Greek Material Culture

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Article

lead  

Oliver Davies and David William John Gill

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Science, Technology, and Medicine
  3. Roman Material Culture
Is mined in part for the extraction of *silver from its ores. Some of the major sources in the Greek world were located at *Laurium in *Attica, on *Siphnos, and in *Macedonia. There were extensive workings in Anatolia (see asia minor). In the western Mediterranean, lead was mined on *Sardinia and in Etruria (see etruscans). Roman extraction took place in *Spain, *Gaul, and *Britain. Stamped lead ‘pigs’ show that lead was being extracted from the Mendips shortly after the Roman invasion of Britain (CIL 7. 1201). In the late empire lead mines were operating in the Balkans. Lead isotope analysis has allowed different sources to be identified. Thus lead from Archaic deposits in Laconia, as well as traces identified in Roman skeletal material from Britain, can be traced back to Laurium.Buildings associated with the extraction of silver from the argentiferous lead ore have been excavated at Laurium. Litharge (the by-product of this process) has been found in protogeometric and even bronze age contexts. In the Greek world lead was used to form the core of bronze handles, to fix steles to their bases, and for small offerings (such as those found in the sanctuary of *Artemis Orthia at *Sparta).

Article

libraries  

P. J. Parsons

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
  2. Greek Material Culture
  3. Latin Literature
  4. Roman Material Culture
By the end of the 5th cent. bce, books were in general circulation, even if some regarded them as a fad of intellectuals like *Euripides (Ar. Ran. 943, cf. fr. 506 KA); Athens had booksellers (Eup. fr. 327, Aristomenes (2) fr. 9, KA), and exports reached the Black Sea (Xen. An. 7. 5. 14), see euxine. Individuals collected the best-known poets and philosophers (Xen. Mem. 4. 2. 1); an imagined collection of the later 4th cent. bce includes *Orpheus, *Hesiod, *tragedies, *Choerilus (probably (2)), *Homer, *Epicharmus, and all kinds of prose, including Simus' Cookery (Alexis fr. 140 KA). Of famous collectors (Ath. 1. 3a), *Aristotle took first place (Strabo 13. 1. 54); but his library, like that of the other philosophic schools, remained private property (for its chequered history, see Strabo, ibid.; Plut. Sull. 26. 1–2).Institutional libraries begin with the Hellenistic monarchies; the ‘public’ library of *Pisistratus (Gell.

Article

lighthouses  

Nicholas Purcell

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Science, Technology, and Medicine
  3. Roman Material Culture
Tall monuments which might function as navigational marks were an early feature of ancient harbour-architecture (Archaic examples are known on *Thasos). The idea became celebrated with the building of the 100-m. (328-ft.) tower on the Pharus island at *Alexandria (1), which gave its name to the architectural genre (c.300–280 bce, by Sostratus of *Cnidus (Strabo 17. 1. 6)), and the colossus of *Helios at *Rhodes (280 bce, by *Chares (4) of Lindus (Plin. HN 34. 41)): both so famous as to be reckoned among the *Seven Wonders of the ancient world. Beacon-fires made such monuments more visible by night as well as by day: but their function as signs of conquest and displays of prestige was as important. Claudius' lighthouse tower at *Portus, intended to rival the Pharus, became a symbol of Rome's port and its activities. The (partly preserved) lighthouse at Dover castle, and its opposite number at Boulogne (*Gesoriacum) suggested the taming of the Channel; another survives at La Coruña (*Brigantium) at the Atlantic extremity of Spain.

Article

lighting  

Frederick Norman Pryce and David William John Gill

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Roman Material Culture
The ancients knew two methods: the burning of oil in a lamp (see lamps) and the combustion of a solid substance. In Minoan (see minoan civilization) and in Classical times lamps were preferred for indoor illumination, and in the Roman empire they were sometimes employed for streets and on exteriors of buildings. The torch (λαμπάς) was more generally used out of doors and also for interiors during the early iron age. The Greek torch was generally of wood (δαΐς), a branch or a bundle of twigs (δετή). The Italians preferred candles of tallow (candela) or beeswax (cereus), which were mounted on metal candelabra. Lanterns were also freely used, candles or lamps enclosed within horn or (in imperial times) glass. *Antioch (1) was one of the few cities in antiquity to provide street lighting (Amm. Marc. 14. 1. 9) along with (late antique) *Ephesus.

