Eretria

"Over a century, the excavations conducted in the ancient city of Eretria have unearthed some ten urban sanctuaries dating from the Geometric to the end of the roman Imperial period. Although the divinities worshipped in these shrines have been most of the time identified, their functions and rituals need to be specified. At present, it remains difficult to achieve a comprehensive overview of the urban sanctuaries of Eretria.
But in the last decades, three sanctuaries have provided valuable archaeological evidence for understanding the religious practices of the Eretrians during the Geometric and Archaic Periods (8th-6th centuries BCE): the sanctuary of Apollo Daphnephoros, tutelary divinity of the city, an anonymous sacrificial area found nearby, and the sanctuary of Athena on the acropolis. Based on the archaeological evidence, it is now possible to enjoy a better understanding of the sacrifices, the vessels used for the cult, and the offerings. In this paper, I will attempt to summarize the features of ritual practice in the Archaic period. I will highlight the differences between the cults, as they seemed to be influenced by different factors, such as the personality of the divinity, the nature of the ritual, the identity of the worshipers (according to gender and social status), and the social changes that would have occurred within the religious community."

This study offers a solution for a long-standing question concerning the nature and date of the Lelantine War. I propose that in the Archaic period a part of the Lelantine plain was contested in recurrent ritual battles between young aristocrats of Eretria and Chalcis, who reenacted the devastating primordial strife of the bronze-clad Curetes. The contested territory changed hands, providing grazing for the horses of the victorious side; it constituted a sacred space, uniting Eretria and Chalcis in a common cult. The system of the ritual confrontations came to an end with the Athenian conquest of Chalcis in 506 BC. A new historical reading is offered for Theognis’ lines depicting a destruction of the Lelantine plain: they mourn the Athenian takeover and the disintegration of the aristocratic system of mutual support, cursing the Corinthians who failed to deliver military help to the Chalcidian elites.

Unlike the four Panhellenic festivals with their focus on what it meant to be Greek, regional and city celebrations and their competitions concentrated on more local concerns. At the Panathenaia at Athens, the Eretrian Artemisia at Amarynthos, and the Delia on Delos, how one participated in the competitions and other spectacles was crucial to the dynamics of the festival and the construction of its politics. In the case of the Panathenaia, the restrictions on participation kept the focus on Athenians and those closely associated with the city. The Artemisia concentrated on local issues, particularly in the years after 340 BCE on recovering from civil strife, while the Delia functioned at the level of the region. Both the Artemisia and the Delia show how the politics of a celebration may change over time. These local festivals existed in tension between the needs of the sponsoring community and its relationships to other cities and region(s).

Note: for copyright reasons, the full text is not uploaded here.  It is available via the link to the OUP website.  The chapter was originally written in 2011 and has not been fully updated since then.

