Greek Material Culture

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Article

graffiti  

Jacqueline DiBiasie-Sammons

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 May 2024
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
  2. Greek Material Culture
  3. Latin Literature
  4. Roman Material Culture
Graffiti are informal, unofficial writings or drawings on surfaces not first produced for writing purposes, such as walls, pavement stones, rocks, and ceramics. Graffiti elucidate a great deal about life in the ancient world including topics such as social history, literacy, linguistic variation, sexuality, religious practices, and the use of space in ancient cities. These texts were composed in a variety of media: typically, they were scratched into the physical support, but paint, charcoal, and chalk were used as well. Graffiti have been found in many cities of the Greco-Roman world and in a variety of spaces including houses, tombs, religious spaces, and public areas. Since the texts were often inscribed or written on delicate surfaces such as wall plaster, only a small portion of the thousands that were once inscribed survive to the present.Graffiti (singular graffito) are informal, unofficial writings or drawings on surfaces not first produced for writing purposes, such as walls, pavement stones, rocks, and ceramics. A narrow definition of the word from its Italian root meaning “to scratch” only includes texts or drawings scratched into a hard surface such as plaster, stone, or marble. Because informal writings made with materials such as charcoal and chalk served the same purposes and were written in the same locations, and, in some instances, by the same authors as their inscribed counterparts, they are also included in the genre. The term graffiti, now used in English for writing of this sort from any era, was coined by .

Article

Greco-Roman architecture, reception of  

Elizabeth R. Macaulay

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 May 2024
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture: Bronze Age
  2. Greek Material Culture
  3. Reception
  4. Roman Material Culture

Since antiquity Greek and Roman architecture has been subject to diverse and complex receptions. Architectural forms have experienced different and wide-scale transformations across space and time, both in antiquity and in postantique contexts. These adapted forms have emerged because of the complex interactions between building traditions and contemporary needs.

At a fundamental level, architecture must be functional. It must work for the purpose for which it was designed, be it a temple, law court, or residence. Vitruvius endorses this view in De Architectura (I.2.5), the only surviving architectural treatise from Greco-Roman antiquity. At the same time, architecture has a unique ability to concretise ideas. Not only were there political, religious, economic, social, and ideological concepts associated with specific types of ancient buildings, but the architectural forms of the classical world have had a powerful range of resonances that postantique architects, patrons, and regimes have been only too keen to exploit. Classical architectural forms come with a lot of baggage.

Article

zooarchaeology  

Michael MacKinnon

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
19 July 2023
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Economy
  2. Greek Material Culture
  3. Science, Technology, and Medicine
  4. Roman Material Culture

Zooarchaeology/archaeozoology focuses on the investigation of animals in the past through analysis of recovered faunal remains, largely teeth and bones, from archaeological sites. As such zooarchaeological analyses can disclose much about the animals themselves, the environmental and ecological parameters in which they existed, as well as the cultures that kept, herded, controlled, hunted, manipulated, killed, ate, valued, symbolized, treated, and exploited them. The historical development of zooarchaeological study within classical archaeology showcases its expansion from earlier studies (in the 1970s and 1980s) that concentrated on reconstructing the core economic and ecological roles of animals in antiquity to its current state, which emphasizes more diversified, multidimensional investigations of animals across all spectra and components of ancient life. Key topics of interest in the discipline include ancient husbandry operations; the interaction between animals and ecological settings; the input of meat and other animal foodstuffs in ancient diets; the exploitation of non-consumable animal products, such as bones, hides, and wool in antiquity; breeding regimes and their effects on animals during Greek and Roman times; and the roles and characteristics of work, pet, and sacrificial animals in the past.

Article

temple, Greek  

Philip Sapirstein

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
24 May 2023
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture

By the 8th century bce, the temple was emerging in Greek sanctuaries as a new type of building which served symbolically as a deity’s house and accommodated the cult image and votives. After a period of intensifying investment and experimentation with new forms, the Doric and Ionic styles emerged in the first half of the 6th century bce and soon became the two dominant systems. As richly adorned monumental temples proliferated throughout Greece in the ensuing centuries, innovation occurred within these two frameworks through continuous adjustments to proportion and profiles, refinements, and the blending and remixing of elements from both systems. A new type of capital known as the Corinthian was developed during the Classical period and deployed as a third architectural system in its own right by the later Hellenistic era. We learn much of Greek architectural practice from the ancient writer Vitruvius as well as construction accounts, but current knowledge of the origins of Greek architecture and its developments over the Archaic through Hellenistic periods is most deeply informed by the architectural study of the archaeological remains of Greek temples.

Article

glass, Greek  

Katherine A. Larson

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
19 April 2023
Subjects:
  1. Greek History and Historiography
  2. Greek Material Culture
Glassmaking has traditionally not been considered a major accomplishment of Greek craft, but new research and archaeological discoveries have established Greek contributions to the history of glass. While there is no single ancient Greek term for glass, the term ὕαλος (hyalos) refers to a transparent, hard, luminous material, such as glass or rock crystal. In the 6th century bce, core-formed glass perfume and cosmetic containers began to appear throughout the Mediterranean, particularly in funerary contexts and dedicatory assemblages. Later, colourless glass, cast in moulds and sagged over forms and often decorated with gilding or cutting, appears as a major technical innovation in the late 5th to early 4th century bce. Although no workshops have been found, Rhodes and Macedonia were likely important producers of these products.The Hellenistic period saw a gradual diversification of forms, expansion of colours, and experimentation with new techniques. Always important luxury trade goods, glass drinking vessels and small objects such as beads and gaming pieces become more accessible to a wider segment of the population by the beginning of the 1st century bce, an important prelude to the spread of glassblowing under the Roman empire.

