Lokris

The purpose of my paper is to analyze the various testimonies that speak of joint voyages and colonization of Locrians and Euboeans in the areas between the Ionian Sea and the Adriatic. Before that, I regard some of the traditions of the foundation of Aeolian Cyme and Phocaea where relationships between Locrians, Phocaeans and Abantes of Euboea can be observed. Likewise, some traditions located in the western boundaries of Hesperian Locris also point to the Euboean world. In the main part of the paper, we will review the traditions concerning the joint nostos of Abantes and Locrians around Abantis and Thronium in the northern territories of Epirus; the importance of this episode is great because it shows how, already in the fifth century BC, these traditions were well established and had been spread even to Olympia, as shown by the monument erected there by Apollonia to commemorate his victory over Thronium in Abantis. We also propose that one of the statues that were in that monument may correspond to Oileus Ajax instead of Telamonian Ajax. If in all these cases the data come from legendary traditions, from which it is difficult to know to what extent they reflect a historical reality and to what period they could correspond, the information that we have of the establishment of Epizephyrian Locris, both literary and archaeological, may confirm mechanisms of collaboration between Euboeans and Locrians in the first moments of the Locrian colony. Some traditions which would also place Locrians in North Africa may be related to the possible Euboean presence in neighbouring territories, as mentioned by some authors. It is suggested, to conclude, that the collaboration between Euboeans and Locrians at the time of the founding of the Italian colony may have favoured the development, possibly in a Locrian background, of stories that linked the two peoples in various enterprises, always in peripheral areas of that vast territory which was called Hesperia.

Programme of the conference Boiotia and the Outside World taking place at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) on 7, 8 and 9 June 2017. Please register by the end of May (free registration, but compulsory).

Traditionally Boiotian studies focus on the region itself and the Boiotian Confederacy, and for the first time both a research project and a conference aim to explore the relations Boiotia entertained with various foreign entities. The conference is meant as an interdisciplinary enterprise, with papers pertaining to themes in History, Epigraphy and Archaeology, covering a period between the Bronze Age and the Late Roman period.
Topics include, among others, relations with neighbouring regions, borders, religion and sanctuaries, mythology, influence on local production of artefacts, as well as political and economic relations. One of the main appeals of the conference is that several papers focus on current and unpublished research, since the majority of delegates are involved in or lead major surveys, excavations, and epigraphic projects. 

Speakers include Prof. Vassilis Aravantinos, Prof. Margherita Bonanno Aravantinos, Dr. Emma Aston, Prof. Hans Beck, Dr. Philip Bes, Prof. John Bintliff, Dr Bryan Burns, Dr Alexandra Charami, Dr Sylvian Fachard, Dr Samuel Gartland, Paul Grigsby, Dr Yannis Kalliontzis, Prof. Denis Knoepfler, Prof. Christel Müller, Dr Isabelle Pernin, Prof. Albert Schachter, Dr Sebastian Scharff, and Roy van Wijk​.

The necessity of a walking space on any fortification wall facilitating the movement of soldiers between the towers as well as providing a safer place for them to engage in battle during a siege is indispensable and has to be dealt with. I argue that the E and SE fortification walls at the acropolis of Halai were furnished with specific elements of woodwork in order to meet that requirement by most economically complementing what was otherwise built of stone. This conjecture is necessary due to the lack of inner walls, which would have otherwise completed the compartments of the curtain and thus secured a permanent wallwalk. Their absence leads me to suggest that these walls' function was taken up by specifically designed wooden construction of horizontal (xyla, sanides) and vertical elements (ikria), essentially wallwalk, commonly inferred from Philo of Byzantium's Poliorketika 15 (80.32f.) and Suidas' Lexicon (I. 275). The poster builds on prior readings of these passages and introduces a new restoration on the basis of former reconstructions by adducing pieces of evidence from another contemporary site-the fortress at Goritsa hill in Thessaly. Several blocks of stone with rectangular sockets of different dimensions were found in close proximity to the fortification walls, but their function still awaits an explanation. Thus the measurements of certain timbers in the construction, which I suggest for the walls at Halai, were confirmed, supposedly, not only by the blocks from Goritsa, but also by specifications derived from building inscriptions and temple accounts from elsewhere.

The neotectonic evolution of central-eastern mainland Greece (Sterea Hellas) is documented in the result of local extensional tectonics within a regional transten-sional field, which is related to the westward propagation of the North Anatolian Fault. The observed tectonic, structures within the neotectonic basins and their mar-gins (range-bounding faults and fault zones, rotation of tectonic blocks) suggest a close relation to the Parnassos Detachment Fault (PDF), which is a reused alpine thrust surface. Lokris basin (LB) occupied a central position in this neotectonic con-figuration, having received its first sediments in the Uppermost Miocene and subse-quently been greatly affected by tectonic episodes, which continue until nowadays. LB is considered to have been separated from the present-day North Gulf of Evia not earlier than the Lower Pleistocene. Voiotikos Kifissos Basin, on the other hand, is tightly related to the activation of PDF, occupying the position of a frontal basin and having developed along the main detachment front

Evidence about the eponymous hero of the Lokrians is scanty and contradictory, and as consistent a genealogy as possible (that, very probably, mirrors a late stage of homogenization) has already been reconstructed. This paper aims to analyse Lokros’ puzzling genealogies from the perspective of politics and interstate relations. The changes in his kinship are interpreted as an ongoing response to the continual reconfiguring of interstate relations in Central Greece. Lokros’ pedigree is constantly adapted to promote new alliances and express enmities. In fact, despite their contradictions, the stories about Lokros help to shed light on peoples’ interactions in Central Greece over time: migrations, ethnogenetic processes, enmities, alliances, local conflicts, regional violence, Delphi’s centripetal force and the challenge of the Aitolian federal state: in this light, Lokros’ genealogies reveal central Greece in the making.

