I. Malkin, Ithaka, Odysseus and the Euboeans in the eighth century

1The paper offers a picture centered on the shores of the Ionian and Adriatic seas, with the island of Ithaca as the point of departure and closure. A Euboean periplus is presented, reconstructing Euboean contacts and colonization en route: from Ithaca with its Odysseus-associations, to Corcyra, Orikos, Otranto, back to Ithaca and to the cult of Odysseus. The interrelation between Ithaca’s maritime position as an island en route to the Adriatic, its maritime offshore position in relation to the mainland, the protocolonial activity of various Greeks - Euboeans, Corinthians, and that of the people of Ithaca themselves, and the dedications – probably to the protocolonial hero, Odysseus – of the tripods at Polis Bay in Ithaca, all point to a meaningful convergence with implications pointing to cult, the presence of Homeric myths in the minds of Greeks, and the nature of Greek exploratory and colonial contacts.

2Before Corinth took control of Leukas and its channel in the seventh century, the lthaca-Cephallonia channel, including Polis Bay, was frequented. Ithaca itself was an independent (not Corinthian) entity. To its north, the Euboeans probably colonized Corcyra, as well as Orikos in the Bay of Valona, facing Otranto. Corcyra was a short-lived settlement and archaeological arguments from silence, disbelieving Euboean presence are rejected. This colonization is contextualized in relation to the notion of “the first western Greeks”, usually attributed to the Euboeans in Pithekoussai. Ithaca and Corcyra are also contextualized in relation to the archaeological evidence from Otranto which suggests that Greek colonization was preceded by proto-colonial traffic, directed also across the Otranto Straits, to Italy and possibly also to the Adriatic (the sea north of the Straits). The Euboean traders/aristocrats are qualified as “captains of sailors-traders” (Odysseus is thus suspected in the Odyssey), implying minor trading interests of partners in the voyage. In time, such captains-princes would lead (as oikists) colonial foundations and eventually receive cult, following a Euboean pattern which seems to have started in the Dark Age.

A.C. Cassio, Euboean culture and the development of Greek epic Poetry

3Over the past few years a number of specialists in Greek epic poetry have come down in support of the idea that Homer was more influenced by Euboean culture and language than was previously suspected. After the discoveries at Lefkandi were made known, West 1988 put forward a more radical theory, namely that Aeolic epic was transmitted not, as usually assumed, to the Ionians of Asia Minor, but directly to those in the West, i.e. the Euboeans, at a much higher chronological level than previously assumed - the first half of the 10th century B.C.

4The aim of this article is to show that it is impossible to prove that the Euboean dialect exerted a deep influence on the epic language at such an early stage. The lack of the 3rd compensatory lengthening is typical of Euboean (and other Greek dialects, including Attic) in classical times, but is the result of an innovation in syllabification which is unlikely to have taken place at an early date. Also the presence of such forms as πρήσσω in Homer (while Euboean has πρήττω) speaks against the idea of an old and deep-rooted influence of the Euboean dialect on the epic text: there is no question of πρήσσω being an old Euboean form wich later turned to πρήττω Of course the hypothesis of an early presence of epic songs in Euboea is perfectly reasonable; but they are likely to have been imported, and consequently in a linguistic form different from Euboean.

5Lastly, this article suggests that at a relatively late stage East Ionic epic may have been influenced by singers originating from an area comprising Boeotia, Phocis, Euboea and Attica - exactly those regions which have pride of place in the Catalogue of the Ships.

F. De Polignac, Navigations et fondations: Héra et les Eubéens de l’Egée à l’Occident

6Much attention had been devoted by Nazarena Valenza-Mele to the part played by Hera in the Euboean colonization, especially at Cumae where she would have been the “leading deity” of the foundation; a peculiarity she explained as a consequence of the religious traditions of Euboea itself. Hera’s mythology and cult are undoubtedly of some importance in Euboea, as well as in Boeotia and Thessaly, but do not really justify a specific role in colonization; moreover, the divinity leading a colonizing expedition is frequently quite different from the most important god of the mother-city, as these two functions are different. And the cult of Hera is so widespread among the Western Greeks that a specific relation between the goddess and the Euboeans must be established on other grounds.

