Figurines in the Road: A Protoattic Votive Deposit from the Athenian Agora Reexamined

by Michael Laughy

Hesperia, Volume 87, Issue 4
Page(s): 633-679
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.87.4.0633
Year: 2018
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ABSTRACT:

In 1933, Dorothy Burr published a catalogue of a large Protoattic votive deposit located near the southwest corner of the Athenian Agora. Included within the deposit are a number of terracotta votive shields, horses, and chariots, as well as a remarkably well-preserved terracotta plaque depicting a “Mistress of Snakes.” There has long been a consensus among archaeologists that this votive assemblage is indicative of a cult of the dead. A reexamination of the deposit and its context suggests a rather different conclusion: the votives were dedications to Demeter, and came from the Eleusinion.