Discovered more than a century ago, the Tomb of the Erotes
and the Amarynthos Tomb located in the territory of Eretria
have never been thoroughly studied. The luxurious furniture
of these monuments has attracted a certain amount of critical
attention, but the graves themselves, of Macedonian type, have
been largely neglected.
After an introduction focused on the Macedonian tombs, whose
origin goes back to Northern Greece and whose main characteristic
is the barrel-vault, the first chapter introduces the main
issues related to their distribution and chronology.
Chapters Two to Four exhaustively describe the remains of both
graves. The study of their architecture, interior planning, inscriptions
and offerings raises new questions about the funerary ritual and the
identity of their owners. It also leads to a revision of the chronology:
according to the author, the Tomb of the Erotes dates back to the
second quarter of the third century BC, and the Amarynthos Tomb
to the second half of the third century BC. These dates concur with
the historical data, which attest to the presence of a Macedonian
garrison in Eretria for at least two thirds of the third century BC.
Chapter Five is a comprehensive survey of the funerary ritual
linked to Macedonian Tombs. In the Eretrian tombs, the cremation
of the deceased along with their jewellery reminds practices
from Northern Greece. The collecting of the ashes in a piece of
tissue later placed in a stone urn or a bronze vase is another
example. In Greece, there is a clear link between stone furniture
and Macedonian Tombs, as well as between throne and the
royal/princely burial, since outside Eretria, this type of furniture
is only found in the royal necropolis of Vergina.
The royal or princely birth of the deceased buried in the
Eretrian thrones cannot be excluded, as the onomastic study
suggests. Kratesipolis, the first deceased buried in the central
throne, could be a princess from Northern Greece or Epirus. She
was probably related to her homonym, known to us through literary
sources and related in turn to the Macedonian rulers. The
magnificent tombs of Eretria may have been built for high-ranking
dignitaries, presumably members of the Macedonian garrison.
The study also focuses on the vaulted arch and its symbolism.
The presence of monumental pyres —ephemeral yet imposing
constructions— bears witness of a social class concerned with
decorum.
This book assesses the influence of oriental models, which
are especially manifest in the Amarynthos beds. The analysis
of their posts, characteristic of Achaemenid furniture, suggests
a close familiarity with Persian traditions. The owners of these
pieces could manifestly afford the services of experienced
sculptors who worked for the Macedonian elite, since this type
of posts is scarcely known outside Northern Greece and always
found in a Macedonian context.
Also belonging to the Macedonian cultural sphere are some
offerings of the Tomb of the Erotes (gold jewellery and bronze
vases), whose closest parallels are found in Northern Greece.
Moreover, the pictorial decoration of the Erotes Tomb was probably
inspired by Macedonian funerary painting, which often
reproduces garlands and hanging objects.
A last section discusses the Macedonian presence in Eretria.
It brings together literary, epigraphic and archaeological data,
all of which enrich our understanding of the history of the city’s
Macedonian past and highlight the presence of individuals from
Northern Greece.
Chapter Six broadens the scope of the Macedonian Tombs in
Central Greece. Long neglected, these monuments are nevertheless
remarkable and sometimes as spectacular as their models
from Northern Greece. Their construction required specialists mastering
the technique of the barrel-vault as well as several arithmetic
and geometric ratios (almost always maintained). The quality of the
work, too, betrays the presence of experts; a few original features
may have been the product of schools or regional workshops.
The inventory of Macedonian tombs in Greece is discussed in
its historical context, underlining the link between Macedonian
presence (often military) and subterranean barrel-vaulted chamber
tombs. It is noteworthy that five tombs of this type are known
in Euboea.
The book also tackles more general issues, such as local
production or terracotta imports to Eretria, the introduction of
the barrel-vault in Greece, the distribution of Macedonian tombs
and their social meaning. The latter shows that the rituals related
to the Macedonian tombs were part of a group’s identity, which
is more social than ethnic. They were used as markers for identification
of those who claimed a link (legitimate or not) with the
Macedonian elite. The ostentatious character of these monuments
is exemplified by the position of the Erotes Tomb, whose
tumulus is located on a natural hill and crowned by sculptures
visible from afar.
In many respects, these Macedonian tombs can be considered
exceptional. This monograph will hopefully contribute to
renew the interest they deserve for the study of Archaeology
and Hellenistic Art History, with Eretria and its Macedonian
past in background.

The subject of the present study revolves around the burials of warriors in the area of Greece during antiquity, with emphasis on the phenomenon of burying the dead with arms. The time period, which is examined here begins from the Iron Age and reaches up to the Hellenistic Era. The first part of the thesis is divided into four chapters based on the chronological classification of findings. In the first chapter, I present the warrior burials of the Iron Age by geographical region, starting from the North and heading to the South. Afterward, I proceed to the chapters concerning the Archaic, the Classical, and finally, the Hellenistic Era. In the second part, I present the conclusions of the study that was conducted, the above are accompanied by detailed tables that record the archaeological data that were assembled. The conclusions follow the same structure as the main part of the thesis, as they are presented in the same chronological order.

Figurines féminines d’Eubée (Grèce) de l’époque classique et hellénistique. Usages votifs et funéraires
Les figurines recueillies depuis le xixe s. sur les principaux sites d’Eubée, Chalcis, Érétrie, Histiaia-Oreos et Karystos, sont examinées ici en fonction de leur context de trouvaille. De nombreuses figurines féminines des ve et ive s. av. J.-C., dont les
types iconographiques apparaissent parfois sur plusieurs sites, comme les protomés, les courotrophes, les figures juvéniles debout ou assises et les acteurs comiques dans des rôles féminins, ont été trouvées aussi bien dans des tombes que dans des sanctuaires d’Eubée : elles prouvent que les mêmes ateliers répondaient aux différents besoins du marché, en vue d’une destination funéraire aussi bien que votive. Certaines figurines élaborées ont peut-être fait l’objet de commandes spéciales : elles manifestaient le statut de l’élite locale à la fois dans des contextes sacrés et profanes.