Article

marble  

Donald Emrys Strong and Hazel Dodge

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Science, Technology, and Medicine
  3. Roman Material Culture
Under μάρμαρος, marmor, the ancients included granites, porphyries, and all stones capable of taking a high polish. In the third millennium bce the white marbles of the Greek islands were used for Cycladic sculpture. The Minoans employed coloured marbles and breccias for vases and furniture and in architecture for facings and column bases. The Mycenaeans also used coloured marbles, including green porphyry and rosso antico, for furniture and architectural decoration. Neither used marble as a building stone or for sculpture.The fine white marbles of Greece and the Greek islands were widely used for architecture and sculpture from the 7th cent. bce onwards. Grey Naxian and white Parian, the best of the island marbles, were used for both sculpture and architecture; see naxos (1) and paros. The Pentelic quarries to the north-east of Athens (see Pentelicon) supplied a fine-grained marble for the *Parthenon and other 5th-cent. bce buildings in the city and its territory.

Article

meals  

Robert Sallares

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Roman Material Culture
Among the Greeks the times and names of meals varied at different periods. In early times (ἄριστον) was taken shortly after sunrise, followed by a main meal (δεῖπνον) at midday and supper (δόρπον) in the evening. In Classical Athens two meals—a light lunch (ἄριστον) and dinner (δεῖπνον) in the evening—appear to have been usual. From the 4th cent. bce onwards an earlier breakfast (ἀκράτισμα) was again added, or substituted for lunch.Among the Romans dinner (cena) was eaten in the middle of the day in early times, with a light supper (vesperna) in the evening. Eventually an evening cena, often commencing in the late afternoon, became usual. Lunch (prandium), consisting of fish or eggs and vegetables together with wine, was eaten towards midday and replaced supper. In the morning there was a very light breakfast (ientaculum), which might consist of only bread and salt.

Article

mirrors  

Glenys Lloyd-Morgan

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Roman Material Culture
Mirrors (κάτοπτρον, speculum) in the Graeco-Roman world were made of various materials—mostly copper alloy, but *silver and *iron examples have been found. Earliest surviving pieces date to the Mycenaean period c.1200–1100 bce, with bone and ivory handles carved with animal motifs. Egyptian mirrors have been found in some burials and as temple offerings in the classical world. Greek hand-mirrors were made in one piece from the 7th cent. bce, becoming more elaborate with time. Mirrors of the 5th cent. bce include those with a heavy disc and a separate ornamental tang slotting into a handle or stand. The most elaborate examples are the so-called *caryatid mirrors where the disc is supported by a female figure, rarely a youth, on a stool or plinth. The date-span covers the period c.620–c.400 bce. The other important group are the 4th–3rd-cent. bce mirrors with a hinged cover to protect the reflecting surface. The lid may be decorated with a plaque showing a female head or a mythological event. The inside cover was sometimes engraved with a related scene, or silvered to give a second mirror surface. This form was copied by the *Etruscans, and is found in lightweight versions in southern France during the 1st cent.

Article

odeum  

Richard Allan Tomlinson

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Roman Material Culture
Odeum (ᾠδεῖον), a small theatre or roofed hall for musical competitions and other assemblages.The Odeum of *Pericles(1) at Athens, an exceptional structure, placed in the area of the then undeveloped theatre, was a square hall having a pyramidal roof supported on rows of internal columns supposedly utilising the masts taken from the Persian fleet after the battle of *Salamis (Vitr. De Arch. 5. 9. 1). It was used for the choral elements in the competitions of the *Dionysia festival (see proagōn). There are no traces of the provision for the audience, but *Plutarch (Per.13) says it contained seats.Developed odea are generally smaller and, when roofed, avoid the need for supports intruding into the auditorium. They usually take the form of miniature theatres, with seats arranged in a semicircle, contained within a rectangular outer structure which often truncates the uppermost rows of seats. Since this form may also be used for *theatres (e.

Article

orientation  

Nicholas Purcell

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Roman Material Culture
The patterning of the human environment according to generally accepted calibrations of ambient space took a number of forms in ancient Mediterranean cultures, and particularly in religious contexts, such as the laying out of *sanctuaries according to the cardinal points (that is to solar phenomena: there is little evidence of lunar or stellar orientations), or to face parts of ritually or mythically important landscapes (note the orientation of sanctuaries in Latium towards the *Albanus mons). A connection between the sunrise quarter and the right hand was found in Greek practice (cf. Il. 12. 237 f.), and an eastward orientation is common but not mandatory for *temples (e.g. the *Parthenon). Conversely the west was inauspicious and used in cursing (e.g. Lysias 6. 51), though many Anatolian goddess-temples faced west (see anatolian deities). Roman augury (see augures) was one of the most developed of such systems, with a complex division of the sky and the land beneath it from the observer's viewpoint, which was closely related to the cardinal points and to the practices of land division (augural sanctuary of *Bantia; orientation of the *centuriation of the ager Campanus; see campania).

