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Opuscula. Annual of the Swedish Institutes at Athens and Rome 1, 2008

Contents

‘Front matter‘, 1–6

Katie Demakopoulou, Nicoletta Divari-Valakou, Monica Nilsson, Ann-Louise Schallin, with an appendix by Kalliopi Nikita, ‘Excavations in Midea 2006’, 7–30
https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-01-02

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John K. Papadopoulos, ‘The Archaic wall of Athens. Reality or myth?’, 31–46
https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-01-03

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Anton Bonnier, ‘Epineia kai limenes. The relationship between harbours and cities in ancient Greek texts’, 47–61
https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-01-04

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Fabrizio Vistoli, ‘Una nuova acquisizione di ceramica “white-on red” dall’ager Veientanus’, 63–77
https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-01-05

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Ola Wikander, ‘The religio-social message of the gold tablets of Pyrgi’, 79–84
https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-01-06

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Milette Gaifmann, ‘Visualized rituals and dedicatory inscriptions on votive offerings to the Nymphs’, 85–103
https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-01-07

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Gabriella Barbieri, ‘Materiali inediti da Sovana. Alcuni corredi funerari dalla necropoli di San Sebastiano’, 105–122
https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-01-08

This contribution is only available in print.

Maria Gabriella Scapaticci, ‘Nuovi dati sul popolamento nella pianura di Tarquinia durante la romanizzazione. Il caso della località “Il Giglio”‘, 123–135
https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-01-09

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Paavo Roos, ‘A forgotten tomb at Hippokome and its neighbours’, 137–144
https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-01-10

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Henrik Gerding, ‘Reconsidering the tomb of Aulus Hirtius’, 145–154
https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-01-11

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Olof Brandt, ‘I muri traversali di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme e la sinagoga di Ostia’, 155–166
https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-01-12

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Carmen Marcks, ‘Die Büste eines Afrikaners aus der Sammlung Piranesi in Stockholm’, 167–178
https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-01-13

This contribution is only available in print.

Peter M. Fischer, ‘Paul Åström (1929–2008) – the Swedish nestor of archaeology’, 179–181
https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-01-14

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Ann-Louise Schallin, ‘Paul Åström in memoriam 1929–2008’, 181–182
https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-01-15

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Gullög Nordquist, ‘Tullia Linders (1925–2008)’, 183–184
https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-01-16

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Book reviews

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R.S. Merrillees, ‘Review of P. Åström & K. Nys, eds, Hala Sultan Tekke XII (SIMA 45:12)’, 2007, 185–186
https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-01-17

Charlotte Scheffer, ‘Works dealing with questions concerning ancient Greek vases (P. Rouet, Approaches to the study of Attic vases; O. Borgers, The Theseus Painter; T. Mannack, The late mannierists in Athenian vase-painting; R. Wachter, Non-Attic Greek vase inscriptions; T. Fischer-Hansen, CVA. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek 1; W.D.J. van de Put, CVA. Amsterdam 3; A.J. Clarc & J. Gaunt, eds, Essays in honor of Dietrich von Bothmer, by A.J. Clarc & J. Gaunt, eds)’, 186–190
https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-01-18

Johannes Siapkas, ‘The complexities of Hellenism—a review article (C. Güthenke, Placing modern Greece; Y. Hamilakis, The nation and its ruins)’, 190–197
https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-01-19

Bibliographical information

Opuscula. Annual of the Swedish Institutes at Athens and Rome (OpAthRom) 1, Stockholm 2008. ISSN: 2000-0898. ISBN: 978-91-977798-0-7. Softcover, 198 pages. https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-01

Article abstracts

Excavations in Midea 2006

By Katie Demakopoulou (National Archaeological Museum, Athens), Nicoletta Divari-Valakou (Third Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, Athens), Monica Nilsson (Swedish Institute at Athens), Ann-Louise Schallin (Swedish Institute at Athens) & Kalliopi Nikita (University of Nottingham)

