Athenian Agora Research Articles

Female Portrait Statuary in Roman-period Athens: the epigraphic and sculptural evidence

Female portrait statuary forms a large and important category of evidence for understanding the historical phenomenon of the visual representation and commemoration of women in the public spaces of the Greek city. With its rich body of both epigraphical and sculptural remains, the city of Athens is a particularly fruitful site to undertake such a study. While portraits of women begin to be set up in Athens in the early fourth century B.C., the chronological focus here is the Roman Imperial period, when inscribed bases for statues of women and marble sculpture representing female portrait subjects are the most abundant. I consider epigraphical evidence in the form of inscribed statue bases. The main sculptural evidence comes from the American excavations in the Athenian Agora. While a great deal of important research has focused on the epigraphic evidence, particularly from the Acropolis, this article analyzes and puts into conversation both strands of this extensive corpus of material.

A Tripod ‘Worth Seeing’ in the Olympieion at Athens (Paus. 1.18.8)

AbstractThis study proposes a new reconstruction of the tripod that Pausanias (1.18.8) recorded in the Olympieion at Athens. According to his brief description, the bronze tripod was supported by Persians made from Phrygian marble. A sculptor's sketch found during the excavations of the Athenian Agora is identified as a representation of that monument. The sketch, carved from poros limestone, depicts a standing male figure dressed in eastern attire supporting the foot of a tripod. The figural type finds its closest parallels among the colossal statues from the Forum of Trajan in Rome, suggesting a new date and context for the monument in the Olympieion. The scenario favoured here is that the tripod was dedicated following Trajan's victories in Parthia, perhaps completed or commissioned by Hadrian. Cassius Dio (68.17.2) records that Trajan departed for his Parthian campaigns from Athens, where memories of Persian defeat were actively curated.

La dedica di Axios e Kapo ad Artemide Nanaia e il Phosphorion del Pireo

Dedication of Axios and Kapo to Artemis Nanaia and the Phosphorion of Piraeus Nanaia is a Babylonian deity who was associated with Artemis in Hellenistic times. She is identified as a moon goddess as well as a deity of love and war, and as a protector of the sovereign and the country. The reason behind the assimilation between this oriental deity and Artemis lay in the commonality of functions between the two. The presence of a goddess called Artemis Nanaia is attested in Attica by an inscription found at Piraeus which is the only testimony of the presence of this cult in Greece. Like the goddess Nanaia, Artemis was a moon goddess, identified as a protector of political order. This function in Attica is expressed by the adjective Boulaia and by the practice, widespread since the second century B.C., of offering a sacrifice to Artemis Boulaia and Artemis Phosphoros before political assemblies in the Athenian Agora. The aim of this paper is to put into perspective the characteristics of the cults of Artemis Nanaia as attested in two important sanctuaries in the Middle East, including the sanctuary of Nanaia at Susa and the sanctuary of Artemis Nanaia at Dura-Europos, with the testimonies related to the cult of Artemis attested at Piraeus. The testimonies, and the characteristics of the cult attested in these three areas will be analysed together in order to etter understand the reasons behind the dedication of Axios and Kapo and its original location.

“Memorials of all Our Noble Deeds”: Politics, Power, and Representation in the Athenian Agora, 510 b.c. to a.d. 14: A Critical Review

“Memorials of all Our Noble Deeds”: Politics, Power, and Representation in the Athenian Agora, 510 b.c. to a.d. 14: A Critical Review

Classical and Hellenistic Curse Tablets from the Athenian Agora

Classical and Hellenistic Curse Tablets from the Athenian Agora

Change Detection between Retrospective and Contemporary 3D Models of the Omega House at the Athenian Agora

