2009 edition, nos. 60/61 - The American School of Classical Studies ...

student Reports
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Just over 40 km south of Corinth, Argos
preserves an agora that saw intense building
activity around the middle of the fifth
century B.C. This includes the construction
of conspicuous public facilities, such as an
open-air auditorium serving the needs of
the Argive popular assembly. Current discourse
tends to credit these projects, and
consequentially the formative period of the
agora, with the establishment of a democratic
government at Argos in the 460s B.C.
However, caution must be applied in this
instance. A series of Archaic waterworks
and structures that are aligned with Classical
buildings indicate that the Argives
began the process of preparing their agora
well before the democratic government
came to power.
A final city that I briefly mention here
provides an interesting contrast to Corinth
and Argos. Megalopolis, a city in Arkadia
founded around 368 B.C., had perhaps the
most canonical agora in the Peloponnese.
Here, civic space follows Late Classical and
Hellenistic trends in town planning that
are noticed all over the Greek world. Since
Megalopolis was founded by a federation of
small Greek city-states interested in countering
Spartan aggression, the intention
was to give its rivals the semblance of an
organized and respectable city.
12
ddd
Cult and Authority in
Ancient Athens
miChAel h. lAughy, Jr.
University oF cAliForniA, Berkeley
2007–08 ione MylonAs sheAr Fellow
It was an honor to be the Ione Mylonas
Shear Fellow at the ASCSA for the 2007–08
year, and I am grateful to both the School
and the family of Ione Mylonas Shear for
their wonderful support. My year at the
School enabled me to make significant
progress on my dissertation, “Cult and
Authority in Ancient Athens.” Generally
speaking, my research concerns the formation
of cultic communities, and the role
these communities played in the formation
of the Athenian state. Much of my year
was spent compiling the archaeological evidence
for my dissertation, particularly for
the Geometric and Protoattic periods.
One component of my work involved
the collection and examination of informa-
tion on grave assemblages in Athens and
Attica. I am interested in on-the-ground
evidence for communal rites at the site of
graves, particularly those of the Protogeometric,
Early, and Middle Geometric periods.
I am exploring the degree to which
the locus of communal ritual and identity
before the Late Geometric period was primarily
centered around funerary rites, as
indicated, for example, by both the grave
assemblages themselves and the evidence
for funerary games.
Sanctuaries and shrines in Athens and
Attica were another area of focus. I have
assembled a catalogue not just of the dates
and locations of Attic sanctuaries during
the Geometric and Protoattic period, but
of their respective votive assemblages. This
has produced some interesting results in its
own right. For example, terracotta figurines
and plaques are found almost exclusively at
seventh-century female deity sanctuaries.
Among deities, votive tripods and shields
are restricted to Demeter and Athena. I am
also exploring what I see as the relationship
between the rise of sanctuary activity and
the decline of visible burial rites.
Finally, I also collected and examined
data regarding “sacred houses” and “ancestor/hero”
cults. I am not at all confident,
having collected the data, that cults of the
dead were either particularly widespread
in Attica, or a major source of communal
cultic ritual and identity.
Much time was spent at the Blegen
Library, poring over excavation reports,
collecting the vast bibliography on early
Athenian cult, and writing nearly two hundred
pages of my dissertation. I spent significant
time at the Athenian Agora, as well,
examining votive material from deposits
and wells. Outside of Athens, I traveled to
ten sites in Attica, examining the material
in situ, as well as the cultic topography of
Attica as a whole.
ddd
Advancing Research,
Present and Future
nAthAnAel AndrAde
University oF MichigAn
2007–08 MichAel JAMeson Fellow
First and foremost, I would like to thank
the Arete Foundation for sponsoring the
Michael Jameson Fellowship, which was
responsible for funding my year in Athens
and Greece. This fellowship made possible
the achievement of several research goals.
In addition to expanding my understanding
of ancient Greek material culture,
I had two basic purposes in spending this
year in Greece as a Regular Member of the
ASCSA. The first was to study in intimate
detail the development of the topography
of Athens and its demes during the reigns
of the Antonine emperors. Our intensive
examination of the material culture of Athens,
Eleusis, and the other demes has made
this information accessible to me, and the
data I have accumulated will be incorporated
into a dissertation chapter that I will
write about the Greek-speaking regions of
the Roman empire during the reigns of the
Antonine emperors.
Second, I had planned to examine the
cities of northern Greece and Macedonia
that Macedonian kings had either established
or patronized. It was my aim to compare
and contrast them with the cities and
palaces that Macedonian kings founded in
the Near East and Mesopotamia after Alexander’s
conquests of these regions. Our
trips to such sites as Demetrias, Dion, and
Philippi enabled me to explore this data,
and they constitute significant comparanda
for my examination of palaces and cities
established by Macedonian kings in the
Near East.
My studies at the School also expanded
my general knowledge about the material
culture of Greece from the archaic to the
Byzantine periods, and this knowledge will
undoubtedly aid in my future research endeavors
and my teaching interests. I have
taken a vast number of photos, which will
serve as useful classroom aids and a source
of visual stimulation for my students.
ddd
Cult and Regional Identity
ChriStinA gieSke
University oF pennsylvAniA
2007–08 JAMes h. And MAry ot tAwAy , Jr.
Fellow
My time as a Regular Member at the American
School of Classical Studies at Athens
was a truly enriching experience both
personally and academically. For me, the
structure of the academic program provided
a perfect blend of opportunities and
experiences, and the series of School trips
we took in the fall benefited me in a number
of ways. My first two report topics, the
agora at Philippi and the nymphaeum of
Herodes Atticus at Olympia, challenged me
to study specific buildings and monuments
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