Article

phallus  

Richard Seaford

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Gender Studies
  2. Greek Literature
  3. Greek Material Culture
  4. Greek Myth and Religion
  5. Latin Literature
  6. Roman Material Culture
  7. Roman Myth and Religion
Phallus, an image of the penis, often as erect, to be found in various contexts, in particular (a) in certain rituals associated with fertility, notably Dionysiac *processions (see dionysus): see e.g. Ar. Ach.243 on the Attic rural Dionysia (see attic cults and myths), *Semos in Ath. 622b-c on groups of ‘ithyphallics’ and ‘phallus-bearers’, *Varro in Aug. Civ. 7. 21 ‘for the success of seeds’ at the Liberalia (see liber pater);(b) as a sacred object revealed in the Dionysiac *mysteries, as in the Villa of the Mysteries fresco at *Pompeii; *Iamblichus (2) (Myst. 1. 11) mentions it as a symbol of secret doctrine;(c) in the costume of comedy (see comedy (greek), old), *satyric drama, and various low theatrical genres; *Aristotle (Poet. 1449a11) says that comedy originated in phallic songs;(d) on permanent display, often as part of a statue such as those of *Priapus or the *herms identified with *Hermes;(e) as apotropaic: e.

Article

plate, precious, Greek and Roman  

David William John Gill

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Roman Material Culture

Vessels of *gold and *silver are frequently mentioned in literary texts. *Pindar (Ol. 7. 1–4) described a gold phiale as ‘the peak of all possessions’. Greek temple inventories list large quantities of plate and they frequently provide information about the weights of items. Herodotus (1. 14, 25, 50–2, 92) also records the gold and silver dedications made by various Lydian kings such as *Gyges, *Alyattes, and *Croesus. As silver and gold can be reworked, few items of ancient plate have survived in their original form. Likewise sanctuaries as depositories of such wealth were frequently looted; the inscribed dedication on a silver phiale found in a grave at Kozani was to *Athena at *Megara. Outstanding pieces of Greek plate include the silver vessels decorated in gold-figure from Duvanli in Bulgaria (see also rogozen) and Semibratny in southern Russia. Although much plate has been lost it is possible (but this is controversial) that metallic shapes, and perhaps even colours, influenced the production of fine Greek pottery.

Article

polychromy, architectural, Greek and Roman  

Stephan Zink

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
26 March 2019
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Science, Technology, and Medicine
  3. Roman Material Culture
The polychromy of Greek and Etrusco-Roman architecture comprises the chromatic effects and surface treatments of exterior façades and roofs, as well as interior floors, walls, and ceilings. Colour and/or contrasts of light and shadow are the basis for all architectural ornamentation. The practice is characterized by a large variety of materials and techniques, which draw from different genres of the visual arts such as stone, plaster and stucco working, toreutics, tessellation, sculpture, panel painting, terracotta, and glass making. The treatment of architectural surfaces is thus intimately connected to changes in both construction knowledge and building economies, while their visual effects depend on changing architectural forms and designs. Both texts and archaeological remains underline the importance of colour and material as an integral part of ancient architectural design; they play a key role for the sensory and atmospheric experience of architecture and could influence its symbolic meaning.Despite strong regional traditions and a general lack of standardization, a few overall developments can be pinpointed: a triple colour scheme of dark (black, blue), light (white, cream), and red hues dominated both Archaic Greek and Etrusco-Italic architectural polychromy; its chromatic polarity became fundamental for the Greek Doric order and, as a basic combination, it remained a recurring motif of architectural surfaces into the Roman Imperial periods. During the Greek Classical period, green, yellow, and increasingly, gilding joined the basic colour palette. Late Classical/Hellenistic innovations included illusionistic painting techniques, intermediality (the imitation of one material by means of another), as well as the increase of light and shadow effects. While variation (Greek poikilia) of both colours and materials was a guiding principle, it seems that there were also occasional reductions of polychrome accentuations on exteriors.

Article

polychromy, sculptural, Greek and Roman  

Jan Stubbe Østergaard

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
26 February 2018
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture: Bronze Age
  2. Greek Material Culture
  3. Roman Material Culture

The term “polychromy” has been in use since the early 19th century to denote the presence of any element of colour in Greek and Roman sculpture. The evidence for such polychromy is literary, epigraphical, archaeological, and archeometric; research on the subject therefore requires collaboration between the humanities, conservation science, and natural science. Such research should go hand in hand with the investigation of the polychromy of Greek and Roman architecture, since it is symbiotically related to sculpture, technically as well as visually.

