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Jewellery from Thasian graves1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Marina Sgourou
Affiliation:
Archaeological Museum of Thasos

Abstract

Jewellery found during recent excavations in the necropolis of Thasos fills a gap in our knowledge of minor arts in an important metal producing area of the Greek world. The pieces examined in this article form, in terms of technique, style and iconography, a group, the affinities of which can be traced to the Ionic traditions of the northern Aegean. Their artistic identity fits well with what we know about the character and development of other aspects of Thasian art, characterized by a close adherence to dominant artistic trends coming from both Attica and the East during the late Classical period. The anthropological study of the skeletal remains from the tombs gives further contextual information on the general condition of the people interred, while the objects deposited offer clues to the interpretation of issues concerning the iconography and symbolic use of precious grave goods.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 2001

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References

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23 Three white-ground cups by the Sotades Painter allegedly found in the same grave in Athens have been interpreted as illustrating interlinked mythical incidents (Myth of Glaukos, nymph Melissa picking the apples of eternal life in the Garden of Hespcrides, Aristaeus killing the snake that bit Eurydice to her death) in which bees and honey are connected with aspects of death and the afterlife: Burn, L., ‘Honey-pots: three white-ground cups by the Sotades Painter’, AK 28 (1985), 93105Google Scholar.

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28 We should further point out that fruits, buds, and blossoms of various kinds embellish the floral patterns on contemporary grave stelai, cf. a late 5th-c. grave stele from Kerč: Blümel, C., Die klassisch griechischen Skulpturen der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin (Berlin, 1966)Google Scholar, pl. 8. no. 8.

29 Semonides, fr 7.83 W. On the poem see Lloyd-Jones, H., Females of the Species: Semonides on Women (London, 1975)Google Scholar; Shear, T. L., ‘Semonides, fr. 7: Wives and their husbands’, in Échos du monde classique, Classical Views, 3 (1984), 46–9Google Scholar.

30 See the gold-sheet ring in grave EK-V (28, FIG. 20) which belonged to a man.

31 For a similar motif cf. Greek Gold, 207 no. 138.

32 Iid. 20.

33 On the feature commonly found on rings of this type see Boardman, J., Greek Gems and Finger Rings (London, 1970), 212Google Scholar.

34 Such earrings typically decorated in paint with rosette motifs are worn by Archaic korai: Payne, H. and Mackworth-Young, J. C., Archaic Marble Sculpture from the Acropolis2 (London, 1950), 67, 75Google Scholar; Griech. Gold. 130; Higgins, 124–5, 164. See also Brein, F., ‘Ear studs for Greek ladies’, Anat. Stud. 32 (1982), 8992CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35 Cf. the more elaborate examples, finely decorated with filigree, from Cyme: Marshall (n. 10) nos. 2060–1; D. Williams, ‘The Cyme Treasure’, in Calinescu (n. 5), 120, fig. 3.

36 Greek Gold, 98 nos. 51–2.

37 On the presence of strigils in female graves see ΤάΦοι, 167 nn. 165–6.

38 Cf. Boardman (n. 33), 183, fig. 726

39 For this type of earring see Hadaczek, K., Der Ohrschmuck der Griechen und Etrusker (Vienna, 1903), 1316Google Scholar; Silantěva, P. F., ‘Spiralevidnye podveski Bospora’, Trudy Gosudarstrennogo ordena Lenina Ermitaža, 17 (1976), 123–37Google Scholar; Higgins, 126; Greich. Gold. 152.

40 Despoini, Aik., Αρχαία Χρυσά Κοσμήματα (Athens, 1996)Google Scholar no. 56. Cf. also an early East Greek spiral earring with three globule finials from Rhodes in Marshall (n. 10) no. 174.

41 Mesembria-Zone: A. Vavritsas, PAE 1970, pl. iii β; 1971, pl. 159 α; 1983, pl. 29 γ. Samothrace: Dusenbery, E. B., ‘The nekropolcis’, in Lehmann, Karl and Williams-Lehmann, Ph. (eds), Samothrace: Excavations Conducted by the Institute of Fine Arts, New fork University (Bollingen Series, 60. 2; Princeton, 1998), ii. 960Google Scholar.

42 Blank, I., ‘Griechische Goldschmuckimitationen des 4. Jahrhunderts v. Chr.’, Ant. W. 7. 2 (1976), 22 5Google Scholar; Lunsingh-Scheurleer, R. A., ‘Terracotta imitation jewellery’, BA Besch. 57 (1982), 192–6Google Scholar. For this type of earring in gold see Higgins, 122 3 and cf. the examples cited by Greek Gold, 110 no. 63, 120 no. 70, 146 no. 88, 149 no. 89, 190 no. 122.

43 Higgins, 93; Greek Gold, 231 no. 163.

44 H. Philipp, Bronzeschmuek aus Ohmpia (Ol. Forsch. 13; Berlin, 1981), 229.

45 Cf. the spindles found in graves at Dervcni: ΤάΦοι, 118.

46 The fact that it has no perforations along the edges suggest that it was fastened to another headband in the shape of a wreath.

