmly established Midea as an important find-spot of figure-style pottery, like other great Mycenaean Argive centres, such as Mycenae, Tiryns and Berbati. This paper presents a remarkable pictorial vase recently found at Midea. It is a ring-based krater, almost completely restored from fragments, decorated with a row of six birds. The bird is a common motif in Mycenaean pictorial vase painting and also well attested on many other ceramic pieces at Midea, particularly the type of the folded-wing marsh bird. This type of bird is also popular at Tiryns, providing evidence that this category of pictorial pottery from the two citadels, dated to the LH IIIB2 period, was produced in the same workshop, which must have been situated at or near Tiryns….

The New Swedish Cyprus Expedition 2019

All content of Opuscula 13 is available with open access. Printed edition distributed by Eddy.se AB. Also available at Amazon.com, Adlibris, and Bokus. View volume at ERIH PLUS. The New Swedish Cyprus Expedition 2019: Excavations at Hala Sultan Tekke (The Söderberg Expedition). Preliminary results, with contributions by L. Recht, B. Placiente Robedizo, C. Eriksson, L. Andersson, M. Svensson, L. Avial Chicharro, S. Hermon, M. Polig & D. Kofel By Peter M. Fischer (University of Gothenburg, Sweden) & Teresa Bürge (Austrian Academy of Sciences) Abstract The tenth season of excavations at the Late Bronze Age city of Hala Sultan Tekke was carried out in four areas: City Quarter 1 (CQ1), CQ4, City Wall 1 (CW1), and Area A (Tomb RR). The excavations in CQ1 provided additional information on the pre-LC IIIA occupation of the city. Stratum 3 which can be dated to the LC IIC (13th century BC) was further exposed. For the first time in the city even older phases, Strata 4 and 5, were found. These are tentatively dated to the LC I–II (15th to 14th century BC). In CQ4 numerous storage areas were exposed, which belong to a large compound. There is also evidence of production of textiles…

The 2016–2018 Greek-Swedish archaeological project at Thessalian Vlochos, Greece

All content of Opuscula 13 is available with open access. Printed edition distributed by Eddy.se AB. Also available at Amazon.com, Adlibris, and Bokus. View volume at ERIH PLUS. The 2016–2018 Greek-Swedish archaeological project at Thessalian Vlochos, Greece By Maria Vaïopoulou (Ephorate of Antiquities of Karditsa, Greece), Helene Whittaker (University of Gothenburg, Sweden), Robin Rönnlund (University of Gothenburg, Sweden), Fotini Tsiouka (Ephorate of Antiquities of Karditsa, Greece), Johan Klange (Arkeologikonsult Ltd., Sweden), Derek Pitman (Bournemouth University, United Kingdom), Rich Potter (University of Gothenburg, Sweden), Lawrence Shaw (University of Winchester, United Kingdom), Josephine Hagan (Bournemouth University, United Kingdom), Ellen Siljedahl (University of Gothenburg, Sweden), Matilda Forssén (University of Gothenburg, Sweden), Sujatha Chandrasekaran (University of Gothenburg, Sweden), Sotiria Dandou (Swedish Institute at Athens, Greece), Veronica Forsblom Ljungdahl (National Museums of History, Sweden), Asta Pavilionytė (Bournemouth University, United Kingdom), Hayden Scott-Pratt (Bournemouth University, United Kingdom), Elisabet Schager (National Museums of History, Sweden) & Harry Manley (Bournemouth University, United Kingdom) Abstract The Vlochos Archaeological Project (2016–2018) was a Greek-Swedish archaeological investigation of the remains of the ancient urban site at Vlochos in western Thessaly, Greece. Employing a wide array of non-invasive methods, the project succeeded in completely mapping the visible remains, which had previously not…

Dissertation abstracts 2018–2019

All content of Opuscula 12 (2019) is available with open access. Printed edition distributed by Eddy.se AB. Also available at Amazon.com, Adlibris, and Bokus. View volume at ERIH PLUS. Dissertation abstracts 2018–2019 Tao Thykier Makeeff | Do satyrs wear sneakers? Hellenic polytheism and the reception of Antiquity in contemporary Greece—a study in serious play, Lund University 2019. ISBN 978-91-88899-36-1. http://lup.lub.lu.se/record/edcbc1ea-f586-4cf9-8e36-4ac41726e888 Lewis Webb | Gloria muliebris. Elite female status competition in Mid-Republican Rome, Gothenburg University 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/2077/60216 Irene Selsvold | Pagan pasts, Christian futures. Memory manipulation and christianisation in the cities of Western Asia Minor, Gothenburg University 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/2077/60340 Otto H. Linderborg | Herodotus and the origins of political philosophy. The beginnings of Western thought from the viewpoint of its impending end, Uppsala University 2018. ISBN 978-91-506-2703-9. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-350646 Antonios Pontoropoulos | Erotic language and representations of desire in the philostratean Erotic Letters, Uppsala University 2019. ISBN 978-91-506-2781-7. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-389980 [Addendum only available in pdf version] Robin Rönnlund | A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Function and symbolism of ancient Greek akropoleis, Gothenburg University 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/2077/57966 Bibliographical information ‘Dissertation abstracts 2018–2019’, Opuscula. Annual of the Swedish Institutes at Athens and Rome (OpAthRom) 12, Stockholm 2019, 399–402. ISSN: 2000-0898. ISBN: 978-91-977799-1-3. https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-12-15