Μετάλλινα αγγεία του 4ου - 2ου αι. π.Χ. από τον ελλαδικό χώρο

Abstract

The present thesis focused on a thoroughly study of all metal vases found in Greece, dating from 400 to 100 B.C., according to the preserved vases, their imitations in other materials, their depictions in art and the literary and epigraphical sources in order to define their use, name, occurrence, chronology and workshops of production. As a result of a profound study of all available material from bibliographical sources and to a minor degree from visits in museums, we concluded to the followings. The majority of the metal vases under examination are attested in tombs, favoring their preservation, and secondly in sanctuaries and urban environments. Melting of metal objects, plunder or natural disasters were the main causes of their loss during antiquity and afterwards. At this point, literary sources are particularly revealing about the diversity and the quantity of precious vases in the ownership of the kings and the elite during the 4th-2th centuries B.C., scarcely imaginable by the small number of metal vases found so far. Among the preserved metal vases from Greece, most were made of bronze, fewer of silver and none of gold, while the vast majority of them was found in Macedonia. Important for their wealth funerary assemblages with sets of metal vases are attested in Macedonia for a short period of time (330/20-280 B.C.), reflecting the prosperity that followed the conquest of the East by Alexander the Great and the imitation of Alexander’s court habits.From the 3rd cent. B. C. and later on, funerary assemblages with silver vases are attested in Thessaly, Euboea, Aetolia and Achaia. A possible explanation is the installation of macedonian garrisons in various cities in Greece after the Lamian war. As a result, luxurious monumental tombs were built, for the Macedonians or the regional elite, accompanied by precious vases, in imitation of funerary practices already known in Macedonia, as a way of enforcing their social status and as a belief for an eternal banquet after death. Apart from the old famous metal workshops in Athens and Corinth, Macedonia was added to them during the last third of the 4th cent. B.C., attracting metalworkers, seeking for work, from various places in Greece, even Apulia, as is presumed by the appearance of certain shapes of vases. Workshops engaged with the production of silver must have existed near their clientele, contrary to the ones producing cheaper bronze vases. Having taken into account the preserved silver vases, literary and epigraphical sources referring to them, their workshops could have been located in Macedonia, Demetrias, Athens, Aetolia, Achaia, Rhodes and in the great sanctuaries. On the contrary, bronze vases were fabricated in Athens and mainly in Corinth and were distributed by means of trade in Greece and far beyond. These vases were occasionally copied in bronze or even in silver from other workshops.%%%%Στόχος της μeλέτης ήταν η διeξοδική πραγμάτeυση όλων των μeτάλλινων αγγeίων που απαντούν στον eλλαδικό χώρο από το 400 ως το 100 π.Χ., σύμφωνα μe τα…