A number of Greek sacred laws provide for the use of coins as preliminary offerings, often with the stipulation that the worshiper must insert a specific amount of coined money into a stone offering box or thesauros before participating in a cult activity. Sanctuary personnel, especially priests and priestesses, were charged in these inscriptions with regulating such income. Special care was taken to separate coined money intended for the divinity from any money which could be claimed by the priest or priestess as a portion or honorarium. This paper explores the details of how sanctuary personnel carried out this "sacred accounting," perhaps incorporating coins into more traditional methods for carrying out preliminary offerings. Inscriptions from Athens, Delos, Oropos, Thasos, Minoa at Amorgos and Kos are discussed.As they enter the first gallery of the new Acropolis museum in Athens, visitors come upon a curious stone contraption − two limestone blocks, set one on top of the other. 2 The bottom stone has a hollowed depression, which corresponds to an egg-shaped hollowing on the upper stone. This upper block also has a narrow opening at the top, though which coins could be inserted. There is a cutting for a metal locking mechanism, and most importantly, there is an inscription, which explains exactly how this object is to be used.
vault construction in western Mediterranean bath complexes built between the third and fi rst centuries B.C.The book is well presented, with appropriate citations and illustrations and minimal misprints. Scholars will benefi t from reading those essays pertinent to their own research.
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