Hesperia 91.3 Now Online!

We are pleased to announce the publication of Hesperia 91.3! Topics in this issue include the presentation of a LM II–III sealstone from Sissi on Crete, a detailed synthesis of the finds from the South Stoa wells at Corinth, and an analysis of lead-glazed tablewares from Late Medieval Corinth.

Subscribers can read the issue online at Project MUSE, which now hosts current issues of Hesperia as well as an archive of past volumes dating to 2002. Hesperia remains on JSTOR as part of their Arts and Sciences II package, with the usual three-year moving wall. Additionally, all issues of Hesperia from 2011 and earlier are available as Open Access on our website. The printed version will be mailed shortly.

The Sissi Genius Lentoid: A Lapis Lacedaemonius Seal from Final Palatial Crete, by Diana Wolf, presents a Final Palatial lapis lacedaemonius seal, the Sissi Genius Lentoid, which was recovered during the 2018 excavation of the Court-Centered Building at Sissi, East Crete. The seal instantly drew attention because of its rare material and unique iconography that shows a Minoan genius flanked by the foreparts of two agrimia. In this article, an examination of the object within the context of Late Minoan II–III hard stone glyptic, particularly the lapis lacedaemonius seals, reveals ideological and sociopolitical links between Sissi and other Cretan sites, including neighboring Malia. The lentoid is found to belong to a group of seals that clearly formed prestige items used by sociopolitical elites who were exercising control over the surrounding land, possibly as delegates of the Knossos palace.

The South Stoa at Corinth and Its Wells, by Kathleen Warner Slane, presents a reconsideration of the South Stoa at Corinth, and of the Hellenistic and Roman pottery from its wells in particular, in light of a recent proposal that the wells were filled with material that accumulated between 146 and 44 B.C. The stratigraphy of the wells is examined, adding unpublished lamps, amphoras, and Roman vessels to the pottery previously published, and the evidence argues that the stoa was destroyed and some of the wells filled by the troops of L. Mummius. Finds from the wells suggest a revised history of the South Stoa from ca. 300 B.C. to the 5th century A.D.

Lead-Glazed Pottery at Late Medieval Corinth: Assessing Craft Production and Trade at a Greek City under Western Influence, by Florence Liard, Guy Sanders, Ayed Ben Amara, and Noemi Mueller, presents a multimethod analysis of 97 lead-glazed tablewares from the so-called Frankish Area at Corinth, at the time of the transition from Frankish feudalism to an administration by powerful Florentine bankers, then the Despotate of the Morea in the late 13th to early 15th century A.D. This sector of the medieval city appears to have been continuously occupied after the Catalan raid of 1312. The results of the study presented here shed new light on the late years of the Corinthian Sgraffito ware industry, and on the role of northern Italian trading cities and their possessions overseas as production and distribution centers of lead-glazed pottery.

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Hesperia welcomes submissions from scholars working on all aspects of Greek material culture, including archaeology, art, architecture, history, epigraphy, and related studies. Further information about the journal, including instructions for preparing manuscripts for submission, can be found on our website.

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