Hesperia 93.4 Now Online!

We are pleased to announce the publication of Hesperia 93.4! Topics in this issue include a unique Bronze Age rhyton found at Hala Sultan Tekke on Cyprus; a study of the incidence and impact of thunder, lightning, and earthquakes at the Sanctuary of Zeus at Mt. Lykaion; a preliminary report from the Lechaion Harbor and Settlement Land Project; and a reexamination of Schliemann’s documentation and publication of the so-called Priam’s Treasure from Troy.

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.

A Unique Aegean Rhyton from Hala Sultan Tekke, Cyprus: Context, Provenance, Date, and Function, by Peter M. Fischer, presents a unique Aegean rhyton that was found in a 14th-century BCE mortuary context in a chamber tomb at Hala Sultan Tekke on Cyprus. The tomb contains hundreds of other imports from the Greek mainland and the Aegean islands, together with objects of Anatolian, Egyptian, and Levantine origin. In addition to production and stylistic characteristics, neutron activation analysis was used to trace the rhyton to Tiryns. The architectural layout of the tomb, together with finds and features associated with the rhyton and their chronology, is reported to provide as complete a picture as possible of the general burial context, which probably also was related to funerary rituals.

Thunder, Lightning, and Earthquakes and Their Impact on the Sanctuary of Zeus on Mt. Lykaion, by Mary E. Voyatzis, David Gilman Romano, George H. Davis, Pamela Jordan, Ryan K. Said, Kenneth L. Cummins, and Susan Beck, delivers an interdisciplinary inquiry exploring why a sacred site was established on the southern peak of Mt. Lykaion and developed into a major Greek sanctuary to Zeus, documented by ancient authors and in use for thousands of years. The site offered many attractions, but most compelling may have been the dynamic expressions of natural forces experienced there: powerful earthquakes, ground motion, lightning, and thunder. Scientific quantification of the frequency of lightning and thunder identifies Mt. Lykaion as one of the best places in Greece to see lightning and hear thunder, and the place in the Peloponnese where the most distant lightning could be viewed and thunder heard.

The Lechaion Harbor and Settlement Land Project: Preliminary Report, 2016–2018, by Paul D. Scotton, Konstantin Kissas, Angela Ziskowski, Daniel Fallu, Michael Ierardi, Lana Radloff, Paul Reynolds, Apostolos Sarris, and Chantel White, outlines the work of the ASCSA project at Lechaion Harbor, which was the primary port of ancient Corinth, serving as a major economic and commercial hub in the Mediterranean for ca. 1,300 years. The Lechaion Harbor and Settlement Land Project began investigations in 2016 as an integrated archaeological program of geophysical survey, mapping, GIS studies, scientific analyses, and excavation. The initial three seasons of fieldwork have revealed the scale and size of the harbor’s settlement, the active use of the site by the 8th century BCE and perhaps the Late Bronze Age, a significant early Roman basilica, and a large circular structure that may be a lighthouse. Together, these features have also provided a better understanding of the settlement’s general abandonment in the 6th century CE.

New Light on “Priam’s Treasure,” by Donald F. Easton, compiles new evidence from the Heinrich Schliemann Papers in the Archives of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, along with other recent findings, to shed fresh light on what was really contained in the hoard of metalwork (Treasure A1) found by Schliemann at Troy on May 31, 1873. All the objects attributed to the hoard in Schliemann’s 1874 book Trojanische Alterthümer were either drawn at Troy within days of their discovery or described by Schliemann in a draft report that was probably written before his return to Athens. Claims that he included earlier finds are shown to be without foundation; nothing was added later. “Priam’s Treasure,” for Schliemann, was never Treasure A1 alone but the wider collection shown on plates 192–209 of the Atlas Trojanischer Alterthümer.

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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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