Theme:
1. Artefacts, Buildings & Ecofacts
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Terracotta Figurines as Random or Deliberate Offerings. A Complex Context Revisited
Content:
One of the most popular types of offerings in ancient Greek sanctuaries are terracotta figurines. And while other finds from sanctuaries, such as ceramics, often had, together with possible cultic and religious uses, a practical function, figurines are believed to have had mainly symbolic properties. Terracotta statuettes from sanctuaries can therefore offer, under certain conditions, valuable evidence about the worshipped deity, his/her attributes, ritual practices as well as information regarding the worshippers themselves and their motivations for offerings of specific coroplastic types. In addition to the questions of dating, typology and manufacture, the following questions regarding the coroplastic products are still pertinent to this day:
1. should the anthropomorphic figurines be seen as representing the deities worshipped in a certain location or do they symbolically depict the dedicant?
2. What does the act of deposition ‘mean’ and what symbolism(s) may have attended it or underscored its purpose?
These questions are certainly not new, but still merit discussion, as figurines continue to surface in excavations and enrich an already vast material. They will provide an overarching background to the discussion of this session, which will investigate if the choice of specific figurine types is influenced by random factors or if it is deliberate and related to the worshipped deity. More specifically, the following questions will be approached:
a. Does a set of figurines characterize the worship in a sanctuary or not?
b. Does a coroplastic assemblage from a sanctuary portray the attributes, qualities and cultic practices of a worshipped deity or not?
c. If the figurines can be seen as characteristic for worship and/or worshipped deity, to what extent and why?
This session will thus provide a multifaceted exploration of types and meanings of Greek terracotta figurines in connection to specific cult sites in Greece and the eastern Mediterranean.
Keywords:
terracotta figurines, sanctuaries, offerings, Greek material culture
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Maria Spathi (Greece) 1
Co-organisers:
Jenny Wallensten (Sweden) 2
Maria Chidiroglou (Greece) 3
Affiliations:
1. Harvard´s Center for Hellenic Studies
2. Swedish Institute at Athens
3. Curator, National Archaeological Museum, Athens
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