Euboea

Στον δεύτερο τόμο της σειράς Αρχαιολογία εξετάζεται η Εύβοια και η Στερεά Ελλάδα, η ευρεία γεωγραφική ζώνη που εκτείνεται από τις δυτικές ακτές του Αιγαίου έως τα παράλια του Ιονίου Πελάγους. Στην ιστορική και αρχαιολογική αυτή περιήγηση η Εύβοια και ο νότιος ελλαδικός κορμός –Αττική, Βοιωτία, Φθιώτιδα, Ευρυτανία, Φωκίδα, Αιτωλία και Ακαρνανία– παρουσιάζονται από την προϊστορική περίοδο έως το τέλος του αρχαίου κόσμου. Τριάντα πέντε έλληνες και ξένοι αρχαιολόγοι αναλαμβάνουν το ταξίδι του αναγνώστη στην ιστορία και τα μνημεία, δίνοντας επιστημονική πληροφορία για κάθε περιοχή. Στο βιβλίο συνυπάρχουν σημεία αναφοράς του αρχαίου κόσμου με περιοχές και μνημεία που μόλις πρόσφατα άρχισαν να συγκεντρώνουν το αρχαιολογικό ενδιαφέρον. Πλούσια εικονογράφηση χώρων και ευρημάτων και εύχρηστοι χάρτες συμπληρώνουν την έκδοση.

The second volume in the Archaeology series examines Euboea and Central Greece, the wide geographical region spreading from the western shores of the Aegean to the coasts of the Ionian Sea. In this historical and archaeological journey, Euboea and the southern part of mainland Greece—Attica, Boeotia, Phthiotis, Eurytania, Phokis, Aetolia and Akarnania—are presented from the prehistoric era to the end of the ancient world. Thirty-five Greek and foreign archaeologists introduce the reader to the history and the monuments, with concise authoritative texts for each area.

This paper looks at the chronological and geographical context of “killed” weapons, their relationships to the types of burial in which they appear, and the other grave goods which accompany these burials. It suggests that the swords “killed” in the period ca. 950-825 are the result of societal conditions relating to the value of iron, the exclusivity of warfare, and conscious acts of destruction in burials at this time. On the other hand, the later burials in Eretria relate to changing factors in the deposition of weapons, new ideas about exclusivity and value, and reflecting the way in which warfare changed in the late eighth century. It also suggests that arguments so far have ignored important metallurgical observations about “killed” swords, and what they reveal about sword use and ownership in the EIA Aegean.

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.

The aim of this paper is the study of the now destroyed fortifications of the Greek city of Chalcis (Evripos / Negreponte / Egriboz). Having been an important urban centre during the Early and Middle Byzantine Period, Chalcis was occupied by the Latins after the capture of Constantinople in 1204 and became a significant trade centre of Venice. By the end of the 14th century the city became a Venetian holding. In 1470 the Ottomans captured the city after a short siege. In 1688 the city was unsuccessfully besieged by the Venetians. And in 1833 it was annexed by the Greek State. In the end of the 19th c. the fortifications of Chalcis were almost completely demolished during an attempt to reorganize and modernize the city. The fortified medieval city of Chalcis, the Kastro, had the shape of a long, irregular pentagon with maximum dimensions 400 x 700 m. It was surrounded on three sides, namely the north, the west and the south, by the sea. Along its two other sides, the northeast and the southeast, there was a dry moat. Its fortifications had three gates, one on Euripus Bridge and two on the land wall, through which the city was connected with Boeotia and Euboea respectively. From the study of the fortifications, based on their depictions in old engravings and photographs as well as on some poor remnants of them that are still visible, it appears that up to their demolition the city walls retained to a large extent their late medieval form, although they had undergone significant interventions by the Ottomans, mainly on the eve, and just after the siege of 1688. The only surviving part of the city’s defences, the fort of Karababa, built on the steep hill of the Boeotian coast, can be dated to this period.

