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For further information on this publication, please look here. Excavation Reports Joseph Maran and Alkestis Papadimitriou Excavations in the Town Area of Tiryns 1999–2002, with contributions by Joseph Maran and Alkestis Papadimitriou, Rainer Pasternak, Philipp Stockhammer, Christian Hübner and Stefan Giese >> Jürgen Seeher The Excavations in Boğazköy-Hattuša in 2005, with a contribution by Suzanne Herbordt >> Helmut Brückner – Max Engel – Moritz Kiderlen Geoarchaeological Study on the Poseidon Sanctuary of Akovitika in Messenia >> »Holy Places, Sacred
Landscapes« Ortwin Dally – Carola Metzner-Nebelsick Holy Places, Sacred Landscapes Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum The Temple of the God Assur. Material and Aesthetic Dimensions of ›Holy Places‹ in Ancient Near East >> Stephan Johannes Seidlmayer Landscape and Religion – The Region of Aswân >> Mike Parker Pearson – Josh Pollard – Colin Richards – Julian Thomas – Chris Tilley – Kate Welham Stonehenge, its River and its Landscape: Unravelling the Mysteries of a Prehistoric Sacred Place >> Miranda Aldhouse-Green Healing Shrines in ›Celtic‹ Europe: Cult, Ritual and Material Culture >> Axel Michaels Sacred Landscapes and Religious Concepts of Space >> Heinz Halm Shiite Shrines in Iraq and Iran >> The New Statutes of the Commissions of the German Archaeological Institute Archaeological Ph.D. Dissertations and Habilitations 2005 Information for Authors Abstracts Angelika Schöne-Denkinger, The Artemis-Giant Relief of Kalapodi In 1977 and 1980, excavations at Kalapodi uncovered fragments of a marble relief from c. 400 B.C. which depict the goddess Artemis doing battle with a giant. Maria Salta has reconstructed the figure of Artemis in such a way that she is holding a bow in her right hand and with her left is trying to draw an arrow from her quiver. However, after re-examination of the fragments and comparisons with vase paintings and reliefs of the high Classical period, an alternative reconstruction is proposed: Artemis, kicking the giant’s calf from the right, holds a bow in her left hand, the arm hanging down; and with her right hand she is brandishing a torch against the giant, who has collapsed and raised his right hand in self-defence and extended his left in supplication. As such, the relief probably has a dedicatory function. This would link it to the cult of Artemis Elaphebolos which was practised at Kalapodi. Keywords: Kalapodi – marble relief – Artemis – gigant – gigantomachy ▲ Wolfgang Fischer-Bossert, The Ram(s) of Clazomenae. Observations on an Attic Document Relief This article deals with the document relief of the treaty between Athens and Clazomenae of 387 B.C. It will be argued that the two antithetic rams figured in the relief may be interpreted as a political allegory alluding to the internal quarrel (stasis) at Clazomenae. Thus the symmetrical depiction does not have anything to do with heraldry but rather with the scenic tradition of other reliefs of that kind. Keywords: Clazomenae – document reliefs – Parasemon – animal symbolism – allegories ▲ Lâtife Summerer, The Goddess at the Skylax. A monumental Hellenistic Rock Cut Relief in Northern Anatolia The over 3 m high relief cut into a rock face in the Kazankaya canyon at the Skylax was discovered by a local resident in 1985 and promptly published in 1986, and yet the archaeological world has scarcely taken note of it. The female figure, carved into a niche 3.50 m high, corresponds in posture and garments to the statuary type known as Artemis-Hecate, which was used primarily on Rhodes for the representation of various goddesses but also in portrait statuary. In terms of style, the relief can be dated to the second half of the 2nd cent. B.C. Identification of the goddess is complicated by the absence of attributes. The original publication proposed that it represented Cybele, but the lack of evidence of a cult of this goddess east of the Halys argues against such an identification. Rather, an interpretation as Anaïtis appears plausible since the cult of this Persian river deity was widely disseminated in Zelitis. Niches and other carved recesses at various points on the rock face in the canyon, together with the fortress and the tunnel cut into the rock on the opposite river bank, attest that the monumental relief of the goddess came into being in the context of a natural sanctuary. Keywords: Pontus –Hellenistic sculpture – rock cut relief – sanctuary –Anaïtis ▲ Andreas Grüner, Architecture and Aesthetics of Roman Fish Farms. On the Perception and Function of Multi-Genre Decoration Systems in Late Republican Villa Architecture In the competitive climate of the late Republic, pools for breeding seafish became items of prestige among the Roman aristocracy. As a result, extensive aquaculture facilities sprang up along Italy’s coastline, and the piscinae were designed