The American School of Classical Studies at Athens is pleased to announce the publication of Hesperia 85.2. Topics in this issue include Early Bronze Age burials from the Ayia Triada Cave on Euboia, a new Middle Helladic pottery chronology from Mitrou, a reevaluation of the manufacturing techniques (wheel-coiled and wheel-thrown) used in the production of Protogeometric pottery, the origins and development of the Athenian inscribed stone stele, and an analysis of the hortatory intention in Late Classical and Hellenistic Athenian honorific decrees.
Subscribers can read the issue online at JSTOR, which now hosts all current issues of Hesperia as well as an archive of past volumes.
Early Bronze Age Burial Deposits at the Ayia Triada Cave at Karystos, Euboia: Tentative Interpretations, by Fanis Mavridis and Žarko Tancosić, presents the preliminary results of four seasons of excavation (2007–2010) conducted within the cave, focusing in particular on the burials and other types of artifacts (ceramic, archaeobotanical, bronze, and a carved “bone tube”) found in the East Chamber of the cave. The authors show that the burials exhibit both Cycladic and Helladic characteristics, and they discuss the implications of such a mixture for our understanding of the broader Early Bronze Age Aegean world.
The Middle Helladic Fine Gray Burnished (Gray Minyan) Sequence at Mitrou, East Lokris, by Christopher M. Hale, details the gradual change in the typology of the Fine Gray Burnished pottery found in two well-stratified deposits at Mitrou. The author applies extensive statistical analysis to the ceramic material record and succeeds in revealing key developmental patterns in the diagnostic features of the pots. The author thereby produces the first Middle Helladic pottery chronology of its kind for this region of Greece.
“With a Little Help from My Wheel”: Wheel-Coiled Pottery in Protogeometric Greece, by Štěpán Rückl and Loe Jacobs, challenges the idea that the vast majority of Protogeometric pottery was manufactured using a fast wheel, and instead proposes that a good portion of the pottery may have been constructed with the manufacturing technique called “wheel-coiling.” The authors present a series of pots from different sites in central Greece, and compare them with pots that the authors made themselves using the wheel-coiling technique. They find that several characteristics of the modern pots match those exhibited by the ancient ones, leading them to conclude that the ancient pots were also likely to have been made using the wheel-coiling technique.
Posts, Kurbeis, Metopes: The Origins of the Athenian “Documentary” Stele, by Elizabeth A. Meyer, traces the origins of the inscribed stele as we know it in Classical times. The author reveals that the taller-than-wide and thin form of the stele that the Athenians used most often from the mid-5th century on was not clearly indicated as the eventual form when the Athenians began using inscribed documents. Rather, the form developed over time from a combination of inscribed stone turning posts, wooden kurbeis, other types of stone posts, metopes that were reused for the purpose of presenting inscribed laws, and the Marathon casualty monuments. The study is augmented by tables that present the collected examples of inscribed stone posts and horoi.
Euergetism, Agonism, and Democracy: The Hortatory Intention in Late Classical and Early Hellenistic Athenian Honorific Decrees, by Jacob Miller, examines a set of inscriptions bearing honorific decrees that date from 340–320 to 259/8 B.C. in order to analyze the use of specific phrases designed to encourage Athenians and others to channel their agonal spirit into euergetism. The resulting benefactions benefited both Athens and the elite who made them as they then received the honors they desired. Over the course of this time period, the author shows that the hortatory intentions in these inscriptions increased in intensity. An extensive appendix presents all the inscriptions that contain hortatory intentions from the mid-4th century to close to the end of the 1st century B.C.
Current subscribers can view the issue online at JSTOR. The printed version will be mailed shortly.
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