Download Recent scholarship and current excavations at the Athenian Agora

Utrecht University’s Ancient World Seminar presents: Recent scholarship and current excavations at the Athenian Agora Michael H. Laughy Washington and Lee University March 19, 15:00-­‐18:00 Stijlkamer van Ravesteyn, Kromme Nieuwegracht 80, 1.06, Utrecht On Tuesday, March 19, Michael H. Laughy will present two talks on Ancient Athens as part of Utrecht’s Ancient World Seminar. Michael Laughy is Assistant Professor of Classics at Washington and Lee University. He has been excavating in Greece since 1997, and currently serves as field supervisor of the Athenian Agora Excavations in Athens, where he is overseeing the excavations of a fifth-­‐century BC building, the Stoa Poikile. After the talk there will be a chance to meet dr. Laughy for drinks. Talk 1 The End of Ancient Athens: The Archaeology and History of the Athenian Twilight For over one thousand years, Athens ranked among the most vibrant intellectual, social, and economic centers of the ancient Mediterranean world. Beginning in the third century A.D., however, Athens was rocked by a series of barbarian sacks, marking a centuries-­‐long period in which the fortunes—and the size—of the city ebbed and flowed. Athens began a period of slow recovery and expansion in the tenth century A.D., but by 1200 A.D., the city had fallen upon hard times once more. According to the then Archbishop of Athens, Michael Akominatos, “the glory of Athens has utterly perished; one can see nothing, not even a faint symbol, by which to recognize the ancient city.” In this lecture, we will reveal some of the spectacular discoveries uncovered during recent excavations of Late Antique and Byzantine Athens, and discuss how these excavations enrich our understanding of the ancient accounts of the Athenian twilight. Talk 2 The Identity of the Seventh-­‐Century B.C.E. Athenian “Snake Goddess” In 1932, a large Protoattic votive deposit was discovered lying directly atop the ruins of a Geometric period oval building, located near the southwest corner of the Athenian Agora. This deposit is among the largest and best-­‐preserved seventh-­‐century B.C.E. votive assemblages found in all of Attica. Included within the deposit are a number of terracotta tripods, shields, horses, and chariots, as well as a remarkable terracotta plaque of a goddess with snakes. The consensus among archaeologists today is that these terracotta votives are indicative of hero or ancestor worship. A reexamination of the deposit suggests a rather different conclusion: the votives came not from a hero or ancestor shrine, but from a sanctuary to Demeter. The “snake” goddess on the plaque is none other than Demeter herself. Solving the mystery of the Athenian “Snake Goddess” opens up a new line of thinking not only for this deposit, but for the study of Athenian religion in general. An examination of terracotta votives at contemporary deity sanctuaries in Athens and Attica suggests that dedications of votive tripods, shields, horses, and chariots provide the earliest evidence that ritual processions and competitions, common at elaborate Late Geometric funerals, became part of festival life at some deity sanctuaries by the beginning of the seventh century B.C.E. As such, these terracotta votives provide valuable insight into a period in which the center of the Athenian ritual world shifted from the grave to the sanctuary. Michael Laughy is Assistant Professor of Classics at Washington and Lee University. He holds a BA from the University of New Hampshire in Philosophy, Anthropology (Archaeology), and Latin, and an MA in Classics from the Washington University in St. Louis. In 2010, he received his PhD in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Laughy began his life as a field archaeologist in North America, working initially at historic and prehistoric sites in the New England. He also recently served for a year as the Director of the Monmouth College Native American Archaeology Lab in Western Illinois. He has been excavating in Greece since 1997, and currently serves as field supervisor of the Athenian Agora Excavations in Athens, where he is overseeing the excavations of a fifth-­‐century BC building, the Stoa Poikile. His research interests include the history and archaeology of Ancient Athens, ancient Greek religion, and Greek epigraphy. His first book, co-­‐authored with Dr. Floris van den Eijnde, The Cults of Attica: Rituals and Group Identity, 1000-­‐600 B.C.E., is due out in later this year (2013). He is currently completing a monograph on Ritual and Authority in Athens, 600-­‐450 B.C.