A Curse in a Chytridion: A Contribution to the Study of Athenian Pyres

IF 0.8 1区 历史学 0 ARCHAEOLOGY HESPERIA Pub Date : 1999-04-01 DOI:10.2307/148370
D. R. Jordan, S. Rotroff
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引用次数: 9

Abstract

In the earliest years of their work in the Athenian Agora, American excavators came upon a number of deposits of an unusual type: a shallow depression or irregular pit, with marked evidence of burning on its floor, containing multiple vessels of a limited range of standard forms.1 Most of the pots were miniatures-commonly, small plates and saucers, lekanides, and cooking pots-but alabastra, larger plates, and a full-size drinking cup or lamp were sometimes included. Occasionally a few tiny and calcined fragments of bone were recovered. These deposits never appeared within the Agora square itself, but they were common among the houses and workshops that surrounded it. They were particularly numerous in the socalled Industrial District southwest of the Agora, which Rodney Young excavated in the late 1930s and the 1940s. Taking the bone fragments to be human, Young published the contents of fourteen such deposits from that part of the city in his article "Sepulturae intra urbem,"2 interpreting them as the cremation graves of infants and christening them "pyre burials." This conclusion has long been viewed with skepticism. Homer Thompson expressed his doubts in the early 1970s, citing the shallowness of the deposits and the absence of markers.3 A decade later, Ursula Knigge and Wilfried Kovacsovics rejected this interpretation of similar deposits under Bau Z in the Kerameikos, pointing out that infant cremation is otherwise virtually unknown.4 Finally, study of better-preserved bones from similar deposits more recently unearthed in the Agora has shown that the bones are animal rather than human.5 These deposits seem, then, to bear witness to some kind of sacrificial ritual rather than human burial, and the name has been adjusted to "ritual pyre," "saucer pyre," or simply "pyre."l Recent speculation has connected them with rites attending the construction or remodeling of a building, the memorializing of the dead, or the propitiation of the spirits of the deceased.6 Full investigation of the phenomenon lies outside the scope of this paper. As a contribution toward that investigation, however, we would like to present a unique conjunction-a lead curse tablet found inside a typical pyre vessel, a chytridionthat has previously received only brief mention in the literature.7 Because of its importance for the understanding of Athenian pyres, we offer here the full documentation of context, chytridion, and curse. 1. For initial permission to publish the pot and the curse tablet discussed below we are indebted to T. Leslie Shear Jr., and for their drawings of Figures 1 and 3, to Richard Anderson and Anne Hooton, respectively. The wizardry of Craig Mauzy is responsible for the digitally enhanced image in Figure 2, created from a contact print for which the negative had been destroyed. Thanks are due as well to Jan Jordan, who arranged access to the objects. We are also pleased to acknowledge here the suggestions made by Hesperia's anonymous referees. All ancient dates in this article are B.C. 2. Young 1951, pp. 110-130. References to more recently discovered pyres are listed in Agora XXIX, p. 212, note 48. 3.AgoraXIV,p. 16. 4. Knigge and Kovacsovics 1981, p. 388. Nonetheless, the pyres have occasionally been cited in general handbooks as possible evidence for infant cremation in Hellenistic Athens, e.g., in Garland 1985, pp. 82, 161, and Kurtz and Boardman 1971, p. 99. 5. Shear 1973, p. 151, note 68; see also below, p. 148, with note 10. 6. See Agora XXIX, pp. 212-217 for recent discussion of the pyres and speculation about the nature of the pyre ritual. 7. Agora XXIX, p. 212.
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壶中的诅咒:对雅典柴堆研究的贡献
在他们在雅典集市工作的最初几年里,美国挖掘者发现了许多不寻常类型的沉积物:一个浅洼地或不规则的坑,其地板上有明显的燃烧证据,里面有多种标准形式的容器大多数的壶都是微型的——通常是小盘子和茶碟、小盆和烹饪锅——但有时也包括雪花、大盘子和一个全尺寸的水杯或灯。偶尔会发现一些细小的、烧过的骨头碎片。这些沉积物从未出现在集市广场本身,但它们在周围的房屋和车间中很常见。他们在Agora西南的所谓工业区尤其多,Rodney Young在20世纪30年代末和40年代挖掘了这个地区。杨认为这些骨头碎片是人类的,他在他的文章《埋葬》(Sepulturae intra urbem)中发表了14个这样的沉积物,将它们解释为婴儿的火葬坟墓,并将它们命名为“火葬”。长期以来,人们对这一结论持怀疑态度。荷马·汤普森在20世纪70年代初表达了他的怀疑,理由是矿床很浅,而且没有标记十年后,Ursula Knigge和Wilfried Kovacsovics拒绝了对Kerameikos Bau Z下类似沉积物的这种解释,并指出婴儿火化实际上是未知的最后,对最近在Agora出土的类似沉积物中保存较好的骨头的研究表明,这些骨头是动物而不是人类的因此,这些沉积物似乎见证了某种祭祀仪式,而不是人类的葬礼,其名称已被调整为“仪式火堆”、“碟形火堆”或简称为“火堆”。最近的推测将它们与参加建筑物的建造或改造、纪念死者或安抚死者灵魂的仪式联系起来对这一现象的全面调查不在本文的范围之内。然而,作为对这项研究的贡献,我们想提出一个独特的结合——在一个典型的火葬容器中发现的铅诅咒片,这是一种以前在文献中只被简短提及的壶因为它对理解雅典火葬的重要性,我们在这里提供了上下文,壶和诅咒的完整文档。1. 对于最初允许出版下面讨论的锅和诅咒板,我们感谢T. Leslie Shear Jr.,以及他们的图1和图3,分别感谢Richard Anderson和Anne Hooton。图2中的数字增强图像是由克雷格·莫齐(Craig Mauzy)的魔法创造出来的,这张图像是由一张销毁了负片的接触式印刷品创建的。也要感谢简·乔丹,他安排了参观这些物品的机会。我们也很高兴在此感谢Hesperia的匿名审稿人提出的建议。这篇文章中所有的古代日期都是公元前2年。Young, 1951,第110-130页。最近发现的柴堆的参考资料列于Agora XXIX,第212页,注释48。3. agoraxiv, p。16. 4. Knigge and Kovacsovics 1981, p. 388。尽管如此,这些柴堆偶尔也会在通用手册中被引用,作为希腊化雅典婴儿火葬的可能证据,例如,Garland 1985年,第82、161页,Kurtz和Boardman 1971年,第99页。5. Shear 1973,第151页,注释68;另见下文第148页,附注10。6. 参见Agora XXIX,第212-217页,了解最近关于火堆的讨论和对火堆仪式性质的猜测。7. Agora第二十九章,第212页。
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来源期刊
HESPERIA
HESPERIA ARCHAEOLOGY-
CiteScore
1.60
自引率
25.00%
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0
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