Knowledge of Greek and Roman sculptural polychromy is still very uneven. Scholars have focused on stone sculpture, and most research has been directed towards the Archaic, Early Classical, Hellenistic, and Imperial Roman periods. For terracottas, the Hellenistic period has enjoyed the most research, while investigation of the polychromy of bronze sculpture has only recently begun.

The scientific research methodology applied concerns the materials and techniques employed. The main colouring agents are paints, metals, and coloured marbles. Pigments are based on inorganic and organic materials applied with proteins, wax, or plant gums as binding media. Metals used are bronze, copper, silver, and gold. A range of coloured marbles came into use in the Roman Imperial period, but in all periods, assorted materials such as semi-precious stones and metals were used for inlaid details and attached objects like jewelry and weapons.

Article

quinquereme  

Philip de Souza

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Roman Material Culture
Quinquereme (Greek πεντήρης, Latin quinqueremis), was a warship rowed by oarsmen arranged in groups of five, perhaps with three banks of oars, one above the other, the top two each pulled by a pair of men, the bottom by one. The details of particular ships are unclear and other possible variations may have been developed. Its origins are uncertain, but it first appears in Athenian naval lists in 325/4 bce (IG 221629. 811), and by the end of the 4th cent. bce it could be found in the navies of most Hellenistic states. Larger and heavier than a *trireme, it offered space for more marines, missile weapons, and the Roman boarding-bridge (Latin corvus, raven). The Romans adopted it as their main warship in the *Punic Wars, modelling their fleets on captured Carthaginian vessels (Polyb. 1. 20 and 59). After the battle of *Actium it was superseded by smaller vessels.

Article

records and record-keeping, attitudes to  

Rosalind Thomas

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Roman Material Culture
Greeks and Romans kept records on stone or bronze, lead, wooden tablets (waxed or whitened), papyrus (see books, greek and roman), *ostraca, even precious metals. The different materials often bear certain associations and reflect ancient attitudes to records: e.g. bronze documents in Athens have religious associations, as do the bronze tablets of Roman laws. Stone inscriptions promised permanence and importance, publicly visible reminders of the decree (etc. ) they record: in *Athens, matters of particular concern to the gods went up on stone (e.g. the *tribute lists). Athenian inscriptions (see epigraphy, greek) are read and referred to, but they may also serve as memorials of the decision they record, so that their destruction signifies the end of that transaction (e.g. Dem. 16. 27); inscribed laws are often dedicated to a god. The relation of the inscribed records to those in the archives is therefore complex. Some scholars believe that archival texts are the originals, the inscriptions merely copies, and that there were always archival copies. The situation changes in the Hellenistic period, but the terminology, even then, is inconsistent and inscribed texts are treated as authoritative, indicating a less archive-oriented attitude to records. Archive organization, where we have evidence, is often primitive, and not all archive documents are preserved: in classical Athens certain documents are destroyed when the transaction is complete (e.g. records of state debtors), or for political reasons (e.g. IG 13 127, 27 ff, for *Samos), or as a *damnatio memoriae, as in Rome.

Article

roads  

Nicholas Purcell

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
  2. Greek Material Culture
  3. Roman Material Culture

Ancient road-theory divides into two categories: the art of enhancing communications through built or dug works; and the planning and maintaining of large-scale communications networks based on such works.

Ramps, cuttings, stone pavements, zig-zags, and pull-offs are found on local roads from Archaic Greek times, and were clearly designed to facilitate wheeled traction: there are Mycenaean precursors, and parallels in many parts of the Mediterranean, such as Etruria. Improved routes for specialized purposes such as the haulage-route to Athens from the *marble*quarries of Mt. *Pentelicon, or the *diolkos across the isthmus of Corinth, are found, and fine paved processional ways like the Athenian Sacred Way or the approaches to great *sanctuaries like *Delphi. The technological repertoire was greatly increased by the deployment of arched construction on a large scale (see arches), which made *bridges and viaducts feasible; and where labour was cheap, and petrology favourable, major cuttings and tunnels could be contemplated. Such things, like the deployment of the older road technologies on any very large scale required large-scale organization, intercommunity co-operation, voluntary or enforced, and very large resources, all of which escaped the Greek world of the Archaic and Classical periods.