Article

Macedonian vaulted tombs  

Olga Palagia

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
15 September 2022
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture

Macedonian vaulted tombs are underground chamber tombs usually covered by an artifical mound and accessible through a corridor. They are built of ashlar masonry and were provided with stone or wooden furniture and luxurious burial goods. They often served for family burials and there is some evidence that their façades remained visible. Their inception and origin are controversial; their dates range from approximately the 330s to the mid-2nd century bce.

Underground built chamber tombs covered with a barrel vault first appeared in Macedonia at some point in the 330s bce or after; they ceased to be erected after the Roman conquest of Macedonia in 168bce, though there are at least two Roman imitations built in Macedonia in the 1st century CE.1 They are characterized by their barrel vault (Figure 1a), artificial mound (tumulus), façade and dromos (built corridor leading to the entrance) and are called Macedonian tombs to distinguish them from cist tombs which are also underground chambers but have flat roofs and are accessible from above.

Article

Eteocretans  

Anthony James Whitley

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
15 August 2022
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
Eteocretan refers both to a people (the Eteocretans) and to a language (Eteocretan). The Eteocretans (etymologically the “true Cretans”) are one of the five peoples of Crete mentioned in the Odyssey (Hom. Od. 19.175–177) whom Diodorus (5.64.1) calls autochthonous. Other sources (implicitly, Hdt 7.169–171; explicitly, Strabo 10.4.6 = Staphylus of Naukratis, FrGrHist 269 F12) locate these people in eastern Crete around Praisos; their curious customs form a minor trope of the Graeco-Roman antiquarian tradition (POxy. 1241, col. 5, 22–30; Ath. 9.375f–376a = Agothocles of Cyzicus, FrGrHist 472 F1) long after Praisos’s destruction around 140 bce. From 1884 onward, public inscriptions (IC 3.6.1–4) dating from the 6th to 4th centuries bce and written in Greek letters but not in the Greek language were found near the principal sanctuary (Altar Hill) of Praisos.1 Some scholars have detected material expressions of an Eteocretan ethnic identity in the distinctive style of Geometric and Orientalizing East Cretan painted pottery,2 in East Cretan mortuary practices,3 in the iconography of votive terracottas,4 and in the retention of the Eteocretan language for public inscriptions,5 though most acknowledge that there is no automatic connection between group identity and its expression in material culture.

Article

Praisos  

Anthony James Whitley

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
18 July 2022
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
Praisos (also spelled Πράσος in Strabo; sometimes Latinized as Praesus) is an ancient city in eastern Crete, one of forty-nine political communities (poleis or citizen-states) on that island.1 It is an inland site extending for about 28 ha over three hills (see Figure 1). The city and its territory were known to Herodotus (7.170–171), Theophrastus (Hist. pl. 3.3.4), Pseudo-Skylax (Periplous 47), Staphylus of Naucratis (FGrH 269 F 12), and Strabo (10.4.6), the last of whom located the sanctuary of Dictaean Zeus (now known to be at Palaikastro) within its territory (10.4.12).2 In Hellenistic times this territory extended from the northern to the southern coast of Crete; dependent communities included the Stalitai and Sitiatai (IC 3.6.7) in the 3rd century bce and the previously autonomous community of Dragmos by the early 2nd century bce (IC 3.4.9, line 58). Several inscriptions in Greek letters (but not in the Greek language) from Archaic through Hellenistic times have confirmed that this city was home to the Eteocretans (“True Cretans”), one of the five peoples of Crete mentioned in the Odyssey (19.

Article

Ilion  

Charles Brian Rose

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
24 February 2022
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture: Bronze Age
  2. Greek Material Culture
The name of Ilion is generally applied to the site of Troy to designate the settlement in existence there following the end of the Bronze Age. After the destruction of Troy (VIIb2) in the mid-11th century bce, probably by an earthquake, a few of the buildings were repaired but the town was not systematically rebuilt as in earlier periods. Some of the Protogeometric pottery uncovered at the site is paralleled in mainland Greece, especially in and around Euboea, Phocis, and Macedonia, so Ilion was clearly still part of an Aegean trade network at this time.1The fortunes of the city began to rise again during the late 9th and early 8th centuries bce, when there was new construction in the West Sanctuary, a complex on the southwest side of the citadel mound. One of the ruined Late Bronze Age structures in the sanctuary was rebuilt with benches inside and out, as well as a stone base that may have supported a cult image (Figures 1 and 2).

Article

Eleutherna  

Antonis Kotsonas

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
26 April 2021
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
Eleutherna is an ancient city on the Aegean island of Crete. It is located 25 km (15.5 miles) south-east of the modern city of Rethymno and is adjacent to the villages of Eleutherna and Ancient Eleutherna. The ancient site is centred on a narrow, long hill located between the north-western foot of Mount Ida and the north coast of Crete. The hill rises to 340 m (1,115 feet) above sea level, extends in a north to south direction, is flanked by two streams, and overlooks lowland areas extending northwards to the Aegean Sea.The name Eleutherna derives from the name of one of the Cretan daemons called Kouretes (Steph. Byz., s.v. Ἂωρος, Ἐλευθεραί, Ἐλεύθερνα). According to Stephanus of Byzantium, Aoros and Saoros were earlier names of the city, while Apollonia was a later one (Steph. Byz., s.v. Ἂωρος, Ἀπολλωνία κγ´, Ἐλευθεραί).Greek mythology considered Eleutherna as the home of Linus, son of .