The Rich Lady of the Areiopagos and Her Contemporaries: A Tribute in Memory of Evelyn Lord Smithson

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. The American School of Classical Studies at Athens is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. , the first anniversary of her death.1 I should like to put on record my gratitude to her for the constant help and encouragement she gave me in the early years of my interest in Geometric pottery.Evelyn Smithson was an established member of the Agora team when I first came to Athens as a research student in 1957. As one of several regular visitors in that year to the Stoa of Attalos from the British School, I found in Evelyn a sympathetic mentor and a generous friend. She not only allowed me to work through the Early and Middle Geometric deposits in her care but also spared much time to discuss them with me, to compare notes, and to exchange ideas.In those days the earlier phases of Attic Geometric had not attracted much attention, and even their definition was not universally agreed. General inquiry into the whole Attic sequence had been largely the preserve of German scholars, who, after the great pioneering paper by Peter Kahane,2 still divided Attic Geometric into four art-historical phases: Early, Severe, Ripe, and Late. For different reasons, both Evelyn and I found this system diffcult to apply to excavated deposits. She preferred, especially for the plainer domestic wares, a more strictly chronological subdivision, and to me, thinking of Geometric styles elsewhere, there were many places far from Athens where severity and ripeness could not be guaranteed. Thus, quite independently, we both chose to invoke the ubiquitous trinity of Early, Middle, and Late, which could be applied easily to almost every regional style in Greece. Even so, the Early and Middle phases were then little known and somewhat undervalued in a historical context. From the Agora area, the only full and analytical study of Geometric finds had been Rodney Young's volume on the Late Geometric plot of graves under the Classical Tholos.3 Furthermore, it was fashionable to think of the Late Geometric period 1 For illustrations, and permission to include them here, I am grateful to the American School of Classical Studies (Pls. 97:b, 99:a, b), to the Deutsches ArchAologisches Institut (P1. 98:c), and to Mr. Mervyn Popham (P1. lOO:a-c, e). All other illustrations are of vases from the North Cemetery at Knossos, of which Plates 98:a, b, d, 99:c, d, and 100:d have not previously been published; my thanks are due to the Managing Committee of the British School at Athens for permission to present them here, in advance of the final report (Knossos, the North Cemetery: Eary Greek Tombs [BSA Suppl., forthcoming], H. W. C...

Societies in Transition in Early Greece

“…The overt wealth expressed in the deposition of such objects was complemented by their diverse origins. Coldstream (1995) noted the similarity to other wealthy burials from Athens, as well as from Lefkandi and Knossos; but before we draw special connections between these three sites, we should acknowledge that these are simply the wealthiest, best preserved, and best published Early Iron Age cemeteries in Greece. Feasting evidence is also apparent, with animal bones associated with the burial representing over 70 kilograms of meat that would have been consumed at the funerary event (Liston and Papadopoulos 2004, 29;Ruscillo 2017, 566-67).…”

“…There is no question that Lefkandi was a hub of exceptional importance, reaching far beyond the nearest neighbors modeled in map 19. This was anticipated in the influence of its ceramic workshops in the LH IIIC period (see map 16), and it is highlighted by the far-reaching connections to Cyprus, Egypt, and the Levant that made it exceptional in the Early Iron Age (Coldstream 2007;Nijboer 2008;Kosma 2012;Papadopoulos 2015). New sites, not occupied during the Postpalatial period, appear at Phylla, Nea Lampsakos, Kamari, and Magoula (see map 18; see appendix for particular locations), while others grow considerably at the end of this period and in the next (e.g., Eretria) (Coulton 2002;Verdan, Kenzelmann Pfyffer, and Léderrey 2009).…”

“…The most famous of the Early Iron Age burials of Athens is the tomb of the "Rich Athenian Lady" (Smithson 1968;Coldstream 1995;Liston and Papadopoulos 2004;Stampolidis and Giannopoulou 2012). The grave goods indicate the wealth or status of the deceased, or at least of those aiming to associate themselves with her-presumably family members.…”

“…Detailed stylistic analysis can be found in regional overviews of Protogeometric and Geometric pottery, which have also traced the circulation of ceramics in wider Aegean and Mediterranean contexts (see, e.g., Coldstream [1977 2008; Lemos 2002). The areas that appear to have been most influential in this period are Athens and Euboea, the former recognized as a stylistic innovator and driver, the latter seen as the developer of a widespread koine and trading network (Lemos 2002).…”

Ceramicus Redivivus: The Early Iron Age Potters' Field in the Area of the Classical Athenian Agora

“…For the position of the Eridanos River in relation to the area of the Shear 1936, pp. 143-200 Coldstream 1976;Snodgrass 1988;Morris 1988;Whitley 1988;Antonaccio 1992Antonaccio , 1994Antonaccio , 1995 to Submycenaean and Protogeometric tombs: Courbin 1963, pp. 17-18, as Neolithic. It was subsequently assigned to the Middle Helladic period by Sara Immerwahr in Agora XIII, pp.…”