A possible new ritual scene from the Mycenaean settlement at Kontopigado, Athens

This article focuses on the ritual performance of relations between Babongo Pygmies and their neighbours in Gabon. Whereas the Babongo occupy socially subordinate positions vis-a-vis neighbouring populations, the Bwiti initiation ritual inverses this relational form by placing Pygmies at its mythical origin-point. The Babongo who perform at rituals embody the Pygmy as he is construed by their neighbours. However, the profound changes undergone by Bwiti over the 20th century have allowed for the emancipation of the Babongo. In becoming full-blown ritual actors, they enact Bwiti's origin myth for their own sake. Thus subaltern actors emerge as central participants on the ritual scene.

The stele from Vezirhan (Istanbul Archaeological Museum, inv. 6219+71.27) is best known for its Old Phrygian and Greek inscriptions (B-05). However, its reliefs also pose an interesting challenge. They include a boar hunt, a ritual banquet scene, and a human figure, commonly identified as a goddess, with lions, birds, and a palmette-like motif “sprouting” from her head.
 The stele is dated to the late 5th–early 4th century BC. The hunt and banquet scenes clearly belong to this time (and find many parallels on votive and funerary reliefs and seals of Hellespontine Phrygia).
 The image of the goddess, however, continues a different tradition, one that possibly stems from an earlier period. The Vezirhan goddess doesn’t have a singular prototype, but displays connections to a wide variety of iconographical schemes and details. Most are found in the 7th–6th centuries BC arts of Anatolia and the Aegean. By examining this corpus, with special focus on the Potnia theron iconographic type, we understand that the Vezirhan goddess is related to other deities attested in Anatolia (in fact, her name might have been a variation of Artemis, according to line 3 of the Phrygian inscription). Yet, she cannot be identified with any of them directly. For all matches, there are also differences. A certain creative effort was made to distinguish the goddess from her peers, possibly to reflect her local cult.
 In my talk, I would like to unfold this synthetic image, examine its components, and try to put them back together – and hopefully gain some insight into how the Vezirhan goddess’ iconographic scheme came to be.

The main subject of this article is red-figure pottery from Ainos (Enez) in eastern Thrace from the late 6th century to the late 5th century BC. The material comes from the fill layers of the necropolis and a limited number of grave contexts as well as from the ancient acropolis, which is known today as the Medieval Castle. Ainos was a member of the Delian League and an ally of Athens in the 5th century BC. Available finds indicate that Athenian red figure pottery was being imported throughout the 5th century BC. The identified painters, shapes and subjects on the vases show parallelism with Athens. Calyx and bell crater, skyphos and cups are the most represented shapes. The earliest red figure pottery can be attributed to the Pioneer Group. However, the finds from the timespan between 500 to 480 BC constitute 4% of all the sherds. Available finds indicate that red figure and black figure pottery were in use simultaneously until the middle of the 5th century BC. In the second half of the 5th century, red figure shows an obvious increase. In contrast to some settlements in western Asia Minor, Ainos continued to import Athenian red figure pottery through the course of the 5th and 4th centuries BC. The city’s location on important trade routes between the North Aegean and the Black Sea and its large hinterland must have contributed to this situation. A remarkable increase in the quantity of red figure pottery in Ainos can be detected at the end of the 5th century BC in parallel with the trade boom between the Black Sea ports and Athens. Among the various subjects depicted on the vases, Dionysos and related scenes are popular from the beginning until the end of the 5th century BC. Also, scenes from women’s daily life, komos, soldiers’ farewells and sacrificial offerings are identified. Context graves in limited availability give us information about the intended purpose of the red figure pottery in Ainos. Accordingly, pelikai and hydriai were used as urns for cremation graves and lekythoi were used as grave goods. Although the examples of local productions in black figure technique from the late 6th and 5th century BC were identified in Ainos, available examples of red figure pottery from this period show the features of the Athenian clay, glaze and the painting style. The finds, which differ from Athenian imports, can be classified as belonging to the 4th century BC. On the other hand, the earliest examples of the local red figure pottery in Mainland Greece can be traced to the second half of the 5th century BC.

