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Lead Figurines from the Menelaion and Seriation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

W. G. Cavanagh  and
R. R. Laxton
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Abstract

The lead figurines from recent excavations at the shrine of Helen and Menelaus are discussed, excluding those in the form of wreaths, which were well over half the total of almost 6,000. Five hundred and sixty-one moulds are distinguished, divided between sixty-one varieties. A chronology is attempted on the basis of three methods, stratigraphy, seriation, and typology and a tentative sequence is proposed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 79 , November 1984 , pp. 23 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1984

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References

Acknowledgements. The authors wish to thank Dr. H. W. Catling, the director of the recent excavations at the Menelaion, and the Managing Committee of the British School at Athens for permission to study and publish the lead votives. The permit for the excavations was granted by the Greek Ministry of Culture, and successive campaigns were facilitated by the efforts of Mr. G. Steinhauer and Dr. Th. Spyropoulos, Ephors of Antiquities for Lakonia and Arkadia. The excavations were funded with assistance from the British School at Athens, the British Academy, the Munro Fund of the University of Edinburgh, the Craven Fund of the University of Oxford, the Faculty of Classics of the University of Cambridge, and the Society of Dilettanti. Full publication of the lead figurines will appear as part of the final report of the Menelaion Excavations; the conclusions drawn here must be regarded as provisory.

1 For the recent excavations at the Menelaion see: AR 1973–4, 14–15; AR 1975–6, 13–15; AR 1976–7, 24–42; AR 1977–8, 31; AR 1978–9, 19–20; BCH 98 (1974) 613–14; BCH 99 (1975) 621–4; BCH 100 (1976) 614; BCH 101 (1977) 557–60; BCH 102 (1978) 673–5; BCH 103 (1979) 563; Lakonikai Spoudai 2 (1975) 256–69; Ibid. 3 (1977) 408–16 esp. 414–15 on the ‘Great Pit’. For the 1909 season see BSA 15 (1908–9) 108–57.

2 On the seriation see, e.g.: Kendall, D. G. ‘Seriation from Abundance Matrices’, in Hodson, F. R., Kendall, D. G., and Tautu, P., Mathematics in the Archaeological and Historical Sciences (Edinburgh 1971)Google Scholar; Doran, J. E. and Hodson, F. R., Mathematics and Computers in Archaeology (Edinburgh 1975)Google Scholar; and the recent review by Marquardt, W. H., ‘Advances in Archaeological Seriation’, in Schiffer, M. B., Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory i (1978) 257–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Wace in Artemis Orthia ch. 9; hereafter cited as AO.

4 Laxton, R. R. and Litton, C. D., ‘A Simple Theory for Material Culture Change’, Science and Archaeology 20 (1977) 3–10.Google Scholar

5 Payne recognized a similar problem of comparison in the case of the ‘Argive-Corinthian’ metal reliefs, see Perarchora I 144, Necrocorinthia 223, and Kunze, E., Arhcaische Schildbänder (Olympische Forshungen II, 1950) 227.Google Scholar

6 Rumpf, , Chalkidischen Vasen (1927) 143Google Scholar, where he dates the figurines to the last quarter of the 6th c.

7 Some such prototype seems to lie behind the moulds which show a naked Poseidon with drapery over his arms. The same original must have inspired the series of silver staters issued by Poseidonia from c. 525, see Kraay, C., Archaic and Classical Greek Coins (1976) 168Google Scholar. (Was it not the Poseidonian Poseidon which inspired the Caulonian Appollo?) Unfortunately we do not know the original.

8 Arabic numerals are used to distinguish our groups from those of Wace for which the original roman style is retained. By 3/4 is intended a stage after Lead 3, whereas Lead III/IV covers all the phases here distinguished.

