The American School of Classical Studies at Athens is pleased to announce the publication of Hesperia 85.3. Topics in this issue include the results of the 2008–2013 excavations and study at Isthmia, which focus on the structures found south and east of the Roman Bath, a study of the functions of the ceramic assemblage found in room 60 of the Palace of Nestor at Pylos, a new reconstruction of the dedicatory inscription of the Stoa of Attalos, an analysis of the figures on the battle scene on Aemilius Paullus’s Pydna Monument, and a reconstruction of the cult group that stood in the Athenian Agora’s Augustan-period Temple of Ares that is based on sculptural fragments uncovered in the Agora and a fresh look at the Borghese Ares.
Subscribers can read the issue online at JSTOR, which now hosts all current issues of Hesperia as well as an archive of past volumes.
Old Excavations, New Interpretations: The 2008–2013 Seasons of The Ohio State University Excavations at Isthmia, by Jon M. Frey and Timothy E. Gregory, presents evidence for the structures that existed in the Sanctuary of Poseidon prior to the construction of the Roman Bath. The authors revealed this evidence through careful consideration of prior excavation records, the cleaning of previously dug trenches, and limited new excavations. Specifically they discuss the Greek Bath, which was the precursor of the Roman one, and a colonnaded court that lay to its east whose northern border consisted of a Doric-style stoa. The southern wall of the stoa appears to have been been incorporated into the Hexamilion, while the remains of the stoa's rooms extend beyond it to the north. An Appendix also discusses the roadways that ran through the Sanctuary of Poseidon.
A Foreign Potter in the Pylian Kingdom? A Reanalysis of the Ceramic Assemblage of Room 60 in the Palace of Nestor at Pylos, by Bartłomiej Lis, discusses the morphological characteristics of certain ceramic vessels found in room 60 that seem to indicate that the potter who created them worked within a ceramic tradition that was different from that of the rest of the potters whose work was found in the palace. Lis also analyzes the entire assemblage of room 60 in order to determine the purposes for which those vessels were made. After looking at various comparanda found both within the palace and in the rest of the Mycenaean world, and consulting excavation notebooks and archival photos to see if there was a rationale behind their storage arrangement, Lis proposes that room 60 was used to store pots for two different purposes: the manufacture of perfumed oil and funerary feasts.
The Dedicatory Inscription of the Stoa of Attalos in the Athenian Agora: Public Property, Commercial Space, and Hellenistic Kings, by Noah Kaye, puts forth a new reconstruction of the dedicatory inscription that was part of the facade of the ancient Stoa of Attalos, which includes all the letters found on the extant blocks, some of which had not been incorporated previously. Kaye proposes that the Stoa was dedicated to Athena herself, and that it explicitly named the oikemata and the ergasteria of the Stoa as part of the gift. Kaye further cites other examples of such dedicatory inscriptions in the Greco-Roman world, and discusses the fact that such rooms were included in the inscriptions in recognition of the economic value of these rooms for the polis.
The Battle Scene on Aemilius Paullus’s Pydna Monument: A Reevaluation, by Michael J. Taylor, examines each of the 29 figures on the monument, paying close attention to the details of their military dress and equipment in order to arrive at a compelling account of which figures should be considered to have been part of the Roman army and which were fighting on the Macedonian side. Taylor proposes, based on his identifications, that Paullus himself is not depicted on any of the panels, and that the scene is meant to depict the end of the battle, the point at which the Romans were victorious over their enemy. A new reconstruction of the entire scene is also provided.
The Borghese Ares Revisited: New Evidence from the Agora and a Reconstruction of the Augustan Cult Group in the Temple of Ares, by Andrew Stewart, looks anew at the Borghese Ares—most likely a copy of Alkamenes’ Ares seen by Pausanias in the Temple of Ares—and shows that a previously unpublished, fragmentary male statue found in the Agora (S 475), which dates to the early Augustan period, was most likely also a copy of Alkamanes’ Ares. After detailing the appearance of the ring around Ares’ ankle on several different comparanda and explaining its function, Stewart also proposes that the most likely original home of the Alkamanes’ statue was the Aglaureion found in 1980 on the east scarp of the Acropolis. Stewart then identifies the other cult statues of the Temple of Ares (the Alkamenes Ares’ second home) with other fragmentary sculptural fragments found in the Agora: the Athena can be recognized in S 654 and the two Aphrodites in S 1882 and S 378. Finally, Stewart proposes that the new Agora cult founded in the Temple of Ares was actually a dual one, dedicated to both Ares and Athena.
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