Female figurines of Classical and Hellenistic times from Euboea. An exploration of their votive and funerary uses. 
This study examines the figurines collected since the 19th century from the main sites of Euboea – Chalkis, Eretria, Histiaia-Oreos, and Karystos – within the context of their archaeological findspots. In the 5th-4th c. BC, certain types of female figurines
attested at multiple sites – including protomai, kourotrophoi, standing and seated juvenile figures, and comic actors in female roles – appear both in graves and sanctuaries in Euboea. Such finds prove that the same workshops catered to a range of
different consumer needs, producing objects that could be funerary as well as votive in function. Some elaborate figurines may represent special orders, demonstrating the status of local elite groups in both sacred and profane contexts.

Métropole des premiers établissements grecs dans la péninsule italique, Érétrie, sur l’île d’Eubée, est une cité-clé au cœur du bassin méditerranéen, qui a servi en quelque sorte de vecteur pour l’échange des biens et des idées d’Orient en Grèce et de Grèce en Occident aux VIIIe-VIe siècles avant notre ère. C’est pourquoi l’étude des contextes rituels dans cette cité-mère se révèle capitale pour l’histoire des rites dans les sociétés méditerranéennes en général. Les premiers lieux de culte fondés dans la cité ont livré trois céramiques – le cratère, l’hydrie et une cruche à col haut – qui constituent l’une des expressions matérielles majeures des rites célébrés par les premiers Érétriens dans leurs sanctuaires et que l’on retrouve dans le contexte funéraire dans l’arc géographique eubéo-béotien. En l’absence de sources écrites, la présence – ou l’absence – de certaines formes, les spécificités typologiques, une iconographie caractéristique, les modalités de déposition et de mise au rebut révèlent des manipulations certaines récurrentes, les autres distinctes, qui témoignent de rituels élaborés.

Plants, animals and mythical creatures from the Euboean ceramic corpus.
An overview of old and new finds.

    A number of Attic and Euboean black-figure vases of the late Archaic and early Classical periods from the island of Euboea, housed in the National Archaeological Museum, as well as in other Museums, are decorated with plants, animals and mythical creatures. New, Attic and Euboean, black-figure finds from the sanctuaries and ancient cemeteries of Euboea have been added to this number, as well as instances of archaic to early classical examples of Euboean relief pithoi decorated with plants and animals.
    In this paper an attempt is made to briefly present some of the main types and categories of animal and plant decoration known in Euboean pottery of the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. and to explore the role these representations played, as generic images or symbolic keys, in the civic or rural life and religious beliefs of the ancient population of this island. The role of mythical creatures, such as sphinxes and sirens depicted on burial vases, is also briefly outlined and a few new finds of the archaic period are presented.
    The paper includes mention of literary sources related to the subject, through the study of which a reconnaissance of some aspects of the ancient resource-landscape, as well as of some standard status-symbol motifs promulgated in long periods by the social and political elites of the main Euboean cities, such as Eretria, Chalkis and Karystos, is attempted.

Using a new chronostratigraphic sequence for Eretria’s Hellenistic Pottery, this chapter revisits the four main destructions sustained by the city in the Hellenistic period and its phases or recovery.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/destruction-of-cities-in-the-ancient-greek-world/eretrias-destructions-during-the-hellenistic-period-and-their-impact-on-the-citys-development/F56C22470999A0AC97D2EC611BA7DE57#access-block

«Έπεα πτερόεντα» αναφέρει ο ποιητής των Επών (Α 201) για να μας θυμίζει τον εφήμερο χαρακτήρα των λόγων μας, αυτών που έφυγαν, «πέταξαν και πάνε…» σαν τα πουλιά! Αλλά τα λόγια είναι εφήμερα όντως; Πόσο εφήμερο χαρακτήρα έχουν, όταν διαπιστώνουμε ότι τα λόγια αντέχουν διαχρονικά πολύ περισσότερο από τις πράξεις που σηματοδότησαν;

The work focuses on the rise and on the early history of Eretria, adopting as key concept the etymology of the name. Was Eretria “the rowing city”, as some historians think? And if so, how we can explain this choice and what this means in terms of identity and self-representation of the eretrian community?

