Cakes in the Liknon: Votives from the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore on Acrocorinth

Abstract

JXCAVATIONS at the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore on Acrocorinth have brought L to light numerous miniature clay XlXVc, or winnowing baskets, filled with cakes: votive offerings for the two goddesses who first revealed to man the secrets of cultivating 8nVntPL0Cxok, or cereals., Votive likna were dedicated in the Sanctuary from the early 6th century B.C., if not earlier, until the 2nd century B.C. It is almost impossible to refine the chronological limits, as there are so few stratified or closed deposits. These votives are most heavily concentrated in the 6th and 5th centuries. Of the 588 fragments found, the greatest number, approximately 365, were found on the Middle Terrace, where sacrifice was performed and offerings probably presented. A smaller number, 212, were recovered from the Lower Terrace, the area set aside for dining. Here the greatest concentrations were found in construction packings beneath the earliest dining buildings. On the Upper Terrace, where an initiation of some sort was undoubtedly held in the small theater, only three likna were found. In all areas they appear in secondary fills, brought in to cover buildings, raise floor levels, or form packing for couches. None was found in a primary place of deposition. While it is logical to expect that they were offered on the Middle Terrace, together with the other votives, this cannot be proved.2 Although all the likna were found in layers of dumped fill, discarded in periodic cleanings of the Sanctuary, some come from contexts that can be fairly closely dated. Such contexts allow the assignment of approximate dates for some of the likna in the catalogue, and identifications of the objects they contain illuminate, in turn, the nature of the ritual in which they played a part. Finally, the likna from the Sanctuary have more than a strictly local significance. Constituting the largest number of such objects excavated