chiefly according to aesthetic considerations. Comparison with ceiling and floor decorations of the 1st cent. B.C. reveals that piscina architects made use of the same patterns as mosaicists and stucco plasterers – with the difference that the forms were magnified to monumental size. This phenomenon of multi-genre decoration systems was part of a concept that sought to incorporate functional architecture that purportedly served economic interests into the luxurious domestic world of the aristocratic villa. This necessitates the concrete architectural connection of villa and piscina, such as can indeed be observed in a number of instances. Villa and halls serve as a platform for the beholder, at whose feet a geometrically compartmentalised expanse of sea is laid out like a ›liquid mosaic‹. From the aesthetic viewpoint, the piscina constitutes extravagant architecture which, in its specific relationship to the natural landscape as well as in its formal sophistication, should be regarded as a typical manifestation of Hellenistic art in Italy. Keywords: Italy, late Republican – villa – piscina – mosaic – ornament ▲ Nacéra Benseddik, Latin Epigraphy and Ideologies: The Case of Algeria From the beginning of their colonial presence in Algeria the French presented themselves as the legitimate inheritors of the Romans. They therefore needed to lock the natives out of the study of Roman and Latin Africa so far as to emphasize their cultural distance from the Romans. The restoration and re-dedication of T. Flavius Maximus’ mausoleum in Lambaesis by the French military or the unimplemented project to transfer Caracalla’s arch from Djemila to Paris are two symbolic examples of a twin process of cultural annexation and alienation. But the same process of historical alienation is underway in independent Algeria, and it seems to be a miracle that the Lambaesis mausoleum as a monument of supposed continuity between the Romans and the French survived until March 1983. Should the present-day policy in Algeria to disinherit the people of its Romano-African history be interpreted as a break with colonialistic ideology or rather as its continuation? Keywords: Africa romana – epigraphy, Latin – history of science – Algeria ▲ Susanne Schoen – Margarete van Ess, The 2003 UN Resolution Banning Trade in Iraqi Cultural Assets: Without Consequence in Germany? In April 2003 the Iraq Museum in Baghdad and other cultural institutions in Iraq were plundered. No less serious are the depredations to which archaeological sites in Iraq are subject owing to robbers. Following the First Gulf War the UN imposed a trade embargo on the country which prohibited, among other things, the export of objects of cultural value. In May 2003 this embargo was lifted and substituted by UN Resolution no. 1483/2003 which in Article 7 explicitly placed Iraqi cultural assets under protection. The responsibility for cultural assets in general which result from the occupation of Iraq, as well as the implementation of the UN Resolution in Germany and its consequences on other German legislation, are examined in this article. In addition, it discusses the criminal law repercussions and the possibility of asserting Iraqi restitution claims. The authors hold the view that in Germany it is virtually impossible to acquire ownership of an object of cultural value from Iraq; and if a third party has acquired such property, as a general rule a restitution claim can be asserted here on behalf of Iraq against that third party. Keywords: Iraq – UN resolution – legal situation, Germany – cultural conservation ▲ Joseph Maran – Alkestis Papadimitriou, Forschungen im Stadtgebiet von Tiryns 1999-2002
The article presents the results of an excavation in the North-eastern Lower Town of Tiryns which shed new light on the settlement history of this part of the site during the late 2nd and early 1st millennia B.C. It is argued that the long known redirection of a stream carried out at the end of the Mycenaean palatial period was not the spontaneous reaction to a flood catastrophe, but instead a well considered structural measure by political actors who had made plans to develop the Northern Lower Town. Five settlement phases of the Mycenaean post-palatial period (Late Helladic [LH] IIIC) were ascertained, of which the second shows architectural traits exceeding the quality of normal settlement architecture of that time. The finds associated with the settlement phases document the continuity of far-reaching trade connections of the harbour-town Tiryns during LH IIIC. Among the encountered post-Mycenaean structures the remains of a Late Geometric potter’s quarter and an Archaic cult bothros deserve special attention. The discovery of the bothros reminds us that cult activities of the 1st mill. B.C. may have taken place in the immediate surrounding of the acropolis. Keywords: Tiryns – post-palatial period – Late Helladic IIIC – lower