Politics, Research Agendas and Abortive Fieldwork Plans Over Lyktos, Crete: A History of Archaeological Research

Kotsonas, Antonis

doi:10.1017/s0068245419000078

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…These types of contests may have been staged at the death of an important individual, akin to the funerary games of Patroclus. Overall, if Kotsonas’ interpretation of the Kommos cup is accurate, then we have a more-or-less contemporary depiction of Hector's death – albeit a different stage of his death – from central Crete, a region with stylistic ties to Sparta through ivory carving, as well as political and social ties (Kotsonas 2019b, 399–400). Both examples derive from cultic settings, to be further explored below 28…”

Section: Symbolism On the Prothesis Plaquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

CELEBRATING DEATH AT THE SANCTUARY OF ORTHIA: APROTHESISSCENE, THE IVORY CORPUS AND RITUAL LANDSCAPES IN THE ARCHAIC PERIOD

Daniels

2023

Annu. Br. Sch. Athens

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The corpus of carved ivories from the sanctuary of Orthia at Sparta forms one of the most cosmopolitan assemblages from Archaic Laconia. One image within this corpus, however, has remained an anomaly: a mirror-image scene on two plaques showing three figures mourning a deceased male in the prothesis ritual. The puzzling nature of these plaques rests on the dearth of imagery elsewhere in Laconia from this period displaying the prothesis, unlike Attica. These images have been viewed as representing a mythical death or a commemoration of an actual death, tied to a period in Sparta's history when elite groups claimed power through ostentatious ritual, but their overall meaning within Orthia's sanctuary remains obscure. I argue, however, that these plaques are not anomalies within the ivory corpus, nor are they divorced from the broader ritual programme in Orthia's sanctuary – rather, the ivory corpus itself represents a unified composition that merged scenes showing ideal activities for Spartan citizens with heroic episodes from myth, geared towards the achievement of everlasting kléos. The semantics of these combined iconographies are clarified via comparison with cultic implements described in ancient literature alongside extant examples of multi-scene figural pottery from the seventh and sixth centuries. This paper thus highlights the mythological and ideological meanings of the prothesis plaques within the broader ivory corpus, and elucidates the role of complex figural iconographies in the elaboration of heroic ideals centred on Spartan citizens in this period.

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Section: Symbolism On the Prothesis Plaquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

CELEBRATING DEATH AT THE SANCTUARY OF ORTHIA: APROTHESISSCENE, THE IVORY CORPUS AND RITUAL LANDSCAPES IN THE ARCHAIC PERIOD

Daniels

2023

Annu. Br. Sch. Athens

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“…The field is increasingly attracting historiographic studies that situate the exploration of ancient Crete in the context of broader political and disciplinary history (e.g. Whitley 2015b;Kotsonas 2016;2019a). These studies help illuminate the complex pedigree of some of the current debates on the island's history and archaeology.…”

Section: Reference Work and Current Debatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

6 Crete: Early Iron Age to Classical

Kotsonas¹

2022

Arch. Rep.

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This review covers recent archaeological work on Early Iron Age to Classical Crete, focusing on research conducted and published in the 2010s. Proceeding from the west to the east part of the island, and encompassing material ranging from the 12th to the mid-fourth century BC, this study finds that, overall, the field is flourishing, despite the challenges created by the international financial crisis and the constraints posed by the global pandemic. In the last decade, the major archaeological projects which focus on Crete for the period under examination continued with their fieldwork and finds research, while new projects were also established. Additionally, as many as eight archaeological museums were opened, reopened, or are about to open. Nevertheless, final publication of large bodies of Cretan material from the period in question remain scarce, a condition which is more severe on the western half of the island. Notwithstanding its floruit, research on Early Iron Age to Classical Crete is often treated as relatively marginal, and – arguably – rather inconsequential to the grand narratives of Greek history, and art and archaeology. This paper traces the roots of this problem and shows that current work on the archaeology of Early Iron Age to Classical Crete has full potential for revolutionizing the largely Athenocentric paradigm which still pervades the study of ancient Greece.

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“…974). Kotsonas (2019, 427–37) argues that the city was smaller than this (60 ha) but also that settlement was dispersed over two hills (one of which is very large), making it a particularly difficult settlement to destroy in its entirety.…”

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confidence: 99%

Κατεσκαψαν Ιεραπυτνιοι: The Destruction of Political Communities in the Second Century Bc and the Resilience of the Cretan Polis

Whitley

2023

Annu. Br. Sch. Athens

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Recently there has been a revival of interest in both the historical and archaeological dimensions of the destruction of cities. The destruction of the principal settlement of a polis is one thing, the effective eradication of the political community quite another. What did it take to destroy a political community? The historical record is full of references to destructions of one polis by another in late Classical to Hellenistic times in Crete. And though not all of these destructions led to the end of the political community in question, some did, and between the Classical period (where we know of 49 poleis) and the Roman conquest of Metellus (where we know of only 24) the numbers of Cretan poleis were drastically reduced. The destruction of Praisos by Hierapytna between 145 and 140 BC (Strabo 10.4.12) was one such case. This seems to form part of a horizon of destructions (of Dreros, Apollonia and Phaistos) that took place between 200 and 140 BC. Florence Gaignerot-Driessen has demonstrated that there is a clear ritual dimension to this in the case of Dreros, a dimension indicated elsewhere by the use of the verb κατέσκαψαν. Excavations at Praisos have shed light on this question. This paper argues that, while there is no evidence for a widespread destruction by fire, there is clear evidence for the ending of Praisian sanctuaries and the forced abandonment of houses and (most intriguingly) the abandonment of large storage vessels. A particular archaeological ‘signature’ of these abandonments, evident at Dreros, Phaistos and Praisos, is the abandonment of the ‘household pithos’, which in many cases seem to be older than the houses in which they have been found. The paper also argues that these archaeological signatures of what had to be destroyed in order to eradicate a political community in turn shed light on what made this particular form of ‘citizen state’ so resilient.

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Politics, Research Agendas and Abortive Fieldwork Plans Over Lyktos, Crete: A History of Archaeological Research

Cited by 5 publications

References 56 publications

CELEBRATING DEATH AT THE SANCTUARY OF ORTHIA: APROTHESISSCENE, THE IVORY CORPUS AND RITUAL LANDSCAPES IN THE ARCHAIC PERIOD

CELEBRATING DEATH AT THE SANCTUARY OF ORTHIA: APROTHESISSCENE, THE IVORY CORPUS AND RITUAL LANDSCAPES IN THE ARCHAIC PERIOD

6 Crete: Early Iron Age to Classical

Κατεσκαψαν Ιεραπυτνιοι: The Destruction of Political Communities in the Second Century Bc and the Resilience of the Cretan Polis

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