Opuscula 7 (2014) is now available for purchase and free download at Bokorder.se. Also available at Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Bokus.com and Adlibris.com. A note on domestic vs communal grain storage in the Early Helladic period By Monica Nilsson Abstract This paper sets out to propose an alternative model of economic management at settlements of Early Helladic I–II date, where evidence of socioeconomic hierarchies is not prominent in the archaeological material. It is suggested here that the remains of certain original structures within the boundaries of settlements were once granaries which served the whole community. If this reading of the material is accepted, then communal storage seems to have supplemented domestic storage or constituted the sole method of grain keeping at a number of settlements during the initial stages of the EH period. The practice was then abandoned and, with one exception, after the EH II–III break there is instead a strong case for domestic storage only. A potential EH I–II communal management of basic food supplies thus carries wider implications for the interpretation of the general management of settlements. Bibliographical information Monica Nilsson, ‘A note on domestic vs communal grain storage in the Early Helladic period’, Opuscula. Annual of the Swedish…

Opuscula 7 (2014) is now available for purchase and free download at Bokorder.se. Also available at Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Bokus.com and Adlibris.com. Dairy Queen. Churns and milk products in the Aegean Bronze Age By Sarah P. Morris Abstract This article assembles examples of an unusual vessel found in domestic contexts of the Early Bronze Age around the Aegean and in the Eastern Mediterranean. Identified as a “barrel vessel” by the excavators of Troy, Lesbos (Thermi), Lemnos (Poliochni), and various sites in the Chalkidike, the shape finds its best parallels in containers identified as churns in the Chalcolithic Levant, and related vessels from the Eneolithic Balkans. Levantine parallels also exist in miniature form, as in the Aegean at Troy, Thermi, and Poliochni, and appear as part of votive figures in the Near East. My interpretation of their use and development will consider how they compare to similar shapes in the archaeological record, especially in Aegean prehistory, and what possible transregional relationships they may express along with their specific function as household processing vessels for dairy products during the third millennium BC. Bibliographical information Sarah P. Morris, ‘Dairy Queen. Churns and milk products in the Aegean Bronze Age’, Opuscula. Annual of the Swedish…

Opuscula 7 (2014) is now available for purchase and free download at Bokorder.se. Also available at Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Bokus.com and Adlibris.com. Karpophoroi deities and the Attic cult of Ge. Notes on IG II2 4758 By Jenny Wallensten Abstract Karpophoros, fruit-bearing, is an epithet easily considered as “literary”, i.e., a poetic name with little or no relation to cult. The epigraphic sources, however, clearly show us that gods thus named were offered divine worship. The epithet is found in connection with several deities. Goddesses of agriculture, such as Demeter, and Ge, the Earth, naturally carry this name, but so do Zeus, Dionysos and a goddess known as “The Aiolian”, who was sometimes associated with Agrippina. This paper surveys deities known as karpophoroi and examines what their cult entailed. Its focus is, however, on a brief Acropolis inscription, IG II2 4758, where Ge is honoured as Karpophoros, in accordance with an oracle. The case study provides insights into the Attic cult of Ge, the epithet Karpophoros, as well as the use and function of epithets within Greek dedicatory language. Bibliographical information Jenny Wallensten, ‘Karpophoroi deities and the Attic cult of Ge. Notes on IG II2 4758’, Opuscula. Annual of the Swedish Institutes…