47 For wedding garlands sec Blech, M.. Studien zum Kranz bei den Griechen (Berlin, 1982), 340–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The symbolic use of wedding themes in funerary art and practice is well known and attested by a variety of sources; see Barringer, J. M., ‘Europa and the Nereids’, AJA 95 (1993), 657–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar for a comprehensive survey on the funerary symbolism of wedding themes and the close connection between marriage and death in popular belief, art, and ritual with extensive bibliography.

49 For the use of ἐναγισμοί see Kurtz, D. C. and Boardman, J., Greek Burial Customs (London, 1971), 124, 175Google Scholar.

49 The practice of throwing jewellery into pyres is also attested in the necropolis of Samothrace where bronze jewellery pendants were found in or around pyre areas, Dusenbery (n. 41), 965–7.

50 For similar twisted wires with loops connecting items of a gold necklace from an early 5th-c. grave at Pydna: Tsigarida, B., ‘Fifth century BC jewellery from the cemeteries of Pydna, Macedonia’, in Williams, D. (ed.), The Art of the Greek Goldsmith (London, 1998), 53 fig. 6. 6Google Scholar.

51 Griech. Gold. 169, figs. 118–19.

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56 Double-axes arc common pendant items on the archaic necklaces from Sindos: Sindos (n. 53), 96 no. 148, 179 no. 285, 291 no. 479.

57 Horak, U., ‘Amulett mit fünf Anhängern und perlenverziertes Haarband’, Tyche, 10 (1995), 2731Google Scholar. An amulet necklace of a similar type is worn by the child Eros on a gold medallion: Hoffmann and Davidson (n. 10) no. 93, pl. 6. Similar necklaces with bone pendants have been found in child burials at Abdera: Kallintzi, D., ‘Ανασκαφή ταφικού τύμβου στα Αβδηρα’, AFMTh 4 (1990), 565Google Scholar, fig. 8.

58 Papaoikonomou, Y., ‘L'enfant aux astragales’, BCH 104 (1981), 255–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Themelis and Touratsoglou (n. 37), 167–8; for astragaloi on jewellery see Αρχαία Μακεδονία (n. 8), 45 no. 84, pl. 17. The numerous pierced astragaloi found in Samothracian child burials were possibly used as amulets: see Dusenbery (n. 41), 950. On the possible meanings of astragaloi see Kurtz and Boardman (n. 48), 77, 208–9, 263, and Hampe, R., Die Stele aus Pharsalos im Louvre (Winkelmannsprogramm 107; Berlin, 1951), 539Google Scholar.

59 It has been also suggested that ‘the inclusion of a necklace in a burial, whether it decked the corpse or was an offering committed to the fire may have been symbolic of a wish for a merger of the human with the divine’, Dusenbery (n. 41), 964.

60 Cf. the similar miniature silver bracelet found in a child's grave at Mesembria-Zone: A. Vavritsas, PAE 1969, pl. 90 ε.

61 For a close parallel cf. a chance find from Central Macedonia in Εκκηνικό Κόσμημα, (n. 8), 120 no. 112.

62 B. Deppert-Lippitz, ‘Greek bracelets of the classical period’, in Williams (n. 50), 91–2.

63 An alternative hypothesis would be to consider that the whole set was owned by a female who approached adulthood and included items worn by her at earlier ages.

64 Pouilloux, J., Recherches sur l'histoire el les cultes de Thasos; de la fondation de la cité à 196 avant J.-C., i, (Études Thasiennes, 3; Paris, 1954), 371–80Google Scholar.

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66 Holtzmann 1979 (n. 12), 445 9; Hauptmann, A., Pernicka, E., and Wagner, G. A., ‘Untersuchungen zur Prozeßtechnik und zum Alter der frühen Blei- und Silbergewinnung auf Thasos’, in Wagner, G. A. and Weisgerber, G. (eds), Antike Edel- und Buntmetallgewinnung auf Thasos (Anschnitt, Beih. 6; Bochum, 1988), 88112Google Scholar; ibid. 113–24.

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70 See also the gold ring with a representation of a satyr's head on the bezel which was found in Hellenistic deposits of the Sanctuary of Artemis, Maffre, J.-J. and Salviat, K., ‘Chronique des fouilles à Thasos’, BCH 102 (1978)Google Scholar, Chroniques 827 fig. 34 a–b.

71 It may not be accidental that the presence of precious jewellery into Thasian tombs coincides with anintensification in the exploitation of gold and silver mines observed during the 4th c. BC, a period of general reorganization and blooming of the city's wealth and prosperity. Ch. Koukouli-Chryssanthaki, ‘Die archaeologische Funde aus den Goldgruben bei Kinyra’, in Wagner and Weisgerber (n. 66), 177. On the gold mine of the Akropolis, where the main period of activity was the 4th c. BC see A. Muller, ‘La mine d'or de l'acropole de Thasos’, ibid. 180–97.

72 Holtzmann 1992 (n. 13), 189.

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76 Θησαύροι της Αρχαίας Μακεδονίας Κατάλογος τησ Εκθεσης Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο Θεσαλονίκησ (Athens 1979), 90Google Scholar.

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78 Bakalakis (n. 74), 20–1 n. 12 with bibliography.

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