The American School of Classical Studies at Athens is pleased to announce the publication of Hesperia 84.1. Topics in this issue include an analysis of the sociopolitical status of Achaia in the Mycenaean age, an interpretative survey of the segmentation of domestic space in houses from the Early Iron Age through the Classical period, a new study of IG I3 254 and the information it conveys concerning the festival of Dionysos in Ikarion, and a full discussion of the Shear Painted Tomb at Corinth, including the meaning of its wall paintings and the history of its use.
Subscribers can read the issue online at JSTOR, which now hosts all current issues of Hesperia as well as an archive of past volumes.
Mycenaean Peripheries during the Palatial Age: The Case of Achaia, by Emiliano Arena, examines the settlement and funerary patterns of the region of Achaia in order to better understand what type of organizational structure it was governed by. The author contends that Achaia, although it lacked a palace center with a wanax at its head, was nonetheless not controlled by a wanax at a distant palace center, but instead was governed by its own local elites.
Space and Social Complexity in Greece from the Early Iron Age to the Classical Period, by Ruth Westgate, examines the increasing segmentation and specialization of space in houses through an analysis of the floor plans of houses in central and western Greece from the Early Iron Age to the Classical period; literary sources are also considered. The author points to the increasing size of communities, in which more specific social cues were needed to distinguish between the different classes of society, particularly between free and slave, as one of the driving forces behind the increasing segmentation of domestic space.
The Festival of Dionysos in Ikarion: A New Study of IG I3 254, by Peter Wilson, presents a line-by-line analysis of IG I3 254, an inscription on a stele (NM 4883) that had been lost soon after its discovery in 1889 and was only rediscovered in 1999. The inscription provides details concerning every stage of the organization of the Rural Dionysia of Ikarion in Attica, and reveals a great deal about how the festival was financed, administered, and performed. The author also considers the inscription’s relation to the accounts inscribed on the other side of the stele (IG I3 253).
A Roman Corinthian Family Tomb and Its Afterlife, by Mary E. Hoskins Walbank and Michael Walbank, discusses all aspects of the Shear Painted Tomb (Tomb II), which was originally excavated in 1931, but was never fully published. The authors detail the construction of the tomb, along with its monumental entrance, the finds, its funerary inscription, which date its initial use to the 2nd century A.D., and the social context of those who were buried in the tomb. Late Roman lamps indicate that the tomb was reused in the 5th and 6th centuries. The authors propose that the two male figures painted on either side of the central arcosolium (illustrated in color), one in military garb and the other nude, depict the Dioskouroi, and they discuss the reasons behind that iconographical choice.
Current subscribers can view the issue online at JSTOR. The printed version will be mailed shortly.
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