SOMMARIO DEL VOLUME

A. Di Vita, Presentazione

A. Di Vita - N. Yalouris - S. Karousou, Saluto ai Convegnisti
RELAZIONI DI CARATTERE GENERALE

M. Sakellariou, La Grecia continentale ed insulare nei secolo VIII e VII a.C.

G. Pugliese Carratelli, Magna Grecia e Sicilia nei secoli VIII e VII a.C.

S. Karousou, Ἡ μετάβαση πρός τόν 7° αἰ. π.Χ.: τέχνη καί μύθος

J. McKesson Camp ΙΙ, Μία μεγάλη ζηρασία στά τέλη τοῦ 8ου π.Χ. αἰώνα καί οἱ συνεπείες τῆς γία τόν ἀποικισμό

A. Di Vita, L'urbanistica più antica delle colonie di Magna Grecia e di Sicilia: problemi e riflessioni

A. Mallwitz, Osservazioni sull'architettura nella Grecia dei secoli VIII e VII a.C.

G. Gullini, Origine dell'architettura greca in Occidente

E. Akurgal, Früharchaische Kapitelle vom Tempel der Athena in Alt-Smyrna

F. Villard, La céramique polychrome du VIIe siécle en Grèce, en Italie du Sud et en Sicile et sa situation par rapport à la céramique protocorinthienne

C. K. Williams II, A Survey of Pottery from Corinth rom 730 to 600 B.C.

Interventi
EUBEA, BEOZIA E COLONIE EUBOICHE

L. Kahil, Érétrie à l'époque géometrique

C. Jrause, Zur staedtebaulichen Entwicklung Eretrias

A. Andriomenou, Ἀψιδωτά οἰκοδομήματα καί κεραμεική τοῦ 8ου καί 7ου αἰ. π.Χ. ἐν Ἐρετρία

M.R. Popham, Why Euboea?

N. Coldstream, Some Poecouliarities of the Eunoean Geometric Figured Style

A. Andriomenou, Ἀνασκαφές στή Βοιωτία

G. Buchner, Pithekoussai: alcuni aspetti peculiari

C. Sabbione, Reggio e Metauros nell'VIII e VII sec. a.C.

P. Pelagatti, Bilancio degli scavi di Naxos per l'VIII e il VII sec. a.C.

G. Rizza, Leontini e Katane nell'VIII e VII sec. a.C.

N. Bonacasa, Il problema archeologico di Himera

Interventi

Με τον οδηγό αυτό πραγματοποιείται ένα ταξίδι στα άδυτα και τις ομορφιές του Δήμου Δiρφύων Μεσσαπίων της Κεντρικής Εύβοιας. Από τον τίτλο του βιβλίου, διαπιστώνει ο αναγνώστης ότι πρόκειται για έναν οδηγό με τουριστικό, ιστορικό και ενημερωτικό χαρακτήρα. Στόχος είναι να γνωρίσουν τον τόπο μας και την ιστορία του όλοι οι φυσιολάτρεις και σε όσους αρέσουν οι προκλήσεις και οι άγνωστες εξορμήσεις ταξιδεύοντας από τον βόρειο Ευβοϊκό κόλπο με τις ιδιόμορφες παραλίες έως τις ανατολικές ακτές του νησιού στο Αιγαίο πέλαγος με τα κρυστάλλινα νερά, από τις πεδιάδες και τους αγέρωχους και στιβαρούς ορεινούς όγκους, την εναλλαγή υδάτινου και ορεινού στοιχείου και τις παραδίρφυες περιοχές. Μερικές από τις ενότητες είναι: ιστορικά στοιχεία κάθε τοπικής κοινότητας, σημεία ενδιαφέροντος, θρησκευτικός τουρισμός,  εναλλακτικός τουρισμός, παραλίες, σπήλαια, λαογραφικά στοιχεία, ήθη και έθιμα, γευσιγνωσία.  Είναι μία πολύμηνη και επίπονη διεργασία που εκπονήθηκε με αμιγές συνεργατικό πνεύμα και αγάπη μιας επιστημονικής ομάδας με συγγραφείς τους: Καρατζά Νικόλαο (αρχαιολόγος, επιμέλεια-οργάνωση έκδοσης), Μαντζώρου Ιωάννα (φιλόλογος), Τσίρη Ανέστη (αρχαιολόγος) και Καραγκούνη Νίκη (κοινωνική ανθρωπολόγος).