Archaeological monuments all over the world face problems of conservation and maintenance due to natural events and processes as well as human intervention, all of which lead to their alteration and deterioration. In particular, monuments and sites that have been excavated and left exposed to the elements experience decay, which would have taken centuries prior to excavation, in just a few years when left unprotected. Thus, the necessity to detect and observe changes over time becomes paramount. Legacy data and, in particular, retrospective photogrammetric modeling, are vital tools in this process. In this work we compare two photogrammetric 3D models of the Omega House, in the Athenian Agora, to assess how much the site has changed between the time of its first excavation in 1972 and its current state. Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) is utilized to perform Boolean operations. Additionally, distance and volume calculations are performed. The software CloudCompare was used for this work. Overall, the state of Omega House monument proves to have been preserved from 1972 to 2017, except for certain differences that are highlighted as follows: The central north part of the monument in the model 2017 presents increased volume per 7.86% in comparison with the model 1972. The northeast part of the monument in the 2017 model shows decreased volume per 5.11% when compared to the model 1972. Moreover, the calculated distances between the two models from 1972 and 2017 present the greatest values in the case of the southwest and northwest parts of the monument, ranging between −17 cm to 5 cm.

New observations on the pediments of the early Classical temple of Aphaia on Aegina and on other works by the ‘Aphaia architect’

Over a decade ago, Andrew Stewart revived the question of whether the Persians destroyed the Archaic (or ‘older’) temple of Aphaia on Aegina, the scorched remains of which littered the terrace fills of its successor. Copious very late Attic black figure pottery accompanied them, roughly contemporary with the Athenian Agora’s ‘Perserschutt’ deposits. Stewart’s work supported that of Vinzenz Brinkmann and others who had re-dated this successor to the early Classical period, arguing that its pedimental sculptures, honoring Aeginetan prowess in the Trojan War (Figure 1), celebrated Aegina’s successful participation in the Battle of Salamis (480 BC). Heated controversy ensued, especially among German proponents of ‘style archaeology’ (Brinkmann 2006: 414), but also among ceramicists. Were our temple’s sculptures (henceforth termed ‘the Aeginetans’) late Archaic or early Classical; created simultaneously or successively; and before or after the Battle of Salamis, in which Aeginetan warships played a decisive role? Architecture played a negligible part in these debates, perhaps because the present author’s monograph of 1993 put our temple in a relative sequence with its closest kin on Paros and at Delphi, but – as sculptured buildings require – dated it according to Dieter Ohly’s chronology for its sculpture. Ohly dated our temple’s west pediment to c.500 BC. If one assumes that the whole project took just over five years (like the somewhat smaller Temple of Asklepios at Epidauros, built a century later but quite comparable sculpturally), planning and construction would have started c.505. For its completion, after the sculptures of the more progressive east pediment, a date c.485 was agreed. Just fifteen years later, however, Ohly’s dates would be challenged, sparking the present debate. Hence this new attempt to date our temple and explain its apparently multiple pediments by analyzing its architecture, independently from all stylistic controversies about its sculptures. First, however, one must understand why the extraneous ‘non-pedimental warriors’ (found on the temple’s east terrace but carved in the style of its earlier west pediment) could not have belonged to the latter, but instead apparently stood in niches in the altar court (Figure 2). This task, in turn, immediately takes us to the horizontal cornice fragments with the shallow plinth sockets typical of the west pediment, found in Ohly’s excavations since 1971 and for good reason sidelined as ‘surplus.’

Carlo Pelloso, Democracies and Republics between Past and Future. From the Athenian Agora to e-Democracy, from the Roman Republic to Negative Power

Carlo Pelloso, Democracies and Republics between Past and Future. From the Athenian Agora to e-Democracy, from the Roman Republic to Negative Power

Carlo Pelloso: Democracies and Republics Between Past and Future: From the Athenian Agora to e-Democracy, from the Roman Republic to Negative Power

Article Carlo Pelloso: Democracies and Republics Between Past and Future: From the Athenian Agora to e-Democracy, from the Roman Republic to Negative Power was published on April 1, 2022 in the journal Pólemos (volume 16, issue 1).