7Indeed, some offerings from both sanctuaries of Hera on Samos and Apollo at Eretria might reveal a close relation, from the eighth century B.C. onwards, between Euboeans and the Aegean sanctuary. The Euboeans may have been especially interested by the goddess of Samos who reigned over and protected the world of seafarers and exchanges with the Near East, as testified by the many exotic offerings found in the sanctuary. As the involvment of the goddess in the world of exchanges seems closely related to her protection over marriage, the fundamental form and symbol of ritual exchange, it is also associated to the world of the oikos, that is with stability and land. The same deity who was of special interest to the Euboeans as leaders of the relations between the East, the Aegean and the West, may thus have also secured the transition between the time of traders and the time of foundations and creation of territories and this double involvment justifies a close relation with the Euboeans who were the first active in both fields.

J.-P. Morel, Eubéens, Phocéens, même combat?

8Dans l’Occident méditerranéen, Eubéens et Phocéens sont rapprochés par des entreprises communes et présentent de nombreuses affinités, qui conseillent souvent d’éclairer ces peuples l’un par l’autre. On analyse successivement: 1) L’entente commerciale phocéo-chalcidienne pour les trafics à partir du Détroit de Messine, en discutant les thèses de Vallet et Villard. 2) D’autres cas de collaborations et d’analogies, à propos de la fondation de Velia, de certains événements de Sicile, des institutions, des pratiques commerciales et monétaires. 3) Les influences réciproques, dans les domaines de l’écriture et de la langue, de la monnaie, des terres cuites architecturales. 4) Une certaine communauté des cultes et des légendes, concernant notamment Leucothéa et Aristée (mais aussi Hercule et une «déesse assise»), qui semble révèler en particulier un arrière-plan commun thessalo-béotien et éolien. Les deux peuples sont caractérisés aussi par la vigueur persistante de leur hellénisme dans un Occident désormais en voie de romanisation, et par les rapports et similitudes qui continuent à les unir tout au long de l’époque hellénistique.

I. S. Lemos, Euboea and its Aegean koine

9The idea that Euboea together with other regions in central Greece and the Aegean formed a koine was first explored by Desborough. The paper investigates further the existence of such a koine bringing together old and new archaeological material dated from the Sub-Mycenaean to the Sub-Protogeometric period. By examining the material culture from several sites, the use of the same style of pottery is revealed, while when we turn to the metal finds, there is a preference to use fibulae over pins. Exotic imports from the Eastern Mediterranean and locally produced jewellery are among the most striking features among the leading members of the koine. Evidence from burial customs are discussed, but are proved to be of limited value. Finally further links are explored by the operation of the two sanctuaries at Kalapodi in Phocis and Poseidi in Chalcidice where cultural links were reinforced though common cult practices.

E. Sapouna-Sakellaraki, Geometric Kyme. The excavations at Viglatouri, Kyme, on Euboea

10The question whether or not there was a city called Kyme in Euboea, and its relationship with Cumae in the Bay of Naples, has occupied research for more than one hundred years. The concern of scholars was due mainly to two circumstances: that Euboean Kyme is referred to only rarely by the ancient authors, and that no remains had yet been discovered in the area dating to the colonisation period.

11After intensive investigation, remains were found on the hill of Viglatouri, in the area of Oxylithos, near the site of Stomio, where Papavasiliou found some Mycenaean tholos tombes. During the excavations from 1994 to 1997, buildings of the Geometric settlement (rectangular or apsidal) were discovered. At other points modern destruction had left only remains of earlier phases, mainly Middle Helladic and Late Helladic.

12The excavation has thus revealed the site of Kyme in Euboea, an important centre, flourishing in the Proto-geometric and Geometric period, that is in the crucial pre-colonial and colonial periods. It is the first settlement in Euboea to have yelded well-stratified pottery of the Middle and Late Geometric period.