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.

The Ancient Civilisation Lab (LabSA) of Trento (Italy) announces the second webinar of the webinar series “Conflict Management in Greek Antiquity” (organized by Professor Elena Franchi) which aims to explore experiences of conflict management of various kinds: intrapoleic, interpoleic and intrafederal. The lectures are addressed to the PhD students of the PhD program "Forms of Cultural Exchange", but they are also available to everyone via Zoom (registration is required, see below).
The second webinar will be held by Dr. Xenia Charalambidou (Senior Postdoctoral Researcher, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam):
The Lelantine Plain: a field of prosperity and a field of rivalry?
(05 April, 10.00 CET)

These webinars are also offered within the course of Greek History (MA): students will be supported through workshops of preparation and consolidation by their tutor. Before each webinar, an optional preparatory workshop for students will take place with the support of the tutors (PhD and final-year Master’s students). In these workshops, students will be divided into groups that work autonomously in Zoom breakout rooms on tasks prepared by the teacher in collaboration with the tutor. Groups will be selected in accordance with the principles of knowledge sharing so as to include diverse competences, as previously established through a student questionnaire. Group tasks will focus on the topics that the experts will discuss in the following webinar and will involve analysis of documents, reading of scientific articles, and preparatory activities that focus on the micro-language of topics to be dealt with by the webinar speakers. After each webinar there will be a consolidation workshop dedicated to discussing the most complex passages from the webinars and the analysis of sources discussed.

This paper focuses on trades and contacts between Euboea, mainly Lefkandi, and the coasts of the Thermaic Gulf during the Iron Age. Despite the scanty evidence, the aim of this study is to investigate the existence of a N-S trade route and to inquire which commodities were involved, if there were other actors (whether neighbours of Euboeans and/or Phoenicians) and if it possible to ascertain if and how these contacts led to the foundation of the Eretrian and Chalcidian apoikiai recorded by literary sources.

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.

On the basis of a fragment of the pseudohesiodic Catalogue of Women we can infer that in the Archaic Period (or perhaps even earlier) the Chalcidians wove a myth whose main protagonists were Poseidon, Hera and a young mortal called Arethousa. According to this myth, Poseidon had intercourse with Arethousa at the Euripos and then abandoned her. Hera took mercy on Arethousa and transformed her into a spring. A comparative study with other similar Greek myths allows us to assume that the Chalcidian tradition served several functions. First, the myth justified the name which was given to the most important spring of Chalcis. Indeed, a good number of ancient writers mention a spring called Arethousa in Chalcis; this spring was said to be sacred. Second, the Chalcidian myth can be also considered as an “initiation myth”, for it seems to refer to the different phases of the vertical process of integration of a young woman in the society after her sexual maturation. Third, the myth possibly reflects and justifies the existence of a cult of Hera, Poseidon and Arethousa at Chalcis. Moreover, the myth can be construed as evidence supporting the celebration of rites of passage under the supervision of the heroine Arethousa in the place where the homonymous spring flowed.

Numerical notations are virtually unknown for the Early Iron Age Greek world. However, it can be argued that different systems to write down numbers were already in use at that time. Many marks incised on vases might be related to such a practice. After a few methodological remarks on this issue, the paper focuses on the Euboean sphere (Eretria, Methone, Pithekoussai), where the existence of a coherent numeral system is hypothesised. Then the idea of a link between Euboean and Etruscan numerical notations, already put forward almost fifty years ago, is considered anew.

