Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλίας - Τμήμα Ιστορίας, Αρχαιολογίας και Κοινωνικής Ανθρωπολογίας University of Thessaly - Department of History, Archaeology and Social Anthropology

ΩΡΩΠΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΕΥΒΟΙΑ
ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΥΣ ΠΡΩΙΜΟΥΣ
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OROPOS AND EUBOEA
IN THE EARLY
IRON AGE

Theurillat Thierry
Swiss Archaeological School

Early writing in the Sanctuary of Apollo Daphnephoros, Eretria

The transmission of alphabet to the Greeks is still a much debated issue. From an archaeological point of view, no alphabetical inscriptions can be securely traced before the 8th c. BC. They are still scarce in the 8th c. and too often without context. The recently published inscriptions from Pithekoussai stand, however, as landmark in the transmission of alphabet between Semitic and Greek communities. The great number of early inscriptions found in this emporion, presumably founded by Euboeans, is even more striking when compared with their scarcity in the metropoleis of Euboea itself, Lefkandi, Chalkis and Eretria in particular.

Recent excavations in the sanctuary of Apollo Daphnephoros triggered an exhaustive reappraisal of the material found during 40 years of Swiss excavations. On this occasion, more than 60 graffiti on pottery from the Geometric period were discovered, nearly half of them in alphabetic script. The other half consists in marks, which will not been discussed here, although they appear to have had a meaningful role in the early usage of writing in Greece.

Context. The earliest constructions in the sanctuary appear before 750 BC (MGII). Although ritual practices such as sacrificial meals were held there, it remains uncertain whether or not it was a place of cult from its origins. In Late Geometric, the construction of a monumental building, closely connected with an altar, testifies without doubt of the foundation of the sanctuary. The spatial distribution of the graffiti does not reveal any significant pattern: a majority of them were found in pits -yet most of the material comes from pits-, as well as outside and within the buildings.

Chronology. Only 2 inscriptions can be dated from the first period of the sanctuary (MG II). Interestingly, the earliest one is a graffito in semitic script written on local pottery, whereas the other is clumsily written in Greek alphabet on an ostrakon. 25 alphabetic inscriptions date from the second period of the sanctuary (LG). A similar increase may be observed elsewhere in Greece, but it might also stem from the changes that we notice within the sanctuary itself.

Pottery. All but two inscriptions are made on local pottery. The majority is placed on drinking cups (18/27), most of them monochrome, as it is the case in the sanctuaries of Kalapodi and Mount Hymettos. The other graffiti are inscribed on jugs or oenochoae (3), amphorae (2), krater (1), handmade cauldron (1), ostakon (1) and spindle (1). In the sanctuary’s context, plain drinking cups which probably belonged to individuals appear more likely to be inscribed than richly decorated pottery and vases devoted to the community, such as the kraters, jugs or cauldron.

Category. Most of the inscriptions are too fragmentary to propose a clear-cut interpretation, or even to categorize broadly. 3 of them, however, make for an exception: an ownership graffito (name in genitive + jmi), a fragment of an abecedary and a votive inscription (hiere[).

On the whole, less than 1% of the pottery found in the sanctuary is inscribed: writing is still a rare practice in 8th c. BC Eretria. All the more outside the sanctuary, where only three inscriptions are known. None have been found either in burials or in the few other sacred places that have been excavated. Although it is partially a consequence of the state of research, we argue that places of cult or specific ritual practices provide conditions favourable to the early use of writing. Inscriptions might have added value to an offering and/or individualized the drinking cup that each participant brought with himself to the communal meals. Writing appears in Eretria at a time and a place where the identity of the polis was taking shape, focused around a common place of cult, the sanctuary of Apollo Daphnephoros.

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