Greek Material Culture

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Article

tourism  

Antony Spawforth

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
  2. Greek Literature
  3. Greek Material Culture
  4. Roman Material Culture
Well-known Greek tourists include *Solon, said (Hdt. 1. 30) to have visited Egypt and Lydia ‘for the sake of seeing’ (theōria), and *Herodotus (1) himself. Sea-borne *trade and sightseeing were surely companions from an early date, as they still were in the 4th cent. (Isoc. Trapeziticus 17. 4). A genre of Greek periegetic (‘travel’) literature arose by the 3rd cent., from which date fragments survive of a descriptive work, On the Cities in Greece, by Heraclides Criticus (ed. F. Pfister (1951); for partial trans. see Austin83); the only fully preserved work of this type is *Pausanias (3) (see polemon(3)), illustrating the thin line between sightseers and pilgrims. Under Rome ancient sightseeing came into its own. A papyrus (PTeb. 1. 33 = Bagnall and Derow 58) of 112 bce gives instructions to prepare for a Roman senator's visit to the *Fayūm, including titbits for the crocodiles; the colossi of *Memnon and other pharaonic monuments are encrusted with Greek and Latin graffiti.

Article

toys  

Frederick Norman Pryce and Michael Vickers

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Roman Material Culture
Specimens from children's tombs, and representations on Greek pottery vases provide our knowledge of ancient toys, which did not differ essentially from modern ones. For the infant there were clappers and rattles (πλαταγή, crepitaculum), hinged surfaces of wood or revolving circles with bells or rings of metal, or in animal form with loose pebbles inside. Crepundia (γνωρίσματα) were miniature objects and charms hung around the infant's neck; in literature these often served to identify abandoned or kidnapped children. Bells (κώδων, tintinnabulum) served the double purpose of amusement and averting the evil eye. For a more advanced age the doll of rag, bone, wood, or clay was the customary plaything; the limbs were often movable (νευρόσπαστα). Doll's house furniture, chairs, couches, toilet and kitchen utensils, were used as toys as well as for *votive offerings; it was customary for girls on marriage and boys on arrival at puberty to dedicate their playthings to deities. Animals, chariots and horses in wood or clay, go-karts, and whipping-tops are represented in museums, while the use of toy wind-assisted chariots, the ball (σφαῖρα, pila), and hoop (τροχός, trochus) is illustrated on painted pottery, as are the swing and see-saw.

Article

transhumance  

Antony Spawforth

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Roman Material Culture

Transhumance, a form of semi-nomadism in which pastoralists move their flocks over long distances between summer and winter pastures. Well-attested in the Mediterranean more recently, it is rarely mentioned in ancient Greek writers (Soph.OT 1132 ff. being one exception) and its importance is debated for *pastoralism in ancient Greece, where city-state boundaries were potential obstacles to the seasonal movements of shepherds and generated disputes between neighbours over rights to summer pasture, as between the Phocians and Locrians in 395 bce (Hell. Oxy. 21 Chambers). In Roman Italy, where the high Apennines favour transhumance, the practice is well attested from the late republic on, *Varro (Rust. 2) providing the best evidence, and was presumably facilitated by the peninsula's political unification, although its scale and the extent of the Roman state's involvement are problematic. See nomads.

Article

trireme  

Philip de Souza

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Roman Material Culture

The trireme (Gk. τριήρης, Lat. triremis) was the standard warship of the classical world for much of the time from the 5th cent. bce to the 4th cent. ce. A long rowing-ship, its principal weapon was a bronze ram, fixed on the prow at the water-line. It was rowed by oarsmen arranged in groups of three, sitting one above the other and each oarsman pulling a single oar of equal length. The topmost level of men were called in Greek thranitai, the middle ones zygioi, and the lowest ones thalamioi. On an Athenian trireme of the Classical period there were 170 oarsmen, ten marines, four archers, and sixteen sailors, including the helmsman, making a total of 200. Trials of a modern reconstruction of an Athenian trireme have shown that speeds in excess of 9 knots are possible. Triremes could be rowed with only some of the oars manned, but this reduced speed considerably. For long sailing passages sails were used, but masts were usually removed and left on the shore before battle.

Article

trophies  

Donald Emrys Strong

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Roman Material Culture
The act of dedicating on the field of battle a suit of enemy armour set upon a stake is a specifically Greek practice. Originally intended as a miraculous image of the theos tropaios who had brought about the defeat of the enemy, a trophy marked the spot where the enemy had been routed. Trophies were also dedicated in the sanctuary of the deity to whom victory was ascribed. They appear in art at the end of the 6th cent. bce and were certainly in use during the *Persian Wars.The trophies of the 4th cent. became permanent monuments. The battle of *Leuctra (371 bce) was commemorated by a tower surmounted by a trophy of arms, and from this period onwards the name was applied to various kinds of towers and buildings commemorating military and naval victories. Trophies became a common motif of art; sculptured trophies accompanied by statues of captives and victors decorated the buildings of Hellenistic kings and took an important place in Roman triumphal art from the 1st cent. bce.

Article

water supply  

Richard Allan Tomlinson

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture
  2. Roman Material Culture
The preferred source of water in Classical Greece is a natural perennial spring. Failing this, rainwater has to be conserved in cisterns, or raised from wells.Improvement of natural water supplies leads to the construction of fountain houses where water is fed through spouts (normally decorated in the form of a lion's head) into drawbasins; such constructions are usually placed behind architectural façades with a roof to shade (and keep cool) the drawbasins. These already existed in the 6th cent. bce (Enneakrounos at Athens, built by *Pisistratus). Pirene at Corinth was successively improved from Archaic to Roman times. The use of terracotta pipes and built or rock-cut conduits to lead water from a spring to a locality where it was needed develops from the Archaic period (see aqueduct).Cisterns may be rock-cut, but generally have to be lined with cement to retain water. They may be fed from rainwater trapped on roofs, or on the ground surface, led into settling tanks for cleaning before storage. Cisterns under the courtyards of houses in *Delos are reached by well heads, hollowed cylinders of marble, usually decorated (see puteal).

Article

weighing instruments  

Frederick Norman Pryce, Mabel L. Lang, and David William John Gill

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Material Culture: Bronze Age
  2. Greek Material Culture
  3. Roman Material Culture
The balance (σταθμός, libra, bilanx) of two pans at equal distance from the point of suspension is an invention of the earliest times; in Mycenaean tablets (see mycenaean language) it is the symbol for the largest unit of weight, and Homer is familiar with its use, which persisted through antiquity. The steelyard, in which the rod is unequally divided, the object to be weighed being suspended from the short arm against a sliding counterweight on the longer, does not appear before Roman times (statera: originally statera campana, from an alleged Campanian origin; see campania); but from its greater convenience it became the most popular form of balance. There may be alternative positions for the fulcrum, and two different scales can be marked on the bar. Inscriptions can guarantee the standard. Trutina is a pan-balance for large masses; momentana and moneta are for small objects, or coins. Weighing instruments were only as accurate as the weights used, and it seems that some error was created by using worn items. See weights.

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.