ITA : Con la nostra tesi di dottorato dedicata alla terza guerra sacra (356-346), discussa in giugno 2013 all’Università di Namur (Belgio), si è cercato di porre le basi di una nuova ricostruzione storica di questo conflitto, che costituisce una tappa importante del percorso verso l’egemonia di Filippo il Macedone. Il contributo dell’epigrafia delfica si è rivelato decisivo: i conti della ricostruzione del tempio di Apollo ci forniscono, infatti, preziose indicazioni sulla cronologia, le dinamiche e le conseguenze del conflitto. In questa sede, analizzeremo in modo particolare il problema della partecipazione alla guerra dell’ethnos dei Locresi. Essi sono nominati nei conti di Delfi durante il periodo dei “naopi di guerra” tra i popoli che mantengono la loro partecipazione alla ricostruzione del santuario ormai controllato dai Focidesi. Tuttavia, la loro esatta provenienza geografica non è mai precisata. Con l’aiuto della cronologia e della critica storica, si proverà a dare una risposta diversa di quella che fu un tempo proposta da Lucien Lerat (Les Locriens de l’Ouest, Paris, 1952 [BEFAR 176]), che considerava che questi Locresi dei conti di Delfi fossero un gruppo di “collaboratori” proveniente dalla Locride occidentale. Quest’analisi porterà nuovi spunti di riflessione sulla storia e l’organizzazione territoriale della Locride in età classica e sul problema, sempre irrisolto, della monetazione focese coniata nel corso della terza guerra sacra.

UK: With our doctoral thesis devoted to the Third Sacred War (356-346), which was discussed in June 2013 at the University of Namur (Belgium), we have tried to make a new historical reconstruction of this conflict, which represents is an important step in Philip of Macedonia attempt to reach hegemony on Greece. The contribution of Delphic epigraphy proved decisive : the accounts of the rebuilding of the temple of Apollo provide us, in fact, with valuable information about the history, dynamics and consequences of the conflict. Here, we will analyze in particular the issue of participation in the war of the Locrian ethnos. These Locrians are mentioned as "naopoioi in the time of war" in the accounts of Delphi, during the period of the Phokian occupation of  the sanctuary. However, their exact geographical origin is never clarified. With the help of chronology and historical criticism, we will try to give a alternative interpretation to the one proposed by Lucien Lerat (Les Locriens de l'Ouest, Paris, 1952 [BEFAR 176]), who considered these Lokrians to be a group of "collaborators" from the Western Lokris. Our analysis will bring new insights on the history and the territorial organization of Lokris in the classical age and the problem, still unsolved, of the Phokian coinage minted at the time of the Third Sacred War.

Las últimas décadas han visto crecer el interés en las regiones marginales de Grecia, aquella Grecia de los ethne, las ‘tribus’ y el federalismo. De éstas, la Lócride no es precisamente una de las más abordadas, frente a Beocia, Etolia o la Fócide en Grecia central o Acaya en el Peloponeso. En efecto, el papel desempeñado por los locrios en la historia griega es cuanto menos discreto, y por ello la arqueología en los territorios locrios es escasa. Sin embargo, los estudios topográficos-históricos de Lerat (1952), Fossey (1990) y de Pascual González y Papakonstantinou (2013) demuestran ampliamente su potencial, y animan a seguir indagando, a la espera de que surjan nuevos proyectos que dinamicen la arqueología de esas regiones. Otros trabajos se han centrado en temas mitológicos e identitarios, como los de Redfield (2003) y los de Domínguez Monedero, que cubren buena parte de los asuntos relacionados con los locrios.
Este trabajo pretende sintetizar las distintas perspectivas sobre los locrios con el fin de esbozar un panorama completo, en la medida de lo posible, de su identidad étnica, y especialmente de la coexistencia de varios niveles de identidad compatibles. A través del estudio del territorio, los mitos y las formas de organización socio-políticas pretendemos mostrar el funcionamiento, la mutabilidad y el dinamismo de las identidades étnicas, y estudiar la manera en que el discurso identitario y los procesos sociales y políticos se retroalimentan e influyen el uno sobre el otro.

Programme of the international workshop "The Dancing Floor of Ares II. Local Conflict and Regional Violence in Central Greece" taking place at the University of Fribourg on 24 May 2018. Speakers include Hans Beck, Elena Franchi, Fabienne Marchand, Alex McAuley, Marcel Piérart, Salvatore Tufano and Laetitia Phialon.
Organised by Fabienne Marchand and Hans Beck, with the SNSF Old and New Powers project, and the Parochial Polis project.