S. Huber, Érétrie et la Méditerranée à la lumière des trouvailles provenant d’une aire sacrificielle au Nord du Sanctuaire d’Apollon Daphnéphoros

13Les fouilles récentes accomplies dans le chantier du Sanctuaire d’Apollon Daphnéphoros à Érétrie apportent des éléments nouveaux sur la place occupée par la cité eubéenne au sein du bassin méditerranéen à la période géométrique. Divers types de pendentifs ont été mis au jour dans le Sanctuaire d’Apollon Daphnéphoros et dans une aire sacrificielle voisine, où était honorée une divinité inconnue. Trois catégories sont présentées ici, des scarabées et scaraboïdes en pierre appartenant au “Groupe du Joueur de Lyre”, quelques “sceaux au lion couché” en os/ivoire attachés aux sceaux en ivoire de la Grèce de l’Est et des “perles-oiseau” en pâte de verre. La comparaison des lieux de trouvailles en Méditerranée et au Proche-Orient des trois catégories de pendentifs analysées dans le cadre de cet article permet de mettre en évidence diverses voies de distribution de bijoux à travers la Méditerranée. Deux îles du monde grec dominent ces voies de circulation, l’Eubée et Rhodes.

B. Blandin, Recherches sur les tombes à inhumation de l’Hérôon d’Erétrie

14Entre 1965 et 1966, une petite nécropole datant de la fin du VIIIème siècle comprenant sept incinérations d’adultes et neuf inhumations d’enfants fut mise au jour, à Erétrie, dans la région de la porte ouest de la cité.

15La richesse des tombes d’adultes, le caractère épique du rituel pratiqué au cours des funérailles, ainsi que l’érection d’un monument triangulaire et vraisemblablement d’un tumulus au-dessus des sépultures sont autant de caractéristiques qui ont conduit à identifier ce complexe tombal comme un hérôon.

16Si les tombes d’adultes de cette nécropole ont particulièrement retenu l’attention des archéologues, les sépultures d’enfants sont restées un peu dans l’ombre. Cet article leur est donc plus particulièrement consacré. Il y est question du type des tombes, de l’âge des défunts ainsi que du mobilier céramique et des informations que celui-ci peut nous livrer sur le rituel funéraire.

17Des découvertes récentes amènent également à reconsidérer la position de cette nécropole dans la cité d’Erétrie.

C. Bérard, Erétrie géométrique et archaïque. Délimitation des espaces construits: zones d’habitat et zones religieuses

18Erétrie est une des seules villes ayant youé un rôle clef et dans le développment des comptoirs et des échanges avec le Moyen-Orient et dans la (pré) “colonisation” en Occident que l’on puisse explorer systématiquement. Toutefois, il faut admettre qu’il n’y a pas d’urbanisme comme telle dans l’Eretie du VIIIème siècle puisque même Apollon ne dispose pas d’un téménos. Une ou deux générations après le départ des “colons” pour l’ouest, alors que les villes d’Occident peuvent se livrer à des expériences d’urbanisme propement dit, au contraire en Grèce aucune organisation de l’espace n’est pas repérable. Mais alors qu’est-ce qu’une ville sans zone religieuse, sans zone politique, avec un habitat dispersé et peut-être avec des tombes un peu partout? Si l’on parle de polis, quelles en sont les autorités, de quel pouvoir disposent-elles? La poursuite des fouilles permettra, espérons-le, de mieux comprendre la mise en place des espaces érétriens.

A. K. Andriomenou, Eretria in the Geometric period; Chalkis and Akraiphia in the Sub-Protogeometric Period

19The author presents here some of the finds from her excavations in Euboea (1973 to 1977), viz., those concerning Eretria in the Geometric age and Chalcis in the Sub-Protogeometric period, and puts forward hypotheses on their historical and social implications. She presents also the finds from her excavations at Akraiphia (1974 and 1987-1989), which date from the Sub-Protogeometric period and are in some ways connected to Euboea.

20Eretria: A golden diadem with a half disc was found in a tomb containing Attic vases of 780-770 B. C. Apsidal buildings belonging to three different phases have also been found; they yielded many sherds of painted pottery, some in the style of the Cesnola Painter, and three sherds with graffito inscriptions.

21Chalcis: Vases from seven trench tombs are presented, as well as materials found in a pit containing the sherds of hundreds of vases, mostly of large size, dating from the Late Protogeometric to the end of the Late Geometric. All this pottery was produced in Chalcidian workshops. Historical conclusions can be drawn from the discovery, among the sherds of this dump, of fragmentary skyphoi of a type found in Italy as well as other sites in Euboea. The uninterrupted use of this dump is proof of the continuity of the life of the city from its Protogeometric phases to the Archaic period. Hence, the Chalcidians of the first overseas expeditions should not be identified as the ancient inhabitants of present-day Lefkandi, but rather as the early inhabitants of Chalcis.