Opuscula 7 (2014) is now available for purchase and free download at Bokorder.se. Also available at Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Bokus.com and Adlibris.com. New inscriptions in the Bodrum Museum. A Hellenistic foundation from the area of Mylasa By Signe Isager Abstract This article presents two hitherto unknown Hellenistic inscriptions, both of which are fragmentary. They are inscribed on two sides of a stone which is now in the Museum of Underwater Archaeology in Bodrum (inv. no. 6651) but probably originated from the area of Mylasa. Both inscriptions concern a private foundation that is referred to as the syngeneia in inscription A. The foundation seems to be of a type already known from Halikarnassos, Kos and Thera, for example. This article aims to make the two inscriptions available not least to the many scholars studying associations and foundations. Bibliographical information Signe Isager, ‘New inscriptions in the Bodrum Museum. A Hellenistic foundation from the area of Mylasa’, Opuscula. Annual of the Swedish Institutes at Athens and Rome (OpAthRom) 7, Stockholm 2014, 185–192. ISSN: 2000-0898. ISBN: 978-91-977798-6-9. Softcover, 257 pages. https://doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-07-10 See also Conference: Berit Wells in memoriam

Opuscula 7 (2014) is now available for purchase and free download at Bokorder.se. Also available at Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Bokus.com and Adlibris.com. Cooking stands and braziers in Greek sanctuaries By Charlotte Scheffer Abstract The presence of dining-rooms in Greek sanctuaries shows that food was eaten and most likely also cooked on the premises. The study of both the preparation and the cooking of the food eaten in the sanctuaries would be too much, and this paper will therefore concentrate on the presence of cooking stands and braziers in Greek sanctuaries, their uses, and on other related means of carrying the pots. Cooking stands were meant to hold the cooking pots above the fire; they were open at the bottom and were placed in the fire or perhaps rather in the glowing embers of a fire. In Etruria, there were three types (types I–III): a cylindrical stand with a top plate with holes, a half-cylindrical stand with three supports attached to the inner side of the wall, and a barrel-like stand with a narrower top. Cooking braziers had, unlike the cooking stands, a closed bottom as well as the means to carry a pot. Bibliographical information Charlotte Scheffer, ‘Cooking stands and braziers…

Opuscula 7 (2014) is now available for purchase and free download at Bokorder.se. Also available at Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Bokus.com and Adlibris.com. Castration, cult and agriculture. Perspectives on Greek animal sacrifice By Gunnel Ekroth Abstract The castration of most male animals seems to have been the rule in ancient Greece when rearing cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs; only very few adult males are needed for breeding purposes and flocks of bulls, rams, billy-goats and boars are difficult to keep, since they are too aggressive. Castrated males yield more and fattier meat, and, in the case of sheep, more wool. Still, sacred laws and sacrificial calendars stipulate the sacrifice of uncastrated victims, and vase-paintings frequently represent bulls, rams and billy-goats in ritual contexts. This paper will discuss the role of uncastrated male animals in Greek cult in the Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods, both from a religious and an agricultural perspective. Of particular interest are the relations between the practical, economic reality and the theological perception of sacrifice. These issues will be explored using epigraphical, literary, iconographical and zooarchaeological evidence. Bibliographical information Gunnel Ekroth, ‘Cult, castration and agriculture. Perspectives on Greek animal sacrifice’, Opuscula. Annual of the Swedish Institutes at Athens and…

Opuscula 7 (2014) is now available for purchase and free download at Bokorder.se. Also available at Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Bokus.com and Adlibris.com. Berit Wells in Memoriam By Arto Penttinen & Jenny Wallensten Introduction The following section honours our colleague, teacher, and friend, Berit Wells. The contributions were originally to be included in a Festschrift, which we wished to present to Berit on her 67th birthday. Sadly, Berit lost her battle against cancer before we could finish the volume. We thus decided to transform the Festschrift into a conference dedicated to her memory, and this event took place over two cold winter days in December 2009. For the Festschrift we had chosen two themes: religion and food production in the ancient Greek world. The interface of these very broad themes seemed to us to converge and offer an overall perspective of Berit’s research and simultaneously, they allowed colleagues from all stages of Berit’s careers to take part and contribute to the conference. The six articles included in Opuscula 2014 are a selection of the conference papers, which also included reports from the Poros excavations. Poros was Berit’s last major project and its results will be published elsewhere. Conference proceedings published in Opuscula…