town – river redirection ▲ Rainer Pasternak, Report on the Archaeobotanical Finds from the North-eastern Lower Town Studies of the botanical finds in the North-eastern Lower Town of Tiryns have fully corroborated the foregoing studies from the area of the citadel. The agrarian economy was based on barley Hordeum vulgare, einkorn Triticum monococcum, emmer Triticum dicoccum and bread wheat Triticum aestivum among cereals and on the ervil Vicia ervilia, grass pea Lathyrus sativus, lentil Lens culinaris and pea Pisum sativum among legumes. The results were further supported by finds of the vine Vitis vinifera, the fig Ficus carica and the olive Olea europaea. Keywords: Tiryns – Late Helladic IIIC – agriculture – agrarian economy – archaeobotany ▲ Philipp Stockhammer, Report on late Mycenaean Pottery from the North-eastern Lower Town The excavations in the North-eastern Lower Town of Tiryns have yielded an abundance of ceramic material which, in view of its stratification above sterile river sediments, is of particular chronological and historical significance. The ceramic finds in question are from the two LH-IIIC-Early settlement phases. The first phase is probably contemporary with ›LH IIIC Early 1‹ and with the beginning of the ›LH IIIC Early 2‹ phase in Mycenae and is characterised by a richness of ceramic painting which is exceptional for the earliest post-palatial period and seems to be rooted entirely in late palatial traditions. The post-palatial elite supplemented its ceramic inventory by removing fine antique specimens from chamber tombs. The second phase, which runs parallel to the ›LH IIIC Early 2‹ phase of Mycenae, permits the contextual study of the pottery thanks to the numerous in-situ finds of intact vessels – for instance a kitchenware inventory around the hearth and a fully intact, Minoan, imported bow-handle jug that underlines the continuity of far-reaching contacts even after the end of the palatial period. In addition, vessels painted in an extraordinarily elaborate way show that ceramic craft in the locality continued to flourish. Keywords: Tiryns – post-palatial period – Late Helladic IIIC Early – lower town – ceramics ▲ Christian Hübner – Stefan Giese, Report on the Geophysical Survey in the Town Area of Tiryns In the Western Town of Tiryns and in three areas directly to the north of the lower citadel, geomagnetic and geo-electrical mapping was carried out by the company GGH – Solutions in Geosciences. In spite of the use of a high-resolution caesium magnetometer, the magnetogram scarcely permitted any conclusions to be drawn regarding archaeological features on account of severe recent disturbances. The results of geo-electric mapping did however reveal indications of wall foundations despite varying soil moisture. A wall ran from the north-west to the south-east in the Western Town. North-east of the lower citadel a high-resistance zone was detected, 14 m 7 m in size, which can be interpreted as a collapsed wall or a building. In the north-west a wall running at right angles has been verified as a feature in geo-electricity as well as in the course of a stream. Keywords: Tiryns – Late Helladic IIIC – lower town – geophysical survey – caesium magnetometer ▲ Jürgen Seeher, The Excavations in Boğazköy-Hattuša in 2005 The excavations in the western upper town in the valley before Sarıkale have been continued. In the earliest layer encountered so far (late 16. cent./c. 1500 B.C.) the second building with an approximately square plan and systematic interior division was investigated. After it was abandoned, a new structure, possibly serving the same purpose, was built on the same spot with the old foundations being partly reused. On top of this follows the horizon identified last year which is notable in particular for the remains of craft activity. This year it proved possible to identify a furnace for bronze working. Of particular importance are three seals made of bronze, ivory and stone recovered from pre-Empire period layer contexts. Since nearly all known specimens of these seal forms from Anatolia lack an associated find context, they provide important chronological fixed points for dating the find category. The reconstruction of a 65 m long section of the mud-brick city wall in the lower town has been completed. With three 7–8 m high curtain walls and two 12–13 m high towers this structure shows visitors for the first time that Hittite architecture consisted largely of mud-bricks. In this experimental archaeology project all construction measures are documented in detail, including labour required and types and quantities of material used. Keywords: Hattuša – seals – mud-brick walls – reconstruction – experimental archaeology ▲ Helmut Brückner – Max Engel – Moritz Kiderlen, Geoarchaeological Study on the Poseidon Sanctuary of Akovitika in Messenia The Iron Age sanctuary of Poseidon on the rim of the coastal plain of