22Akraiphia: We present here the content of the tombs of the Middle Geometric I and II periods, comprising many bronze ornaments as well as pottery. These finds have multiplied by four the vases of the Boeotian Middle Geometric known before the beginning of our excavation. Furthermore, they have shed further light on the history of the region in this remote period. The bronze ornaments indicate that, during the second half of the 9th century B.C., there was a metallurgic workshop at Akraiphia. The discovery of such rich burials bears witness to the existence in the area of a developed and semi-urban society. Expert Chalcidian metalworkers possibly came to Akraiphia with Chalcidian traders and created a school here. Merchants and craftsmen from Chalcis may have introduced new cultural elements and thus given their contribution to the process of urbanization of Akraiphia.

N. Kourou, Euboea and Naxos in the LG Period. The Cesnola Painter

23A kind of peculiar relationship between Euboea and the Cycladic island of Naxos during the period of the Greek colonisation movement in the West is implied by their common participation in the foundation of Sicilian Naxos as mentioned or alleged in ancient literature. In archaeological terms this partnership appears equally perplexed because the pottery found in the colony basically suggests Euboean presence, while the name of the colony hints at Naxian suzerainty or at least premiership in the enterprise.

24In an attempt to investigate the relations between the two areas Euboean and Naxians LG pottery styles are briefly analysed and discussed. In this sketchy outline the style of the «Cesnola Painter» or otherwise «the Cesnola Workshop» emerges as one of the most important common elements of the ceramic styles of the two areas. Thus, this paper undertakes a reappraisal of this class of vases in the light of current research and new finds.

25The term Cesnola Painter (or Workshop) has been applied to a number of LG vases, which are considered to form a homogeneous group of pottery with close stylistic affinities and a distinctive iconography. Stylistic attributions to this workshop vary and the problem concerning its origin is reflected in the history of the debate. When the workshop’s name-piece, the large crater from Kourion in the Cesnola Collection in New York, was first recognised as an island product it was related to the pottery of Naxos. But after the discovery of a large number of Euboean elements on the vases of this style by Buchner and Coldstream, working independently in 1971, the workshop «changed address» and it was reattributed to Euboea. Yet, a Naxian origin for the vases of this workshop continued to be discussed, while at the same time a number of new finds recovered at Eretria and Lefkandi seemed to favour a Euboean provenance. Because of the many non-Euboean elements on the vases of this style discovered in Euboea it was also suggested that the Cesnola Painter was a Naxian who emigrated to Euboea.

26On the other hand, a recent study of some Eretrian vases has shown a number of distinct «hands» working in this style at Eretria in a tipically Eretrian fabric. Similarly, vases of the same style found at Cycladic Naxos and made in a distinctive local fabric, show different painters and sometimes even fabrics. Furthermore, the central piece of the class, the Cesnola crater in New York, on examination after a recent good cleaning revealed a fabric not typically Euboean or Naxian, but much closer to Attic. Thus, new evidence is brought in that gives another perspective to the long-standing debate underlining the concurrent existence of local versions of the same style.

27In this discussion emphais is given to fabric; the distribution of this class of pottery and the Attic associations of the style with particular attention to a recently published attic kantharos from Kition. Pottery analysis available for Naxian and Euboean ceramics is taken into consideration and the fabric of the central piece of this class, the Cesnola crater in New York, is discussed against this backround.

A. Mazarakis Ainian, Oropos in the Early Iron Age

28The ancient city of Oropos lies beneath the modern town of Skala Oropou, in the borderline between Attica and Boeotia, opposite Eretria. Excavations between 1985-87 and from 1996 onwards revealed evidence for human occupation from the late 10th c. down to the late Archaic period: Protogeometric and Subprotogeometric material was revealed in a plot of the telphone company (O.T.E.), while Late Geometric through Archaic architectural remains and tombs came to light some 600 metres to the West, at the school property (Ο.Σ.Κ.).