The Lagina Hekate Sanctuary was finalized with reconstruction activities in the Late Hellenistic and Early Imperial period. The four sides of the sanctuary were surrounded by stoas in the Doric style built during the Early Imperial period. At a point near the center is the temple and there is an altar located south-east of the temple. As a result of ongoing work in the sacred precinct, the evidence shows that the Temple and cult of Hekate dated back to the 4th century BC. The aim of this study is to determine how old the sanctuary and cult of Hekate in Lagina is based on the archaeological and epigraphical data. The peribolos, which were found in the northeastern part of the sanctuary and were later discovered to have surrounded four sides of the sanctuary, are architecturally the most important proof that they date back to the 4th century BC. The walls are flat-edged, with a pulvinated surface and built as a double row of pitch-faced stones and rectangular blocks. This masonry technique is also found in Stratonikeia Lower City Walls, the repair phases in Kadıkulesi Hill on the western and northern walls and it has been dated back to the 4th century BC. In the context of Maussolos’ urbanization policy, construction activities have also been carried out in Lagina besides Stratonikeia. The data obtained from the naos of the altar have reinforced the opinion that there was a cult building there; especially the numerous coins dated to the 4th and 3rd centuries, the terracotta figurines dated to the Hellenistic period are the other archeological evidence showing that there was a cult building before the temple with Corinthian peristasis. Numerous inscriptions have been found in the sanctuary and most of the inscriptions have been dated to the Roman Imperial period. Three of the inscriptions on the sacred area have been dated to the 4th century BC and one of them has been dated to 197-166 BC. The contents of these inscriptions clearly demonstrate the presence of a sanctuary here and clearly proves that this area was devoted to Hekate. The fact that Stratonikeia was called Hekatesia (the city of Hekate) from 430 to 280 BC is another indication of the importance of Hekate in the region. The Hekate Cult must have already been very powerful in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC so that a magnificent temple could be built with Corinthian peristasis at the end of the 2nd century BC.

The article analyzes Aristotle’s testimony of a possible continuity between the teachings of Hermotimus of Clazomenae and his compatriot Anaxagoras. This testimony will remain the only one among the later ancient reports concerning Hermotimus, representing him more as a wizard and a seer than a philosopher. In this way, his image is presented until the 19th century; Hegel, Zeller, Windelband and others showed undisguised skepticism towards this figure. The state of affairs began to change at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries, when the irrational aspects of ancient thought started to attract researchers. Rohde draws attention to the profound transformation of ideas about the soul in the 7th – 6th centuries BC, when the soul started to be perceived as existing separately from the body, as a special substance not reducible to the latter. E. Dodds discovers the origins of this new concept in the northern countries that opened up to the Greek world due to the colonization of the Black Sea coast and enriched the culture of Hellas with elements of «shamanism». The ability to experience the separation of soul and body was a hallmark of magicians and seers of a special kind that appeared in the 7th – 6th centuries BC — Abaris, Aristaes, Epimenides, and others. Rohde considers Hermotimus to be the most notable example of such a magician. It was from his personal experience that Hermotimus could draw a conclusion about the irreducibility of matter and spirit to each other, and, as a consequence, of the separateness of Mind as a universal principle. The distinction between spirit (soul) and matter (body) will become the fundamental principle of Greek philosophy; the concept of Mind (Nous) will serve as the foundation for the system of Anaxagoras, the first Athenian philosopher, from whom, in fact, the history of classical Greek philosophy begins.