Excavations in Midea continued in 2006 as a Greek-Swedish programme under the direction of Dr. Katie Demakopoulou in collaboration with Dr. Ann-Louise Schallin. In the Upper Acropolis remains of an Early Helladic II defensive system were uncovered. East of this and at a lower level, a floor deposit was excavated with abundant pottery of Early Helladic I date including typical examples of the Talioti Ware. In the West Gate area excavation continued in the west part of the building complex adjacent to the fortification wall. Abundant Late helladic IIIB2 pottery was recovered from the exploration of two more rooms of the complex. A new trench was opened on the lower west terrace of the Acropolis in order to expose the line and the entire width of the fortification wall, which is almost completely covered by accumulated deposits in this area. Excavation was resumed in the East Gate area with the removal of a wide baulk and the investigation of the space associated with the series of rooms abutting the northeast section of the fortification wall. From the Mycenaean deposits removed, pottery including some pictorial sherds was recovered, as well as two human figurines.

The Archaic wall of Athens: reality or myth?

By John K. Papadopoulos (University of California)

This paper reviews the philological and archaeological evidence for an Archaic, pre-Persian, city wall of Athens, and concludes that there was no Archaic enceinte separate from the fortifications of the Acropolis and Pelargikon. The extant testimonia, primarily Thucydides and Herodotos, can be interpreted in different ways, but there is nothing in these sources to suggest categorically fortifications other than those of the Acropolis/Pelargikon. Previous arguments put forward for the existence of such a putative wall do not stand up to closer scrutiny and, despite extensive excavations in those areas where the wall has been claimed, there is to date no archaeological evidence for an Archaic wall. The wall that the Persians breached in their sack of Athens in 480/79 B.C. was the Mycenaean circuit wall surrounding the Acropolis and Pelargikon; together these walls, built in the Mycenaean period, continued to serve through the Archaic period until 479 B.C. when work was begun on the Themistoklean Wall.

Epineia kai limenes: the relationship between harbours and cities in ancient Greek texts

By Anton Bonnier (Stockholm University)

The aim of this article is to explore the relationship between harbours and cities as presented in literary sources dating primarily to the Archaic and Classical periods. Although it has been recognized that access to the sea and sailing routes was of great importance for the economic and political life of ancient Greek city-states, there have been few studies of the relationship between cities and harbours, and in particular of the emblematic role played by harbours within literary sources. Harbours are often presented as extramural entities in relation to cities and although urban centres would depend on harbours for the import and export of goods, and for maintaining navies, the relationship between harbours and cities is not unproblematic if we look at what harbours signify within these texts.

Una nuova acquisizione di ceramica “white-on-red” dall’ager Veientanus

By Fabrizio Vistoli (Società Magna Grecia, Rome)

This paper presents an unpublished clay plate with painted decoration found during field surveys conducted in 1994 inside the area of a new Etruscan settlement discovered in the district of “Acquatraversa”, nearby the ancient route of via Veientana (Rome). The analytical study of this important and typical object, besides comparison with related pottery, makes it possible to assign its date exactly to the beginning of the last quarter of seventh century BC, as well as to suggest that it was manufactured in the territory of ancient Capena.

The religio-social message of the gold tablets from Pyrgi

By Ola Wikander (Lund University)

The gold tablets from Pyrgi, studied many times for linguistic and philological reasons, constitute a clear example of religio-social ideology at work. They deploy their themes (the goddess, the ruler, the sanctuary) in a way that helps create the symbolical universe of the readers, in whose world it is inscribed that these things are part of a greater, orderly whole. The texts are here analysed from the points of view of ideology, power and religious tendency, as parts of the system of religious symbolism that they seek to legitimize. Rhetorical points are also touched upon, as well as the fundamental question of the implied readership of the texts.

Visualized rituals and dedicatory inscriptions on votive offerings to the nymphs

By Milette Gaifman (Yale University)

This article explores the religious meaning of Archaic and Classical dedications with images of rituals (e.g. sacrificial procession, libation) and dedicatory inscriptions. I argue that these objects ought to be treated as meaningful expressions of individuals’ piety rather than as reflections of actual cult practices. I adopt a holistic approach that considers the two components of dedications—images and texts—as inextricably intertwined in the creation of meaning. The argument is exemplified through the examination of dedications to the Nymphs: the so-called Pitsá tablet, Archandros’ relief from the Athenian Asklepieion, and two reliefs from a cave at Penteli. The detailed analysis of images, inscriptions, and their juxtaposition reveals how these dedications made the devotion of named individuals perpetual at a specific site, and shaped the manner in which the sacred was to be envisioned. Art and text together marked the site of deposition as a place of worship of the Nymphs, articulated specific ideas regarding rituals, the nature of the goddesses and their companions Pan and Hermes, and the possibilities for human interaction with these divinities. In rendering individual devotion continuous, these dedications confirmed the inexistence of such visualized rituals in reality. They elided and asserted the divide between the real and the imaginary in Greek religion.