29The latter area is divided into two sectors. In the western one a rectangular house, a monumental apsidal structure, a street and a huge rectangular structure were excavated; in the main quarter which lies further East, numerous apsidal, oval and round buildings enclosed by peribolos walls came to light. This area appears to have been an industrial quarter, where metal workers and potters worked side by side. The neighbouring tombs mostly belong to children, though some of them appear to represent adult cremations. One oval workshop, building A, was surrounded by a stoa of wooden posts. Within the largest enclosed area, among other structures, lies a round shrine (ΣΤ), and a large tripartite apsidal building (Θ). The idea that the latter was a religious structure too cannot be dismissed at present, but a ruler’s house or an assembly hall appear as equally good alterntives; one could even suggest that it served as the headquarters of the person who supervised the work in the industrial quarter. The pottery collected so far denotes a strong connection with Euboea, and various Orientalia suggest contacts whith the East.

30The neighbouring river or torrent was apparently responsible for the rather abrupt abandonment of the establishment sometime during the Archaic period. The site ex-cavatedmay be plausibly identified with Homeric Graia (Il. II, 498), which several ancient authors located in the surroundings of the town of Classical Oropos. Following the destructive floods which led to the abandonment of the Archaic settlement, the town was moved a few hundred metres to the east and perhaps received the new name Oropos from the river or torrent which was responsible for this destruction. According to an old and well known opinion the Graioi would have participated in the earliest colonisation movement of South Italy and would have joined the Euboeans in the foundation of Cyme; it is these Graians that the indigenous Italian people presumably first met and consequently all the newcomers may have become known to the local people as Grai(c)i. Since it is today accepted that one of the main objectives of the Greeks who established themselves in the West, and on Pithekoussai in particular, was the trade of metals, one suspects that a group of Graioi followed the Eretrians to the West and settled on Pithekoussai and later at Cyme. This assumption becomes even more credible when one compares several aspects of the Oropos site with Eretria and Pithekoussai. The continuation of the excavation and the study of the finds will perhaps provide answers to these important issues.

A. Mele, Chalcidice and the Chalcidians. Notes on the literary tradition

31The Author re-examines traditions concerning Greek presence in Chalcidice. He begins from the Homeric testimony to show how this region was considered to be totally outside the Greek world. He turns then to traditions regarding colonial foundations, stressing the specific character of Greek presence in Chalcidice; where colonies and emporic traditions had to coexist, due to the presence of a strong indigenous hinterland.

K. Soueref, Euboeans on the coasts of Northern Greece. New data

32In the present article, the author discusses the nature of Euboic presence in central Macedonia and the Chalcidic peninsula between the Late Helladic period and the 5th century B. C. on the basis of the archaeological finds of the last ten years. For the sake of clarity, the objects have been grouped as follows: a) found in settlements; b) found in the territory of an apoikίa recognized as Euboic; c) funerary; d) sacred.

33Euboea seems to have had a leading role in navigation and the trade in raw materials in the areas under examination from the end of the Late Helladic period until the end of the 7th century B.C., partly thanks to the collaboration of the local peoples.

M. Tiverios, The ancient settlement in the Anchialos-Sindos double trapeza. Seven years (1990-1996) of archaeological research

34In this article are presented the results of the excavations carried out since 1990 by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki at the double “table” of Anchialos-Sindos near Thessaloniki. The excavations have revealed the existence of an important ancient settlement, probably ancient Sindos, which flourished particularly in Geometric and Archaic times. Especially interesting is the marked Euboean presence during the 8th century B.C. Clearly the gold, which certainly existed in the near-by river Echedoros (modern Gallikos), was one of the reasons that attracted so early the interest of the Euboeans, who had probably founded an emporion here.

S. Moschonissioti, Excavation at ancient Mende

35This paper summarizes the results of the systematic excavation at Mende, carried out under the supervision of I. Vokotopoulou from 1986 through to 1994.

36Mende was recorded by Thucydides as an Eretrian colony founded on the Pallene prong of the Chalcidike peninsula. However, the dating of the Euboean colonizing activity in the area of Northern Aegean remains uncertain since little discussion has been carried out so far, and this based mainly on later historical and linguistic evidence. There are scholars, therefore, suggesting that this northern Euboean venture took place during the well-known period of colonization in the 8th century B.C., while others are deal with questions concerning the date and the origin of these first settlers.