The Acropolis (Akropolis) of Athens has played an important role in the history of the city from prehistory to the present day. It is both a physical location, standing on a rocky outcrop above the city, and a locus for the expression of religious and civic identity. Excavations have uncovered evidence of a Mycenaean palace and citadel from the Bronze Age. Habitation and burials continued into the early Iron Age, while evidence for religious activities appears in the 8th century bce. The character of the Acropolis continues to change in the 6th century before becoming the preeminent sanctuary of the city. Herodotus (I, 59) suggests that it was occupied by the ruling family of Athens (Peisistratids), and the remains of a late-6th-century cistern in the northwest corner may indicate the presence of a garrison as well. Several temples were built to honor Athena, patron goddess of the city, and a range of votive offerings, including stone sculpture, bronzes, pottery, and other objects, were dedicated in the sanctuary. In 480/479 bce, the invading Persian army captured and laid waste to Athens, including the sanctuary on the Acropolis. Only decades later, following the defeat of the Persians, did the Athenians begin a systematic rebuilding of the Acropolis. These efforts, initiated by the Athenian statesman and general Pericles, led to the construction of the temple of Athena Parthenos (Parthenon), the Propylaia, the temple of Athena Polias (Erechtheion), and the temple of Athena Nike. For almost a thousand years, the Acropolis functioned as a center of civic and ritual activity dedicated to Athena and other deities. Sometime in the 6th century ce, the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Classical buildings were adapted to new purposes, including residences and churches. Under the Ottoman Empire, the Acropolis was transformed into a village and garrison. In the 19th century, the Acropolis became a symbol and centerpiece of the newly independent Greek nation as excavations removed postclassical remains and restored the ancient monuments. Today, archaeological research and conservation efforts continue to make new discoveries and contribute to our understanding of the Acropolis.

The new data that have become available in the last two decades show that the Scythian Kingdom with its capital in Neapolis Scythica, which existed in the Crimea in the 2nd century BC, was much closer to Hellenistic states ruled by barbarian dynasties than to nomadic kingdom of the Scythians of the 4th century BC. At the same time, these data allow us to return in part to the old view formulated by Rostovtzeff about continuity between the Scythia of the 4th century BC and the Late Scythian Kingdom, which most researchers have rejected during the last thirty years. It turned out that this continuity existed at least at the ideological level, and the excavations at Ak-Kaya (Vishennoe) filled the chronological gap between the Scythian Kingdoms of the 4th and 2nd century BC. Apparently, Ak-Kaya became one of the political centres of the Scythians as early as the late 4th century BC, before the fall of “Great Scythia”, and the capital of the Crimean Scythians was located there before it was moved to Neapolis Scythica. In the formation of Late Scythian culture and the Late Scythian Kingdom with its capital first in Ak-Kaya and then in Neapolis Scythica, apart from the Scythian elements, sedentary Tauri took part, as well as probably the Greeks and the Hellenized population of the chorai of the Greek cities in north-western Crimea. A key role in changing the character of Scythian culture was apparently played by a change in its economic-cultural type and the transition from nomadic pastoralism to settled agriculture. This article proposes a new interpretation of the inscription on the mausoleum of Argotas, discovered in Neapolis Scythica in 1999. Argotas was probably not a Scythian, but a Greek, despite his Scythian name. This Bosporan aristocrat with Scythian family ties married the widowed Bosporan queen Kamasarya in the second quarter of the 2nd century BC and is mentioned as her husband in the inscription CIRB 75. He played an important role in governing the Bosporan Kingdom and in protecting it against attacks from the East. Then, most likely after the death of Kamasarya, he moved to the neighbouring kingdom of the Scythians, where he became one of the leading generals, the right-hand man of the king and the tutor to his children. After his death in ca. 130-125 BC, he received from King Skiluros unprecedented honours – a heroon in front of the facade of the royal palace was erected for him and, moreover, this was the only truly Greek building in Neapolis Scythica: it was built in accordance with the rules of the architectural order and decorated with Greek statues and reliefs, as well as a metric epitaph with numerous Homeric forms and expressions.

