Month: August 2010

Recreating the Heraia on Samos

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

From ANA:

Athletes and volunteers dressed as torch-bearers of antiquity participate in one of several events recreating an ancient festival in honour of the mythical goddess Hera (Heraion), which was held at the port of Pythagorion , on the eastern Aegean island of Samos on Friday 20 August 2010.

The ancient Heraia festival served as a sports event for women, and dates back to 200 BC. The games were organised every four years.

Female athletes would take part in a night race, following an ancient path, beginning from Hera’s temple and finishing at the port, where the lightning of the flame took place.

Ancient sports games for women recreated on Samos | ANA

Here’s Pausanias‘ account of the Heraia games (via Theoi.com):

[5.16.2] Every fourth year there is woven for Hera a robe by the Sixteen women, and the same also hold games called Heraea. The games consist of foot-races for maidens. These are not all of the same age. The first to run are the youngest; after them come the next in age, and the last to run are the oldest of the maidens. They run in the following way:

[5.16.3] their hair hangs down, a tunic reaches to a little above the knee, and they bare the right shoulder as far as the breast. These too have the Olympic stadium reserved for their games, but the course of the stadium is shortened for them by about one-sixth of its length. To the winning maidens they give crowns of olive and a portion of the cow sacrificed to Hera. They may also dedicate statues with their names inscribed upon them. Those who administer to the Sixteen are, like the presidents of the games, married women.

[5.16.4] The games of the maidens too are traced back to ancient times; they say that, out of gratitude to Hera for her marriage with Pelops, Hippodameia assembled the Sixteen Women, and with them inaugurated the Heraea. They relate too that a victory was won by Chloris, the only surviving daughter of the house of Amphion, though with her they say survived one of her brothers. As to the children of Niobe, what I myself chanced to learn about them I have set forth in my account of Argos.

Not sure where the modern Samian race is getting the torch thing (confusion with a male event during the Panathenia?); I can’t find any mention of a female torch race. Matthew Dillon, “Did Parthenoi Attend the Olympic Games? Girls and Women Competing, Spectating, and Carrying out Cult Roles at Greek Religious Festivals” Hermes 128, 457-480 mentions (on 462) that no inscriptions of victories by women survive from Olympia, but there are inscriptions recording the victories of women at other (presumably Heraia-like) competitions. A trio of sisters named Tryphosa, Hedea, and Dionysia won various competitions in the Isthmian, Nemean, Pythian, Sikyonian, Epidaurian, and Athenian festivals in the second half of the first century A.D., by which time female participation in athletic competitions had apparently broadened in scope.. Most impressive (to me, anyway) is Hedea, who won the chariot-race-in-armour at the Isthmian games, the stade at Nemea and Sikyon, and the kithara-singing at the Sebasteia at Athens.

Inscriptions from Pompeiopolis

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

From World Bulletin … there seems to be a persistent misspelling of Pompeiopolis:

New inscriptions were unearthed during excavations in Pompeipolis ancient city in Taskopru in the northern province of Kastamonu.

Prof. Dr. Christian Marek, who has been examining inscriptions uncovered in Pompeipolis, told the AA correspondent that inscriptions were about festivals of Roman era.

Marek said that according to inscriptions, Roman emperors also participated in these festivals, most of which were religious. Marek said several competitions, shows and plays had been held within the scope of these festivals which had been started by Roman Emperor Alexander Severus.

Prof. Latife Summerer, a lecturer from Munich University, said that information on inscriptions were important and more would be uncovered in excavations in the ancient city.

The antique city of Pompeipolis is situated in the county of Taskopru of the province of Kastamonu. According to the historical records, the Romans after winning the battle against Mitridates. Pontus Pilate and his army in the northern valley of Gökirmak in 64 B.C. settled in this region. The Roman commander Pompeius built a city out of scratch on Zimbilli Hill and called the city Pompeipolis.

The antique city of Pompeipolis was discovered by Pascal T. Fourcade, who was the French consul during 1802 to 1812 at Sinop. It is claimed by the American and European archaeologists that the antique city of Pompeipolis is wealthier and bigger than the antique city of Ephesus in Izmir. The giant columns and the mosaic decorations found in the excavations conducted for the first time in 1910 in the antique city of Pompeipolis, remaining from the Byzantine era, were destroyed in the reconstruction of the town of Taskopru after four-thirds of the town was damaged by fire in the year 1927. The historical artifacts found in the excavations conducted by the governorate of Kastamonu in 1974 were placed in the Kastamonu Archaeological Museum for safekeeping. The excavation of Pompeipolis started again in the year 2006 under the leadership of Dr. Latife Summerer of the German Munich University.

As the archaeological excavation of Pompeipolis continues, a town museum or an archaeological museum must be built in Taskopru to protect and exhibit the artifacts discovered. With the historical artifacts to be discovered, the antique city of Pompeipolis will be the door opening the Black Sea to the world. If the antique city is well promoted and if the necessary investments for tourist visits are made, Pompeipolis, just like Ephesus and Zeugma, will become the symbol of the Black Sea within a short period of time and its name will take place among the sites to be visited in international tourism.

via: Inscriptions found in ancient Pompeipolis city in Turkey | World Bulletin

This seems to be a rather nice dig site … a few years ago they excavated a Temple of Augustus … the next season found mosaics and a marketplace … the spelling mistake seems to run in those reports too.

This Day in Ancient History: ante diem x kalendas septembres

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

ante diem x kalendas septembres

Pre Roman Remains at Brading Roman Villa

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From the County Press:

THE third phase of the Big Dig at Brading Roman Villa may well have been one of the toughest excavations eminent archaeologist Sir Barry Cunliffe had ever undertaken but it has yielded some treasures and a greater understanding of Brading’s history up to its Roman occupation.
With the three-week dig ending yesterday (Friday), Sir Barry’s team has unearthed, over the past two weeks, numerous pottery remains, ranging from pieces of amphorae to a tray for sifting sea water to extract salt.
The discovery of a second century BC saucepan became the earliest evidence of occupation on the site, pushing its history back as much as two centuries.
Examples of early jewellery were also found, which included an example of a small mid-first century AD brooch inlaid with enamel.
A butt beaker, a type of Gaulish pre-Roman period drinking vessel, bronze tweezers, a flagon and a cremation jar were also discovered.
During the first week of the dig, Sir Barry’s team unearthed a rare cooking pot and a copper coin bearing the image of a goddess.
This year’s dig concentrated principally on a site to the rear of the villa’s car park.
There is, according to Sir Barry, strong evidence the villa was a high-status farmstead in the late Iron Age, trading with the Romans before the AD43 invasion of Britain.
“We’ve got reminders of Mediterranean manners and lifestyle before the Roman invasion and them being incorporated into community life,” he explained. “It is likely salt was a product of this area. The farmstead may well date back to an earlier period of the Iron Age. The dig was unrelenting — one of the toughest sites to dig any of us has ever seen.
“Yet it yielded a host of fascinating features and gave us a real understanding about the villa story.”