37Putting together, however, the archaeological evidence coming from the area of Mende, some new conclusions can be drawn:

38Excavations in the area of the Acropolis (Vigla) and of Proasteion have proved a significant continuation in the use of the settlement at Mende starting from the Late/ Sub-Mycenaean period up to the 4th century B.C.

39At the seaside cemetery of the city, burials of babies and young children in pots come to light, beginning from the late 8th or early 7th through to the 6th century B.C.

40The “extraurban sanctuary” of the city at Poseidi, which is among the earliest cult buildings in Greece and the only specialized ritual site, so far, in the Late-Mycenaean Northern Greece, further confirmed the continuous and unchanged architectural and ritual practices of the population at Mende, while an apparent chronological gap from the 9th to the 8th cannot be connected, so far, with the data from the settlement.

41Also a great quantity of the pottery yielded from the four sectors of the excavation at Mende recalls a strong and intense influence of Euboean pottery ever since the Late/Sub-Mycenaean period.

42Summarizing the data from the excavation at Mende, the literary evidence and the location of the city, we could suggest an establishment of Euboeans in Mende, even during this early period.

43We expect that the continuation of the excavation will define the site’s nature and development within the following centuries, and will contribute to the solution of the problem concerning the Euboean northern colonization and movements and relations developed in the area of the Northern Aegean during the Dark Ages.

M. Frasca, Greek pottery imports to Aeolian Kyme in the 8th c. B.C.

44The author presents here the most ancient of the Greek imported materials recently found on the south hill of Aeolian Kyme in the course of the excavation of this site by the archaeological expedition of the University of Catania, which has been going on since 1982. They are datable to the decades immediately following the middle of the 8th century BC. Along with sherds from the late Geometric workshops of Corinth, northern Ionia and especially Smirne, there are some Euboic ones that are especially remarkable as none were reported previously along the Aeolian coast. They could provide archaeological confirmation to historical sources on the participation of Aeolian Kyme to the foundation of Cumae in Campania and the existence of connections between the Aeolian and the Euboic worlds.

C. Morgan, Euboians and Corinthians in the area of the Corinthian Gulf?

45This paper offers a review of archaeological and historical scholarship concerning the relationship between Euboian and Corinthian activity in the area of the Ionian and Adriatic Seas. It focuses on evaluation of the tradition, reported by Plutarch, that an Eretrian settlement on Kerkyra was displaced by Corinthian colonists.

46The literary tradition surrounding Plutarch’s Quaestiones Graecae is reviewed, and the passage considered in the context of colonisation topoi. Archaeological evidence from Kerkyra is considered, and the absence of evidence for Euboian settlement noted. This point is assessed in the context of trading contacts across the Ionian and southern Adriatic seas. It is argued that, in the absence of evidence for Euboian activity along the Corinthian Gulf, Euboians probably reached Sicily and the Tyrrhenian coast via routes round the southern Peloponnese. As a result, contacts further north into the Ionian area were infrequent, and the limited presence of Euboian artefacts on Ithaka and in Apulia may be explained in terms of local activity.

47Finally, the development of a tradition of Euboian colonisation is re-appraised in the light of parallel traditions from the Adriatic, and the history of Kerkyran-Corinthian relations. The sixth century is highlighted as a period of conflict and also of eclectic artistic development, emphasizing the variety of cultural referents used to structure expressions of individual and communal identity. This is seen as the earliest opportunity at which such an alternative colonial tradition may have arisen.

J.N. Coldstream, Drinking and eating in euboean Pithekoussai

48The oinochoe, ubiquitous in Pithekoussan graves, is also abnormally abundant in the colony’s early settlement deposits, such as the Scarico Gosetti. The drinking of wine, whether ceremonial or not, was clearly a frequent source of pleasure in Pithekoussan domestic life, and also an essential gesture of farewell to the dead.

49More elulsive is the crockery for eating. The rarity of the Greek Geometric plate has aroused a suspicion that the skyphos served not only as a drinking vessell, but also as a bowl for food. Well before the colonial movement, however, the export of pendent-semicircle plates to the Near East – far more numerous than those found in the Euboean homeland – shows that the Euboeans could exploit a demand for fine eating ware in the East, where the plate had become an essential domestic chattel at least by the tenth century. Then, around 700 BC, by a curious paradox, the Euboeans of Pithekoussai themselves succumbed to the use of plates, through symbiosis with Phoenicians settled among them.