Almost six decades after its discovery was initially announced, the Illyrian grave-pit from Kačanj is still one of the most important archaeological sites for the interpretation of the economic, ethnical and culural processes in the adriatic hiterland from the and oh 6th to 5th centuries BC. More the 11 people, women, children and warrior were buried with rich beloningsand offerings, which include illyrian bronze halmets, spears, knives, jewelry from silver, amber and imported drinking vessel sets. Amongst these, for subject of our research, is especially important find of cross shape belt-hook. These type of belt-hooks are distributed mainly in western part of Balkan Peninsula. Some of the earliest buckles known are those used by Iapodian population during the early iron age. In grave 51 at necropolis Otočac near Prozor came first find date at 7th century BC. Buckle from Duga Gora near Ogulin is some decades later then previosly. Finds from Liburnia beloning period from the and of 7th and mostly from 6th century BC, while belt-hooks from Dalmatian site Otišić is from the and of 6th century BC. Only find from central Balkan, area east Herzegovina, is from Kačanj. In this case, we can look cross shape belt-hook as artefact of foreign origin. There are two possibilities regarding the arrival of the artefact: it was either imported from area Dalmatia, or it arrived with the migration of new population from western part of Balkan. In any of these case cross shape belt buckle is buried with one of the first dead at grave-pit in Kačanj and date from the and of 6th or early 5th century BC.

The study of stone artifacts and their provenance is an important proxy for understanding the entangled relationship between humans and geological resources. In this paper, we explore the potentialities of an interdisciplinary approach combining in situ documentation of tool marks and characterization of stone types using a near infrared (NIR) portable probe. We argue that this protocol is useful for collecting screening data on objects that cannot be moved or sampled. NIR spectra describe textural and molecular features of the materials and can be used to achieve a preliminary characterization of raw materials. We present a case study from the territory of Montescaglioso (Basilicata, near Matera, Italy), where we combined the analysis of a calcarenite (limestone) quarry, in Masseria D’Alessio, which was exploited since the 6th century BC, as well as artifacts of the same chronology from surveys and excavations in the surroundings. The aim was to collect preliminary data about the distribution of the particular calcarenite extracted from the quarry and identify exploitation and trade patterns. The data were processed using multivariate statistics to highlight the relevant spectral information and perform supervised classification of spectral features. Documentation of tool marks and the process of stone working were combined with the spectral signature of the artifacts to link the stone types to the description of their extraction/carving methods.

The article is devoted to characterizing bridle plaques with zoomorphic and anthropomorphic images, which were used by the nomads of the Southern Urals in the 6th – 4th centuries BC. The paper presents a summary of these horse ammunition items, which includes about 80 finds. The author proposes a typology of these subjects. Types of bridle plaques are distinguished by a combination of features that characterize the plot, composition and style of images. The items are represented by various types of plaques in the form of predatory and hoofed animals, birds, several species of animals or their parts, fish, and a rider on a horse. All the plaques are divided into four chronological groups in accordance with currently accepted dates of the monuments, where they were found: the late 6th – the early 5th century BC, the late 6th – the 5th century BC, the late 5th – the 4th century BC, the late 6th – the 4th century BC. Thus, nomads used plaques with zoomorphic images throughout the period under consideration. The distribution of types of plaques with zoomorphic images on chronological groups demonstrates both continuity in the nomads’ culture development throughout the 6th – 4th centuries BC and cultural transformations that occurred during this period. The transformations are reflected in changing nomenclature in the category of horse ammunition, style of zoomorphic images (including due to the appearance of plaques indicating links with the Don region, the North Caucasus, and the North Pontic region), and emergence of a tradition to use plaques with anthropomorphic images.

of the house, both practically and symbolically — a role which links women, not only with the traditional concept of hearth and home, but also indicates her authority and control in that sphere (Bonomi & Ruta Serafini 1994). Keys and women are further symbolised in religious iconography, as we will see later. Sex The depiction of love-making, on both beds