This paper focuses on a group of potsherds coming from the excavations conducted by the University of Florence in the area known as ‘S. Marco nord-est’, in the archaeological park of Monasterace Marina. All these finds can be dated within the second half of the VIII BC and referred to productions and morphologies chronologically connected with two different and very significant historical periods: the frequentation of the inner land  of the Ionian coast in the years that immediately precede Greek colonization, that is to say from 750 to 730 BC, and the period of the foundation of the
new apoikia, during the last two decades of the VIII century BC. The analogies between these artifacts and the series of similar finds known from the Tarantine gulf allow us to propose some important considerations on the role of the Capo Cocinto and of the area of the future Caulonia in the precolonial period; on the other side, the presence of a conspicuous group of Thapsos potsherds testifies that the foundation of the city has to be posed in the last
quarter of the VIII century BC, in parallel with those of the other Achaean poleis of the gulf of Taranto.

Nel contributo si presentano i risultati di uno studio condotto su un nucleo di frammenti databili nel corso della seconda metà dell’VIII secolo a.C. provenienti dalle ricerche archeologiche condotte dall’Università degli Studi di Firenze in località S. Marco nord-est, all’interno dell’attuale parco
archeologico di Monasterace Marina (RC). Per i reperti in questione è stato possibile riconoscere l’appartenenza a produzioni e morfologie ricollegabili a due diversi, importanti periodi: il gruppo più antico risale infatti alla fase delle frequentazioni della costa ionica e del suo entroterra negli anni precedenti la fondazione delle colonie, ossia al periodo compreso tra il 750 e il 730 a.C. circa; un altro insieme invece alla fase della ktisis della città da collocarsi negli ultimi decenni dell’VIII secolo a.C. Ne scaturiscono quindi alcune riflessioni da una parte sul ruolo svolto dal Capo Cocinto e dall’area della futura Caulonia nel quadro delle frequentazioni precoloniali della costa ionica, dall’altra sulla cronologia di fondazione del centro che la presenza
di ceramiche nello stile di Thapsos permette di considerare affine a quella degli altri insediamenti achei del golfo di Taranto.

in: R. Brancato, L. M. Caliò, M. Figuera, G. M. Gerogiannis, E. Pappalardo, S. Todaro (eds.), Schemata. La città oltre la forma. Per una nuova definizione dei paesaggi urbani e delle loro funzioni: urbanizzazione e società nel Mediterraneo pre-classico, Età arcaica, Atti del Convegno Internazionale, organizzato dall’Università degli Studi di Catania, dall’Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli e dal Consorzio Universitario Archimede Siracusa 26-28 febbraio 2020, Rome, 43-82.

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

ABSTRACT
This paper argues, from the analysis of the archaeological evidence and from the analysis of the literary traditions, how from a very early period in the overseas expansion of the Phoenicians, sorne Greeks, coming mainly from the island of Euboea, could have benefited of the new situation to develop theirown commercial enterprises. There is also any suggestion about the role played by the historiography in the creation of artificial ethnic and cultural frontiers among different ancient peoples; as opposed to the idea of regarding the world of the ninth-eighth centuries B. C. as composed of isolated compartments, we argue that the situation in those times was regulated through more important criteria (friendship, xenia, transactions among equals) than the "national" ones, which are, for the most part, a contemporary projection towards the past.

RESUMEN
En esta comunicación se argumenta, a partir del análisis de los datos arqueológicos, y del análisis de las tradiciones literarias cómo desde un momento muy temprano de la expansión ultramarina fenicia, algunos griegos, especialmente de la isla de Eubea, pudieron haber aprovechado la situación para desarrollar sus propias empresas comerciales. Se reflexiona también sobre el papel que la historiografía ha tenido a la hora de marcar barreras étnicas y culturales artificiales que tienden a considerar que el mundo de los siglos IX-VIII a.C. se componía de compartimentos cerrados en lugar de unas sociedades más abiertas e integradas en las que había criterios mucho más importantes (amistad, xenia, transacciones entre iguales) que los "nacionales", que son en último término una proyección contemporánea hacia el pasado.