Neues zu den Giebeln des frühklassischen Tempels der Aphaia auf Aegina und zu anderen Werken des ›Aphaia-Architekten‹

AbstractSince the publication of Volume I of Dieter Ohly’s Die Aegineten in 1976 and the present author’s monograph on the Aphaia temple’s architecture in 1993, further ceramic, sculptural, and archaeological research has problematized Ohly’s late 6thcentury BC date for the burning of the archaic temple, the construction of its successor from around 505 BC, and the replacement of its east pediment (›East I‹) with another (›East II‹) around 485 BC. An alternative thesis (Stewart 2008; et al.) points to the discovery of burned fragments of the archaic temple in the construction fills of its successor along with attic black figure pottery contemporary with the extensive ›Perserschutt‹ destruction debris from the Athenian agora. It therefore attributes the old temple’s destruction to the invading Persians in 480 BC and its replacement to the 470s. This article has sought an architectural ›third way‹ out of this impasse.Research on the later temple has confirmed the existence of ›surplus‹ horizontal geisa with sockets in the style of the west pediment, which Ohly connected with some ›surplus‹ sculptures from the altar court, and attributed to East I. Yet the latter never proceeded beyond its (unfinished) corner geisa, ruling out Ohly’s theory of its installation on the temple and later replacement.Together with the extensive epigraphical data on oversight procedures in Greek temple building, and other evidence from the site, all this points to a rejection of one of the pediments by an ad hoc building committee before installation, its rapid replacement by East II, and entire construction lasting not more than seven years.Clear traces of the same architect at the Delion on Paros in the 480s and on the ›Temple of Juno Lacinia‹ at Agrigento around 460 BC, all but irreconcilable with Ohly’s chronology, now are best explained by the post-Persian date for the new temple signaled by the ceramic and stratigraphic evidence noted above (Stewart 2008; et al.).

Un Phrygien sur l’Agora: redécouverte d’une inscription paléo-phrygienne

Abstract This article discusses a brief inscription incised on a cup found on the Athenian Agora and which has been published in 1976. This graffito appears to be an Old Phrygian inscription, the first known so far on this side of the Aegean Sea. It corresponds to a new personal name, whose stem could be identical to that of Phrygian place names attested in Greek sources. An etymological hypothesis is suggested about the stem, which could reveal the Phrygian name of the “goat”. The object thus incised in the Phrygian alphabet may have belonged to a metic or a Phrygian travelling to Athens.

Multidisciplinary Approaches to Food and Foodways in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean Edited by Sylvie Yona Waksman (Archéologies 4). Lyon: Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée 2020. Pp. 508. €65. ISBN 978-2-35668-070-9 (paper).

<i>Multidisciplinary Approaches to Food and Foodways in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean</i> Edited by Sylvie Yona Waksman (Archéologies 4). Lyon: Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée 2020. Pp. 508. €65. ISBN 978-2-35668-070-9 (paper).

Curse Tablets of the Roman Period from the Athenian Agora

This article presents 30 curse tablets from underground bodies of water in the Athenian Agora. These include 22 tablets from a well by the Civic Offices concerning slaves (a manumission, the prosecution of runaways), unpaid loans, and foreigners. Tablets from other wells include curses against athletes and thieves, a "ritual diabolê" to bring harm to an enemy, and the first known curse tablet in Athens addressed to the Nymphs. Three previously published texts (reread with a stereoscopic microscope) are presented again; the majority are published here for the first time.

Classical Sculpture from the Athenian Agora, Part 4: Concluding Remarks on the Sculptures of the Temple of Ares (Athena Pallenis)

Classical Sculpture from the Athenian Agora, Part 4: Concluding Remarks on the Sculptures of the Temple of Ares (Athena Pallenis)

Fear and Loathing in the Hellenistic Agora: Antenor’s Tyrannicides Return

Using new interactive digital reconstructions, we propose that a recently discussed statue base in the Athenian Agora could have accommodated both pairs of Tyrannicides after Alexander returned Antenor's from Persia in 323 b.c.; that it would have revived a famous Athenian commemorative tactic after the Persian withdrawal in 479; that the monument's potency as an icon of Athenian fear and loathing of tyranny evolved but did not necessarily shrink under the Successors; and that any other candidate for its Hellenistic and later appearance should echo, more or less, this base's dimensions, form, and construction. We also urge that for such visualizations, guidelines formulated by specialists in cultural heritage reconstruction have much to recommend them.