Pamisos river, partly excavated in 1969 by P. Themelis, was built on the crest of a barrier beach which had been deposited by the sea during the late 3rd mill. B.C. and then was raised a few more decimetres by freshwater sediments. Judging by the earliest Iron Age stray finds, the oldest walking levels in this area date to c. 950–875 B.C. They lie some 0,20 m above today’s sea level and hence presumably 2–3 m above the sea level of that time. The relief situation of that period can be compared to that of today’s barrier beach, the crest of which is some 3 m above today’s mean sea-level. At the time of the sanctuary’s construction, the coast did not lie directly at the southern edge of the barrier beach on which it stands, but rather at a distance of 100–150 m behind a younger one. The areas to the north and south of the barrier beach were originally marshy but filled up with flood plain alluvium during the period in which the sanctuary was used; it was possible to walk across them in the dry months. A problem for the sanctuary was the rise of the level of the plain including the lowlands as a result of the sedimentation prozess. This lessened the height difference of the sanctuary precinct and hence increased the risk of it being flooded. This may have motivated the artificial levelling that has been detected archaeologically, and perhaps was even ultimately the reason for which the sanctuary was abandoned. Keywords: Messenia – Iron Age – sanctuary – survey, geoarchaeological – landscape development ▲ Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum, The Temple of the God Assur. Material and Aesthetic Dimensions of ›Holy Places‹ in Ancient Near East ›Holy places‹ in the Ancient Orient are recognisable as such by means of monumental sacred buildings, among other things. They are the centrepiece of a socio-economic institution which is not adequately denoted by the term 'temple'. The structures are identifiable as sacred buildings by their specific architectural form, by their fittings and features, and also frequently by a prominent topographical situation. In addition they possess a second, metaphysical nature which is based upon a complex system of symbols. The design and lay-out of the structures and the building materials used are referential components of this system. Our understanding of them is drawn, above all, from surviving inscriptions. This article offers a description of the function of this symbolism for the visualisation of political theology, taking the Assur sanctuary in Assur as an example. Keywords: Mesopotamia – Assur – Assur Temple – building inscriptions – names of temples ▲ Stephan Johannes Seidlmayer, Landscape and Religion – The Region of Aswân In the region of Aswân, unusually rich and well exploited archaeological and epigraphic finds permit the analysis of how local cults and their ritual acts were embedded in a complex topographical environment. In her temple in the metropolis Elephantine, the goddess Satet (Satis) does not only embody the type of patron deity of a city. Ritual facilities at the sanctuary demonstrate that, in addition, her cult was connected with the celebration of the Nile flood. Complementarily, an association with the Nile at low tide may be noted in the cult of the goddess Anuket in her shrine on the cataract island of Seheil, still recognisable today as a grotto – in particular in her major annual festival procession on the Nile. Consequently the pair of goddesses probably represent the phases of the Nile flood, from the 3rd mill. B.C. onwards. Other sanctuaries in the region and the lists of deities in the Temple of Satet show how a dense network of places of worship covered the landscape and provided a religious interpretation for it. Ritual practice and religious semantics are thus extremely closely related to the natural environment and its life-determining cycles. Keywords: Aswân – Elephantine – cult of the Nile – temple – rock inscriptions ▲ Mike Parker Pearson et al., Stonehenge, its River and its Landscape: Unravelling the Mysteries of a Prehistoric Sacred Place The area around Stonehenge was used for monument building as early as 10,000 years ago but the site of Stonehenge was first constructed around 3000 B.C. The stones were put up probably in the 26th century B.C. Stonehenge was probably contemporary with a group of timber circles at Durrington Walls, 3 km upstream along the River Avon, and may have formed part of a larger monument complex in which stone and timber circles were connected to the river by ceremonial avenues. The orientations of the circles and their avenues, together with seasonality patterns of pig culling, show that the midwinter and midsummer solstices were important times for gathering at these sites. Stonehenge is Britain’s largest cremation cemetery during the mid-third millennium B.C. and may be interpreted as closely associated with the ancestral dead. In