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A Sanctuary of Zeus Messapeus: Excavations at Aphyssou, Tsakona, 1989

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

H.W. Catling
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Abstract

The excavation is described of a much damaged shrine building five kilometres east-north-east of Sparta, in use from the 7th to the 4th centuries B.C., and again in the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D.

Tile stamps suggest it was dedicated to Zeus Messapeus. Finds include many handmade terracotta statuettes, chiefly of grotesque ithyphallic human figures.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 85 , November 1990 , pp. 15 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1990

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References

1 For the Lakonia Survey, see AR 1983–84, 27–8; AR 1984–85, 24–5; AR 1985–86, 30; AR 1987–88, 26; AR 1988–89, 37; Lakonikai Spoudai 9 (1988), 77–88.

2 For references to preliminary accounts of the Menelaion, work, BSA 76 (1981) 71, n.2Google Scholar, to which add AR 1985–86, 29–30 and AR 1988–89, 36.

3 BSA 15 (1908–09), 108–157; BSA 16 (1909–10), 4–11.

4 Dawkins, R.M., Ed., The Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta, London, 1929.Google Scholar

5 I acknowledge with thanks the agreement of Mr G. Plakakis, of Aphyssou, to my proposal to excavate at Tsakona.

6 See Demakopoulou, K., To Mykenaiko Iero sto Amyklaio kai i YE IIIC Periodos sti Lakonia, Athens (dissertation).Google Scholar

7 See Cook, J.M. and Nicholls, R.V., BSA 45 (1950), 261–98.Google Scholar

8 See also AR 1987–88, 26 and fig. 26.

9 Pausanias 3. 20. 3. Stephanos of Byzantium citing Theopompos on Μεσσαπέαι.

10 Peloponnesiaka 12 (1976–77), 219–22.

11 Snodgrass, A.M., Early Greek Armour and Weapons, Edinburgh, 1964, 151Google Scholar and fig. 10, no. 3A3.

12 Op.cit. 153, and fig. 10, no. 3B3.

13 eg BSA 15, 145, fig. 13:18, from the Menelaion.

14 AJB Wace in BSA 15, 127–41. R.M. Dawkins, Artemis Orthia. More recently, Cavanagh, W.G. and Laxton, R.R. in BSA 79 (1984), 23–36.Google Scholar

15 Particularly some of her Disk Patterned lamps – Agora vii Lamps of the Roman Period, Princeton, 1961, 145–7, nos. 1470–1580, pls 28–9.

16 I am grateful to Richard Catling for this suggestion.

17 Virtually the only animal bones found were five astragaloi (three in H9, one in H10, one in K10), which were almost certainly brought to the sanctuary as bones, whether dedicated or left behind by accident. That they are more likely to have been dedicated is suggested by two terracotta astragaloi.