Sylvie Dumont. VRYSAKI: A Neighborhood Lost in Search of the Athenian Agora

Sylvie Dumont. <i>VRYSAKI: A Neighborhood Lost in Search of the Athenian Agora</i>

DEMOCRACY THEN AND NOW - (C.) Pelloso Democracies and Republics Between Past and Future. From the Athenian Agora to e-Democracy, from the Roman Republic to Negative Power. Pp. viii + 121. London and New York: Routledge, 2021. Cased, £44.99, US$59.95. ISBN: 978-0-367-67259-1.

DEMOCRACY THEN AND NOW - (C.) Pelloso Democracies and Republics Between Past and Future. From the Athenian Agora to e-Democracy, from the Roman Republic to Negative Power. Pp. viii + 121. London and New York: Routledge, 2021. Cased, £44.99, US$59.95. ISBN: 978-0-367-67259-1. - Volume 72 Issue 1

Black-glazed pottery of Olbian suburban estates (excavations of 2003-2017 years)

Black-glazed pottery takes a prominent place among many categories of archaeological material from Olbian suburban estates and settlements.&#x0D; Utensils from the estates Shiroka Balka (Broad Hollow) 6 (οικος) and Shiroka Balka (Broad Hollow) 7 (χωριον) are presented in various forms and types: for drinking wine (kantharos, kylix, cup-skyphos), dining (bowls, saltcellar bowls, saucers, plates), cosmetic (askos, lekanis) and lamps date back to the end of the VIth – IVth centuries B.C. We would like to note that the complex of black-glazed ceramics from the chorion in composition and duration of existence is slightly different from the findings of homestead (οικος).&#x0D; Of particular interest is a complex of black-glazed pottery excavated on the homestead (οικος), which is represented by whole forms, mainly from the family burial site (35 copies). The earliest utensils – kylix by analogy with the materials of Athenian Agora are represented by utensils of the late VIth – Vth centuries B.C.&#x0D; Among the black-glazed utensils, which were excavated on the suburban estates, the Attic ones, typical for ancient cities and settlements not only of ancient Greece, but also of the whole Black Sea coast, prevail.&#x0D; The analysis of the Attic black-glazed pottery complex gave an opportunity to clarify the chronology of the existence of not only the Shiroka Balka (Broad Hollow) 6 / homestead (οικος) and Shiroka Balka (Broad Hollow) 7 chorionic villus sampling (χωριον) estates, but also of the whole pottery complex, in particular which was previously impossible to date in more detail.

THE TYRANNICIDES: A NEW APPROACH TO TEXT AND IMAGE

The bronze statues of the Tyrannicides, Harmodios and Aristogeiton, by the sculptors Kritios and Nesiotes, set up in the Athenian Agora in 477 bc, were well known to Athenians throughout the classical and Hellenistic periods. In Thucydides’ account of the deed of the Tyrannicides, he defines the two as lovers (erastes and eromenos), which has led to the assumption that the depictions are in some way likenesses of the two men. I argue that Thucydides’ account has been the source of a misreading of the sculptures. Rather, the models for the figures are contemporary representations of the Gigantomachy – Aristogeiton being based on Apollo – and thus, through the allusion to myth, the sculptors created multivalent figures that were emblematic of something that transcended their deed.

The vision of an open, transferable, hybrid reading hub in urban Greece

In recent years the traditional concept of the library has been drastically diversified. Libraries appear in different forms, adding collections of content beyond books, expanding already existing services and developing new ones, while focusing on their engagement with audiences. This visual essay presents CLOISTER, a vision of an open, inclusive, non-profit, physical and digital reading space to be located in the heart of the Greek city. CLOISTER is envisioned as a sustainable, transferable and inviting library construction, that aims to disrupt the city flow by offering a new reading and collaboration space. The design of this pop-up library is inspired by the Athenian Agora, with its covered arcades and the open porticos running along building walls. The project aspires to transform Greek city squares by challenging the fixity of reading spaces and empowering the city pulse.