Materiali inediti da Sovana. Alcuni corredi funerari dalla necropolis di San Sebastiano

By Gabriella Barbieri (Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Toscana, Florence)

Hellenistic pottery, found in four Etruscan chamber tombs in Sovana, is presented here. The most interesting vessels are some jugs, decorated with a floral pattern, that were produced locally in the third century B.C. A black-glazed plate contains an inscription that is the oldest Latin epigraphic document of Sovana and it shows the slow process of Romanization of an Etruscan town in the first century B.C. This funeral complex is interesting because of the lack of documentation at Sovana, that is perfectly preserved.

Nuovi dati sul popolamento nella pianura di Tarquinia durante la romanizzazione. Il caso della località “Il Giglio”

By Maria Gabriella Scapaticci (Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell’Etruria Meridionale)

During works for a communal athletic-ground at Tarquinia in the district “Il Giglio”, which took place between 2000 and 2001, some slight remains of ancient structures of the Late-Republican and Early-Imperial Age were accidentally discovered. The Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell’Etruria Meridionale then undertook extensive excavations, documenting a farm and an interesting hydraulic system, part of which had already been found not far from there, at Tarquinia in the district “Gabelletta”. The part of the plain of Tarquinia that is located at the foot of the hill, where Corneto was later established in the Middle Ages, was intensively cultivated with a drainage system and very extensive canalizations, because of the natural fertility of the soil and the richness of water-supplies in this region. It is thus likely that the flax for which Tarquinia was famous in antiquity was cultivated in these fields, and that, towards the end of the second Punic War, this farmland supplied Rome with the flax to make the sails destined for the military enterprise.

A forgotten tomb at Hippokome and its neighbours

By Paavo Roos (Lund University)

A rock-cut tomb in Hippokome on the Lyco-Carian border was overlooked in an earlier survey and is published here, together with an adjacent blind door and two niches with sockets for stelai beside it, and another tomb and a niche in the vicinity.

Reconsidering the tomb of Aulus Hirtius

By Henrik Gerding (Uppsala University)

Since its discovery, the tomb of Aulus Hirtius in Rome has been regarded as a firmly dated monument and, thus, constituted a widely used fixed point for those tracing the early development of Roman brick architecture. However, several peculiarities regarding the construction of the tomb and its inscriptions strongly indicate that the present dating, which is based on historical sources, may not be correct. In this note it is suggested by the author that the original tomb was destroyed and thoroughly remodelled in the early or mid-Augustan period. Some general implications of this regarding the introduction of brick architecture in Rome are also considered.

I muri trasversali di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme e la sinagoga di Ostia

By Olof Brandt (Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana, Rome)

The reasons behind the unusual internal division of the first phase of the church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme have never been fully explained. This paper proposes an explanation of the phenomenon with the help of a comparison with the Synagogue of Ostia Antica.

Die Büste eines Afrikaners aus der Sammlung Piranesi in Stockholm

By Carmen Marcks (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

A portrait bust of an African placed among the antiquities in the Royal Museum at Stockholm once belonged to the Roman artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi. It was brought to Sweden at the end of the 18th century at the instance of King Gustav III. The head is a work of the middle or second half of the 16th century. It belongs to a specific, local, Roman form of Mannerist portraits, which have in common a remarkable affinity to antique imperial portrait busts. While the head is an eclectic work combining an idealized countenance—a contemporary peculiarity of portrait art—with antique usages of portrayal, the bust itself seems to be a work that stands directly in the tradition of cinquecentesque Venetian busts. Obviously head and bust were not originally created as an ensemble.