"Karystos revisited: Interaction networks of an Aegean island polity (sources and finds)".
Due to geographical and other reasons, connectivity or isolation are two of a large number of lenses one can use to explore political, religious and economic aspects of life in an ancient city through study of relevant finds. Cult is connected to polis identity, since what was religious and what was political were never quite separate in ancient Greek cities. Karystos, as one of the main Euboean city-states, is in this paper shown to have participated in a number of religious, political and trade networks that expanded for large part in the Aegean region and centered on Athens and Delos, as well as on Delphi in the mainland. An attempt is therefore made to revisit the cultic landscape of the polis of Karystos through a presentation of some of its attested relations to sanctuaries in other poleis and regional or Pan-Hellenic sanctuaries. In some aspects, local cult and trade relations are shown to have often co-existed, together with realistic political responses in cases polis survival or autonomy was threatened.

Στο κείμενο αυτό στον Τιμητικό Τόμο για την καθηγήτρια κα. Ε. Σημαντώνη Μπουρνιά παρουσιάζεται ένας αριθμός αδημοσίευτων θραυσμάτων αγγείων γεωμετρικών χρόνων, από τις ανασκαφές που πραγματοποίησε ο Κ. Κουρουνιώτης στην Ερέτρια στις αρχές του 20ού αιώνα. Τα όστρακα φυλάσσονται στο Εθνικό Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο, διακοσμούνται με εικονογραφικά θέματα και γραμμικά μοτίβα και παρουσιάζονται μαζί με αρχειακό υλικό από την περίοδο της ανασκαφής.

The Euboeans and Phoenicians, as the principal navigators and traders in the Mediterranean during the first millennium BC, regularly came into contact with each other. How can they be distinguished? In the debate regarding the multifarious facets of the exchange networks and population movements, we need to take into consideration – other than the ceramics, which are not convincing evidence – objects which are truly bearers of cultural identity. If we start with the premise that the Euboeans (and other Greeks) as well as the Oriental peoples travelled with their cults and rites, which gave rise to sacrificial practices and distinct eating habits, we can present some examples: the orientalia and seal imprints for the exchange networks, but also ecofacts – faunal remains in particular – in regards to the question of the mobility of human groups.

Zusammenfassung:
Objekte im Grabkontext sollen als Sammlung im Sinne der Konzeption Krzysztof Pomians verstanden werden. Nach Pomian werden Gebrauchsfunktionen und dingliche Aspekte von Objekten durch die Aufnahme in eine Sammlung negiert. Herausgelöst aus ursprünglichen Handlungszusammenhängen haben daher Objekte – wie auch die Körper der Toten – im Grab im Wesentlichen als Zeichenträger, Semiophoren in der Terminologie Pomians, zu gelten. Über die exemplarisch herangezogenen Befunde von zwei Gräbern der Nekropole von Pithekoussai auf Ischia, Grab 6 der Westtornekropole von Eretria auf Euböa und der Tomba Regolini-Galassi des etruskischen Caere/Cerveteri wird der Niederlegung von Objekten im Grab als einer Bedeutung produzierenden Handlung nachgegangen. Die in der Forschung als ›Fürstengräber‹ bzw. ›Heroengräber‹ bezeichneten Gräber mit extrem reicher, differenzierter Ausstattung einerseits bzw. mit einem auf wenige außergewöhnliche Objekte reduzierten Inventar andererseits werden als zwei unterschiedliche, historisch bedingte Typen der Distinktion im Rahmen von Bestattungen vorgestellt.

Trois campagnes de fouilles conduites par l’École suisse d’archéologie en Grèce (ESAG) entre 2015 et 2017 dans le gymnase d’Érétrie ont été nécessaires pour achever la fouille d’un puits creusé dans le rocher de l’acropole sur plus de 13 mètres de profondeur. Son remplissage a livré un riche ensemble de découvertes, parmi lesquelles un surprenant mélange d’ossements d’une centaine de nouveau-nés, d’une douzaine de lépreux et de différents animaux, accompagnés de plusieurs artéfacts en bronze, dont trois fragments d’une statue d’éphèbe. Cette communication sera consacrée à l’analyse d’une autre sculpture en bronze doré, d’une dizaine de centimètres de hauteur et qui réunit toutes les caractéristiques du type de l’Artémis d’Éphèse. Sa mise au jour avec sa base circulaire au fond du puits pose la question de la raison qui a poussé un-e Érétrien-ne du IIe siècle apr. J.-C. à jeter cette statuette en parfait état avec d’autres objets de valeur. La découverte de milliers d’ossements de nouveau-nés dans les couches recouvrant l’Artémis éphésienne pourrait suggérer une offrande funéraire pour des individus qui n’ont pas eu droit à une sépulture dans la nécropole.