Article

sexual representation, visual  

John R. Clarke

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
27 February 2017
Subjects:
  1. Gender Studies
  2. Greek Material Culture
  3. Roman Material Culture
This article treats visual representations of sex between human beings, hypersexual humans and demigods, and phalli in terms of their meanings for ancient Greeks and Romans and their viewing contexts. Building on the research of scholars holding that contemporary concepts of sexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality have no bearing on ancient attitudes and can only lead to anachronistic judgements if applied to the ancient world, the aim is to combine the evidence of classical texts with that of visual representations to determine the meanings of so-called erotica for ancient viewers. Many portrayals deemed pornographic by modern standards constituted proper decoration, whether they appear in the frescoed interiors of Roman houses or on drinking vessels, mirrors, and gemstones. Artists also created hypersexual creatures such as pygmies, Priapus, and Hermaphroditus primarily as apotropaia; representations of the phallus and of phallic deities installed on the streets and in the shops of cities had a similar apotropaic function.

Article

shipwrecks, ancient  

Deborah N. Carlson

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture: Bronze Age
  2. Greek Material Culture
  3. Roman Material Culture
Underwater archaeology and the excavation of ships and boats inform us about the size, construction, lading, and operation of watercraft in the ancient Mediterranean. Their findspots include shallow coastal waters and rivers, deep waters of the open sea, and silted harbours. The vast majority of ancient shipwrecks that have survived were transporting cargoes of raw materials (metal and glass ingots, stone blocks), finished goods (ceramic tableware, stone sculpture, metal tools, weapons, and containers), as well as comestible (wine, oil, nuts, meat, etc.) or organic (pitch, tar) commodities typically carried inside two-handled clay transport jars called amphoras. Thorough excavation and analysis of ancient shipwrecks contribute to larger dialogues about maritime trade and the economy, construction techniques and technology, travel, and navigation.The archaeological excavation of ancient shipwrecks as a scientific discipline is less than a century old. Its advent is closely tied to the invention of SCUBA in the 1950s and its subsequent development influenced by other underwater technologies. While more than 1,700 ancient wrecks have been identified in the Mediterranean and neighbouring seas, only a small percentage have been scientifically investigated; far fewer have been systematically excavated, conserved, and published. Nonetheless nautical archaeology contributes to meaningful dialogues about economy, trade, technology, travel, and .

Article

temple  

Richard Allan Tomlinson

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Greek Myth and Religion
  3. Roman Material Culture
  4. Roman Myth and Religion
The Greek temple was the house of the god, whose image it contained, usually placed so that at the annual festival it could watch through the open door the burning of the sacrifice at the altar which stood outside (see statues, cult of). It was not a congregational building, the worshippers instead gathering round the altar in the open air, where they would be given the meat of the victims to consume (see sacrifice, greek). *Orientation was generally towards the east, and often towards that point on the skyline where (allowing for the vagaries of ancient Greek calendars) the sun rose on the day of the festival. The temple also served as a repository for the property of the god, especially the more valuable possessions of gold and silver *plate (see votive offerings).The core of the temple is the cella, a rectangular room whose side walls are prolonged beyond one end to form a porch, either with columns between them (in antis) or in a row across the front (prostyle). More prestigious temples surround this with an external colonnade (and are described as peripteral). They generally duplicate the porch with a corresponding prolongation of the walls at the rear of the cella, without, however, making another doorway into the cella (the opisthodomus, or false porch).

Article

theatres, Greek and Roman, structure  

Richard Allan Tomlinson

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Roman Material Culture
The Greek theatre consisted essentially of the orchestra, the flat dancing-place for the choral song and dance out of which grew tragedy and comedy; and the auditorium (the theatron proper, Latin cavea), normally a convenient slope on which spectators could sit or stand. In early theatres wooden seating was constructed, though it is not clear how this was done. Seats were sometimes cut in the rock; by the time theatres reached a more definitive form, in the 4th cent. bce, seats consisted of stone benches of simple form, rising in tiers. These were curved, reflecting the normal circular shape of the orchestra. A rectangular orchestra survives at the well-preserved theatre at *Thoricus, partly faced by seats in a straight line, curving only at the ends. The orchestra consisted of hard earth—paving was not introduced till Roman times. The skēnē (tent or hut) was in origin a simple structure for the convenience of the performers, which could also form a background for the plays. In the course of the 5th cent. it became a more solid building, ultimately acquiring a handsome architectural form sometimes with projecting wings. The fully developed auditorium was wherever possible rather more than a semicircle in plan, opening out a little at the outer ends, where the line of seats was drawn on a slightly greater radius. The outer sectors required embankments and solid retaining walls, while the inner was hollowed out of the hillside; there were no elaborate substructures as in Roman theatres. The auditorium did not link up with the skēnē, except perhaps by means of light gateways, and the intervening passages on either side were called parodoi.