In 197 BC, proudly holding Chalcis along with Corinth and Demetrias, the Macedonian King Philip V claimed to be controlling the “fetters” of Greece. Indeed, the site of Chalcis, located at the narrowest point of the strait of the Euripos separating the island of Euboia from the continent, allowed the control not only of the Euboic Gulf and its maritime routes, but also of Central Greece as a whole, and by extension, of the Greek peninsula. This paper investigates the strategic, political and military factors needed in the early Hellenistic period for the transformation of the Euboian commercial port into one of the most significant strongholds in Greece. It will be argued that to achieve this, it was first necessary to destroy Boiotian Thebes, the strongest local power in the 4th century BC, and to disperse its territory. Also, foreign interest in tightly controlling the region was needed. The Macedonian dynasts were the first of course, and it will be argued that, after Alexander the Great, it was probably Demetrios Poliorcetes who first conceived the concept of the three “fetters” of Greece, and who developed a significant element to the system of fortifications of Chalcis: the so-called Aniphoritis Wall, or at least the associated kastro. A survey of the use of the site in international affairs down to the Mithridatic Wars is also offered, followed by an analysis of the impact such a disputed site had at a more local level, in particular on the territory of Oropos.

The article discusses the development of leadership patterns in Early Iron Age and Archaic Greece, questioning the opinion that the Early Iron Age communities were ruled by hereditary kings (basilees) clearly distinct from the tyrants emerging during the subsequent Archaic period. It focuses on the archaeological and literary evidence concerning Lefkandi and Eretreia on the island of Euboia, and Tiryns and Argos in southern Greece, the outstanding communities of the Early Iron Age and Archaic period. The evidence suggests that although sole rulers occasionally emerged during the Early Iron Age, as suggested by the 10th century burial of the ‘hero’ of Lefkandi, there is nothing which could indicate either the permanence or traditional nature of personal leadership in these districts. Rather, the evidence infers an ephemeral character of the personal rule in Lefkandi, comparable to the occasional ‘tyrannies’ reported for the Euboian communities by the sources concerning the Archaic era. The evidence for Argolis suggests that a relatively egalitarian society and collective leadership evolved after the 12th century collapse of the Bronze Age civilisation, and that the monarchy at Argos emerged during the 8th century when the community developed into a polis controlling the surrounding plain. In all the cases we can observe a correlation between the concentration of wealth and emergence of personal rule, which suggests that more or less permanent monarchies could rarely emerge before the rise of the Archaic Greek poleis.

This paper discusses two important inscriptions for the history of the Athenian Empire, the Chalkis decree of 446/5 (or 424/3?) BC (IG I3 40) and the tribute reassessment decree (“Thoudippos’ decree”) of 425/4 BC (IG I3 71). Based on English translations of the most up-to-date and authoritative Greek texts, the paper sets out to explain the inscriptions in historical context, without assuming prior knowledge of ancient Greek or of the history of Athens and the Athenian Empire. To help the reader new to the study of Athenian inscriptions, the Paper includes an introduction to inscribed Athenian decrees of the fifth century BC. This paper will be useful for researchers, teachers and learners of Greek History at University level, but is also designed to help teachers and students in UK 6th forms studying Ancent History A-level (H407, LACTOR4 1.78 and 138).
Note: minor corrections were incorporated on 28 June 2017. Hard copies are available at:
http://www.andromedabooks.gr/product.asp?catid=38457.

in: X. Charalambidou & C. Morgan (eds.), Interpreting the Seventh Century BC: Tradition and Innovation, Oxford, 2017, 123-149.

This chapter focuses on seventh-century BC pottery from various contexts on Euboea and at Oropos (a closely related site in the central Euboean Gulf region), seeking to gain information about the life history (life cycle) of pottery and its social reflections
in settlements, burials and cult areas. Some products display continuity, especially from the late eighth to the seventh century, in terms of raw material selection, style, or the use of certain vessel shapes. By contrast, changes can be discerned in drinking/feasting habits as well as the intensification of use of special ceramic products for cult and funerary rites. Particularly at Eretria, we see changes in consumption in the male social sphere and a rise in the visibility of women at cult sites. At the same time, adult burials show low visibility, yet there is a higher representation of child burials in enchytrismoi. Some of these changes seem to go hand-in-hand with wider changes in society during the seventh century.