https://www.saka-asac.ch/actualites

https://4ec66a02-1bf1-46f6-99ae-ac5e1f92633f.filesusr.com/ugd/213c25_a1e69025cfcf435fb5d8d6ede24dc7b3.pdf

Το Φωτογραφικό Αρχείο του Εθνικού Αρχαιολογικού Μουσείου είναι ένα από τα παλαιότερα και πλουσιότερα αρχεία της Αρχαιολογικής Υπηρεσίας. Διαθέτει πλούσιο αρχειακό υλικό, στο οποίο περιλαμβάνονται γυάλινες πλάκες του πρώτου τρίτου του 20ού αιώνα, ασπρόμαυρες εκτυπώσεις και αρνητικά του 20ού αιώνα, καθώς και τα σημερινά ψηφιακά φωτογραφικά αρχεία. 
The Photographic Archive of the National Archaeological Museum is one of the Archaeological Service’s oldest and richest. It possesses abundant archival material, including photographic glass plates of the first third of the 20th century, black and white prints and negatives of the 20th century, as well as modern digital photographic files. 

Δημοσίευση/Publication: https://www.lifo.gr/articles/archaeology_articles/163145/oi-10-simantikoteres-eikones-apo-to-fotografiko-arxeio-toy-eam

In the autumn of 2009, Euboea was inundated by heavy rainfall. In Eretria, many tombs and funerary stelae appeared in the bed of the torrent that delimits the archaeological site on the west. These discoveries
shed welcome light on the cemeteries of Eretria, which are still little understood. Additionally, many ancient walls were recorded: several are associated with the walls of the Archaic canal previously explored at the West Gate, while others date to the Classical and Hellenistic period and provide new avenues of research in the study of the fortification wall and the topography of this sector. An examination of the funerary stelae, which date from the end of the 5th to the second half of the 3rd century, leads to new observations on a variety of subjects, including carving techniques, typology and iconography of the monuments, and onomastics and the composition of the population at Eretria.

Among the vessels unearthed in the oldest sanctuaries in the city of Eretria is the high-necked jug, which was only used for a short time in the 7th and early 6th centuries BC. The aim here is to discuss again that corpus under the prism of the mirror questioning ‟that are the rituals in images – that are the images of rituals?”. We can now refer to a large amount of material from five places of worship in the Euboean city: the sanctuary of Apollo Daphnephoros, a sacrificial area whose recipient divinity remains today anonymous, the sanctuary of Athena on top of the acropolis, the so-called ‛Heroon at the Western Gate’ complex built at the beginning of the 7th century near a group of rich tombs from the late 8th century, as well as the sanctuary of Artemis Amarysia under excavation in the territory of the city.
The objective is to discuss the coherence of the corpus, the interpretation of the images painted on the different jugs forming the corpus, their adequacy with their support, their relationship or non-relationship with the different cults and rites implemented by the Eretrians in their sanctuaries and in their funeral practices, in Euboea and in a wider geographical area, in neighbouring Boeotia.

Parmi les céramiques livrées par les sanctuaires les plus anciens de la cité d’Érétrie se distingue la cruche à haut col, qui ne fut en usage que sur une courte durée, au VIIe et au début du VIe siècle avant J.-C. Il s’agit ici de reprendre, sous le prisme du questionnement en miroir « que sont les rituels en image – que sont les images de rituel ? », la discussion de ce dossier. Nous disposons désormais d’un matériel conséquent, issu de cinq lieux de culte dans la cité eubéenne : le sanctuaire d’Apollon Daphnéphoros, une aire sacrificielle dont la divinité récipiendaire reste à ce jour anonyme, le sanctuaire d’Athéna au sommet de l’acropole, l’ensemble dit « Hérôon à la Porte de l’Ouest » aménagé au début du VIIe siècle près d’un groupe de riches tombes de la fin du VIIIe siècle, ainsi que le sanctuaire d’Artémis Amarysia en cours de fouilles dans le territoire de la cité.
Il s’agit de discuter de la cohérence du corpus, de l’interprétation des images peintes sur les différentes cruches formant le corpus, de leur adéquation avec leur support, de leur relation ou non avec les différents cultes et rites mis en œuvre par les Érétriens dans leurs sanctuaires et dans leurs pratiques funéraires, en Eubée et dans un arc géographique plus étendu, en Béotie voisine.