Transcript No Slide Title

Athens:
Some Finds from the
Agora
(Market Area)
And
Kerameikos
(Cemetery Area)
[of religious interest]
CLST 4003 H. Spring, 2002
Daniel Levine. January 31, 2002
Athens. View Across Agora (marketplace) towards Temple
of Hephaistos from Stoa (portico) of Attalos.
Athens. Agora (marketplace). Monument of the
Eponymous Heroes, named for each tribe.
Athens, Agora. Reconstruction of Monument
of the Eponymous Heroes (tribal namesakes).
Athens, Agora. Site of the crossroads shrine, with sacred well
and walled enclosure. Perhaps Leokoreion. The Daughters
of Leos were sacrificed to save the city at a time of plague
or famine. Many votives are appropriate for female deity or
deities (gold jewelry, loom weights, knucklebones).
Crossroads Enclosure. Athens Agora. Sacred Well in
foreground. Depth: 13.45 m. Perhaps sacred to Nymphs.
650 votives: small squat lekythoi mostly, but also gold jewelry,
inscribed knucklebones, miniature votive pots: 4th-2nd
centuries BCE.
Athens. Agora. NW corner of Agora ca. 400 BCE.
Crossroads enclosure in center. To left is “Royal
Stoa” (Stoa of the “King Archon”). Upper right:
Painted Stoa. Top: Altar of Aphrodite Ourania.
Crossroads Enclosure interior, showing masses of broken
votive pottery as found. Ca. 360 objects were removed,
including lekythoi (oil jars), drinking cups, loom weights,
knucklebones, gilded pebbles. None inscribed, so identity
of deity is unknown. Thought to be Leokoreion, which
dated to 6th century BC, “75 years before there was any sign
of cult activity around the crossroads enclosure.” (J. Camp)
Athens. Kerameikos (“potters’ quarter”), site of
the polis’ cemetery. Grave monuments as they
might have been arranged in the Classical period.
“Street of the Tombs,” mostly dating to 4th cent.
BCE.
Athens. Kerameikos
(Cemetery). Grave of
Demetria and Pamphile
(sisters). One of last grave
monuments made before the
law against luxurious grave
monuments enacted by Demetrios
of Phaleron ca. 317/307 BCE.
Women’s names written below
pediment. Pamphile seated, and
is probably the deceased here, but
Pamphile was also dead. Another
grave monument 20 years earlier
names both sisters, where
Demetria was seated, and clasps
the hand of standing Pamphile.
Athens. Kerameikos.
Tomb of the Lacedaimonians (Spartans).
Inscriptions on upper
Course. Spartan
officers died 403 BCE,
fighting with “30
Tyrants” against Athenian democrats. (Xenophon Hellenica 2.4.
28-33). Xenophon
gives names Chairion,
Tribrachos, and
Lakrates. The first 2
names appear on
top right. 13 skeletons
inside, with wounds.
Reconstuction of Tomb of the Lacedaemonians.
(403 BCE). A. Kubanek.
The inscribed block on the top course was originally
11 meters long and ran along the whole length of the
front wall. It read “LAKEDAIMONIOI” (Spartans).
The letters were written from right to left on the
inscription, perhaps anticipating that people coming
from the country would see it as they entered the city.
Grave goods from tombs in the Kerameikos Cemetery.
Kerameikos Museum. Athens. Note lekythoi (oil jars),
toys, astragaloi (knucklebones) and strigils
(scrapers). Many children’s tombs were there.
Kioniskoi (little columns) . Grave monuments of
the hellenistic and early imperial (Roman) periods.
Simple monuments with only the names
of the deceased, the father’s name, and place of origin.
Replaced the luxurious and expensive monuments
of the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. Athens.
Kerameikos.
Athens. Kerameikos Museum. Kioniskoi. Funerary
Markers from Hellenistic and Roman period.