9 10.1 = BSA 15, fig. 11.22; 17.1 = BSA 15, fig. 11.12; 38.1 BSA 15, fig. 10.8, 13; 40.7 = BSA 15, fig. 10.14; 43.1 = BSA 15, fig. 10.7; 47.3 = BSA 15, fig. 9.23; 50.3 = AO pl. 195.31; 53.1 = BSA 15, fig. 9.25; 55.1 = AO pl. 195.43, BSA 15, fig. 9.39; 67.1 = BSA 15, fig. 10.44; 73.2 = BSA 15, fig. 9.8; 49.3 = AO pls. 181.8, 190.5; 42.4 = AO pls. 183.14, 191.13, 14, BSA 15, fig. 10.18; 47.9 = AO pl. 190.17; 53.1, cf. BSA 15, pp. 136f.; 58.1 = AO pls. 191.22, 197.38, BSA 15, fig. 10.32; 11.1 = AO pl. 194.41; 17.6 = AO pl. 194.40, fig. 123j; 18.1 = AO fig. 118e; 19.5 = AO pl. 194.47; 38.15 = AO pl. 197.5; 39.1 = AO pl. 197.2,3; 42.6 = AO pl. 197.1; 45.1 =AO pl. 197.25; 45.5 =AO pl. 197.21, fig. 126f, BSA 15, fig. 10.12; 45.8 = AO pls. 197.23, 198.5; 45.9 = AO pl. 197.20; 45.11 = BSA 15, fig. 9.30; 48.23 = AO pl. 195.28; 47.46 = BSA 15, fig. 9.30; 48.23 = AO pl. 195.15;55.4 = AO pls. 196.22, 197.37; 55.8 = AO pl. 195.45; 64.1 = AO pl. 194.4; 64.4 = AO pl. 194.2, BSA 15, fig. 11.4; 69.2 = BSA 15, fig. 11.7; 73.6 = BSA 15, fig. 9.4; 73.9 = AO Pl. 195.8; 73.10 = BSA 15, fig. 9.2; 73.11 = AO pl. 195.10; 73.17 = AO pl. 196.1; 74.2 = AO pl. 196.16; 74.4 = AO pl. 196.8; 74.5 = AO pl. 196.2; 74.7 = AO pl. 196.11; 74.11 = AO pl. 196.15; 75.2 = AO pl. 198.17, fig. 127e, BSA 15, fig. 10.35; 76.2 = AO pl. 196.30; 77.1 = AO fig. 127i; 15.1 = AO pl. 181.17; 55.10 = AO pl. 183.24; 56.3 = AO pls. 183.19, 189.10; 65.1= AO pls. 184.19, 189.25, 194.24, BSA 15, fig. 10.47; 67.3 = AO pls. 184.15, 187.13, 194.9, BSA 15, figs. 7.7, 10.43; 12.1 =AO pl. 185.8, BSA 15, 11.28; 17.3 = AO fig. 123d; 38.13 = AO pl. 191.17; 41.26 = AO pl. 191.10; 43.3 = AO pl. 191.9; 47.55 = AO pl. 190.19; 48.19 = AO pl. 190.4; 62.1 = AO pl. 191.19; 73.8 = AO pls. 188.7, 195.1; 38.16 = AO 198.1; 51.4 = AO pl. 198.24; 73.20 = AO pls. 198.25, 27, 200.1; 74.13 = AO pl. 200.4; 79.1 = AO pl. 198.22.

10 Boardman, BSA 58 (1963) 1–7.Google Scholar

11 AR 1976–7, Lak. Spoud. 3 (1977) 413; for disc acroteria see now AJA 86 (1982) 193–217.

12 BSA 15 (1908–9) 112.

13 Op. cit. 113 and pl. 5.

14 Rohde, Kl. Schr. 156–8; Page, , Alcman the Partheneion (1951) 164–6Google Scholar; Bowra, , Greek Lyric Poetry 2 (1961) 16–17.Google Scholar

15 Kaletsch, , Historia 7 (1958) 25–7Google Scholar, an event which he places (p. 47) in 645 B.C.

16 CQ 59 (1965) 188–94; JHS 87 (1967) 62–73.

17 West op. cit.: Alcman precedes Stesichoros, Suidas s.v.

18 Op. cit. in n. 8.

19 Marquardt, art. cit. in n. 2.