Technological features of Apulian red figured pottery

Kaunos is one of the strategically and economically important cities in the ancient region of Caria. Since 1965, archaeological researches have been taking place in Kaunos, which were concentrated particularly on excavations in the area around the ancient harbour as well as the preservation of prominent buildings still visible in the city, like the thermae or the theatre.During the course of these works, the Hellenistic-Roman city centre with the harbour agora – and its important buildings and monuments – have been excavated. Also a number of major sanctuaries of the city have been investigated, such as the Apollo or Aphrodite Euploia sanctuary, situated next to the agora, or the sanctuary of Demeter, lying on the opposite side of the harbour.Until now the early history of Kaunos has not been examined in any detail. Questions about the location and structure of the Archaic city, i.e. the settlement of the 7th and 6th century BC, cannot be answered yet. The fact that Kaunos already existed in Archaic time is ensured on the one hand by ancient written sources, and on the other hand by archaeological findings and finds uncovered occasionally within the city.The purpose of a new project is to investigate the Archaic settlement, to identify its location and to analyze its structure. This project is carried out in cooperation with Başkent University of Ankara. The research is focused on the acropolis of Kaunos first, because as a working hypothesis it was postulated, that the Archaic settlement – in analogy to comparable settlements in Caria – was situated at the top of this hill.Within the scope of two campaigns the summit of the acropolis as well as the northern and western slopes were surveyed intensively and several sondages were opened at different places.The acropolis is surrounded on three sides by a fortification wall which shows different phases. The first phase can be detected in the lower layers of almost all sections of the wall and consists of large, irregularly set polygonal blocks. At the northern part of the fortification, a rectangular wall projection turned out to be a reparation of the old wall. We were able to date it into the first quarter of the 5th century BC. Hence also a terminus ante quem is gained for the old wall, which must have been built most probably still within the 6th century BC at the latest. The construction of the wall in the Archaic period is also indicated by the building technique, the curvy course of the wall and the lack of towers and bastions. With the survey inside the acropolis fortification wall, a larger Archaic settlement – as it is to be expected in the 6th century BC – has not been identified with certainty. Remarkable, however, is the large amount of Archaic finds that came to light in the different sondages. These finds give evidence of regular and numerous human activities on the acropolis in the Archaic period. This indicates that the function of the acropolis was more than a pure refuge. The key may be the sanctuary on top of the acropolis. Perhaps the acropolis was less a settlement site than a sacred place, which however served as a refuge for the population in case of danger. Inside the acropolis walls, large terraces were erected at various places. According to our current knowledge, these terraces were built in the Classical period, so it is likely that a new representative arrangement of the acropolis took place at that time. Questions for further research are how this expansion can be connected with the city’s development and what role the Hekatomnids played in this.The summit of the acropolis was not the place of a major settlement in the Archaic period. This is further supported by architectural findings which were identified during the survey of the slopes. While on the northern slope of the acropolis traces of human activities were rare, it became obvious that the lower western slope was settled extensively. Immediately north of the wall of the lower Kaunian city, there are numerous small, tightly staggered terraces placed next to each other. The wall techniques used and the surface ceramic finds provide a first indication that this area was used extensively from the Archaic period to Byzantine times. A more detailed recording and analysis of the findings is still in work and scheduled for the next campaigns.

Το ιερό του Ερμή και της Αφροδίτης στη Σύμη Βιάννου

The article is devoted to the characteristics of the complex of horse equipment accessories used by the nomads of the Southern Urals in the second half of the 6th – 5th centuries BC. The Southern Ural region is defined as the flat territories adjacent to the Southern Urals in the west and east. This complex was identified as a result of the study of the co-occurrence of more than 700 harness items found in nomadic burials and on burial platforms beneath kurgans dating to the 7th – 4th centuries BC. To determine the nature of the connections (frequency of cooccurrence), the TYPE program was used, designed for the typology of objects of various categories. The article provides a list of elements (bits, cheek-pieces, decorations, and other bridle accessories, saddle set parts, etc.) of the complex and their brief descriptions. The existence of this complex, judging by imported items as well as by analogies from monuments studied in other regions of settlement of Eurasian nomads, falls on the period from the middle of the 6th century BC to the end of the 5th century BC, possibly the turn of the 5th – 4th centuries BC or the very beginning of the 4th century BC. By identifying the strongest mathematically determined correlation coefficients between the types of harness accessories in this complex, it could be divided into at least two groups, which are its structural “cores.” The first group can be dated back to the second half of the 6th to the beginning of the 5th century BC, while the second group belongs to the time within the 5th century BC and, possibly, the turn of the 5th – 4th centuries BC or the very beginning of the 4th century BC. In general, this complex has clearly expressed characteristics that significantly distinguish it from earlier and later horse harness traditions.