contrast, Durrington Walls has very few human remains despite the huge quantities of feasting debris and is interpreted as a place where the dead began their journey into the afterlife. Keywords: Stonehenge – Durrington Walls – Woodhenge – Prehistory – landscape ▲ Miranda Aldhouse-Green, Healing Shrines in ›Celtic‹ Europe: Cult, Ritual and Material Culture The archaeological evidence from two sacred sites in Roman provincial western Europe, one in Gaul, the other in Britain, raises a range of interrelated ritual issues – including water, healing, votive behaviour, materiality and pilgrimage – that this article seeks to address. Fontes Sequanae in Burgundy was a remote rural shrine that grew up around local springs; by contrast, Bath in western England developed as a cosmopolitan urban ritual centre although it, too, was constructed at a spring-site. Both sanctuaries were dedicated to goddesses: Sequana at Fontes Sequanae and Sulis Minerva at Bath. Each sacred precinct has produced abundant evidence for their patronage by pilgrim-visitors who sought cures for physical maladies or, perhaps, yearned for spiritual enlightenment, by direct contact with the holy water, the personification of the deity. But the material culture of the two shrines exhibits marked variances. The Burgundian site has revealed a rich assemblage of pilgrim-imagery in wood and stone, and it is suggested that the discrepant materiality and positioning of the sculptures inside and outside the τέμενος might reflect transformation. At Bath, the numerous inscribed curse-tablets (defixiones) indicate that devotees of Sulis demanded of her that she exact punishment – in terms of the dysfunction of body-fluids (blood, semen, urine) – for wrongs (mainly theft) suffered by worshippers at her temple. The specific range of punishments may reflect Sulis’ function as a water-deity, and her ability to invert her healing powers to destroy the impious who committed the sacrilege of stealing from the devout within her sacred domain. The final issue addressed is that of romanitas: while Fontes Sequanae was the more obviously local indigenous shrine, dedicated to a purely Gaulish-named divinity, Bath appears to reflect far greater Roman influence (in the coupling of the British name of Sulis with that of the Roman Minerva and in much of the architecture, for instance). But the essential Britishness of the cult at Bath may be demonstrated by the prevalence of sculptures that apparently subverted, appropriated and resisted Roman grammars of religious tradition. Keywords: Roman Britain and Gaul – healing – water – pilgrimage – gender ▲ Axel Michaels, Sakrale Landschaften und religiöse Raumgefühle Axel Michaels, Sacred Landscapes and Religious Concepts of Space This contribution addresses the question of what is meant by the phrase »holy or sacred landscapes (like those of the Himalayas)«. It turns out that this phrase is problematic not only in view of ›holy‹ but also in view of ›landscape‹. The author discusses various theories of nature and landscape that are concerned with the problem of physio-/anthropocentrism. While specific differences can be established for the Himalayas in terms of – for instance – concepts of holiness of ›above‹ and ›below‹, they are not substantial enough to allow further-reaching consequences to be drawn. On the other hand, ancient Indian materials attest that a physical concept of space does not include the differentness of (Hindu) religious orientation systems: Because a sacred landscape or place is a sense of space which – perceived differently according to culture (religion), period and human observers – in fact detaches itself from physical place and region, doing so since it is after all a sacred feeling that transcends reality. Keywords: South Asia – Vedic India – Himalayas – landscape theories – space ▲ Heinz Halm, Shiite Shrines in Iraq and Iran Central to the religious beliefs of Shia Islam is the worship of the Twelve Imams, twelve descendants of the Prophet Mohammad whom the Shi’ites consider to be the sole legitimate successors to the Prophet and hence the supreme authorities of Islam. Excluded from leadership of the Islamic community by violent Sunni usurpers, they became martyrs, whose suffering and death not only served as an example but also brought salvation for their ›faction‹ (Arabic: Shia): the innocent suffering of the Imams redeems the guilt of their followers. Consequently, the Imams’ places of martyrdom and burial in Iraq and Iran – those in Medina were destroyed in 1804 by the strictly Sunni Wahhabis – have become places of pilgrimage, opulently ornamented and rich in donations, where the pilgrims believe that by touching the ground soaked with martyrs’ blood they achieve salvation through the charisma (baraka) of the Imams. Keywords: Iraq – Iran – Shia – martyrs’ graves – 7th century to present day ▲ |
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