50This paper touches briefly on the suggestion that the Pithekoussans may have transmitted the habit of ritual drinking at “Homeric” banquets to the indigenous élite of the Italic mainland on the evidence of the fine metal services found in the princely tombs. But can we really be confident in an attempt to disentangle Greek and Near Eastern elements in this phenomenon?

D. Ridgway, Euboea and the West: new aspects of the metal routes

51A cheese-grater, like those found in three 9th-century graves at Lefkandi in Euboea, is associated in the Iliad (XI. 628-643) with Nestor’s depas. His cup is mentioned in the metrical inscription from a late 8th-century grave at Pithekoussai; and graters occur in a number of rich 7th-century graves along the Tyrrhenian seaboard, where their distribution reaches the metal-bearing area of Tuscany, notably Populonia. In the early 8th century, the “precolonial” Euboean skyphos-types (pendent semicircles, chevrons and one-bird) are attested not only in native Iron Age cemeteries on the Italian mainland but also, and in direct association with metallurgical activity, apparently Phoenician, in the native nuragic village of Sant’Imbenia in northern Sardinia. It is concluded that these stories confirm the fundamental importance of mineral extraction and exploitation to the early Western operations of the Euboeans and others: and that whatever the “flags” involved, the commodities traded must always have included human skills.

L. Breglia, The Cimmerians at Kyme

52The paper aims to illustrate how the literary tradition on the oracle of Kyme developed.

53The history surviving in Strabo’s fifth book largely depends on Ephorus F 34a-b Jacoby. This tradition developed from a local one, connecting homeric Cimmerians with the real Cimmerians the Euboeans had probably met in the Chalcidian Peninsula. Hellanicus was, probably Ephorus’source. Ephorus never speaks of a Sybil, but he knows about the move of the ancient oracle. Ennius quotes the “Cimmerian Sybil” following traditions of fifth and fourth centuries B. C. in the interests of the Osci and of the Romans after them, making the Sybil an ancient pre-Greek prophetess.

S. De Caro - C. Gialanella, New discoveries in Pithekoussai. The settlement of Punta Chiarito (Torio d’Ischia)

54Further excavations of the Naples Archaeological Superintendency at Punta Chiarito (Cfr. this Journal n. s. 1 (1994), pp. 165-209, C. Gialanella et al.), on this Greek farming settlement located on a promontory at the southwest coast of the island of Ischia (Gulf of Naples), distant ca. 12 km from the acropolis of Pithekoussai, whose first phase dating back to the second half to the 8th c. B.C. was destroyed by a volcanic eruption at the beginning of the 7th c. At the end of the 7th or the very first beginning of the 6th c, the settlement was again established on the same site, and on its turn soon destroyed by a catastrophic mud flow slipped down from Monte Epomeo, which covered it by several metres of tufa debris.

55In the second period some of the ruined oval houses of the previous settlement were restructured. One of them, already identified during the former excavations, has been now completely uncovered, with its whole furnishings entirely preserved under the mud flow, an exceptional find, unique in Greek archaeology. The greater part of the house was used as repository containing big cooking pots and common and fine table ware of local and imported production; between it an entire symposion set (a Laconian crater, two MC lekanai, two cheese graters, a bronze basin). Devided from the repository by a wooden frame was the kitchen with its heart; a set of loomweights indicates the presence of a loom, furthermore there were several iron tools; many fishhooks and fishingnet weights from lead. The Corinthian pottery being of a late phase of MC, the destruction can be dated ca. 580 B.C. or not much later.

56The authors suppose that the house had an intermediate floor for sleeping accomodations under the tile-covered roof. The presumable social status of the owner of the farm is discussed.

57The material from Punta Chiarito, with a reconstruction of the house, is on show in one of the two new rooms of the Naples National Archaeological Museum dedicated to the island of Ischia. Its publication is in advanced progress.

B. d’Agostino - A. Soteriou, Campania in the framework of the earliest Greek colonisation in the West

58In recent years, new data have disproved the commonly accepted thesis that Cephalonia was uninhabited during the Dark Age and the settlement of Aetos on Ithaca was an isolated Corinthian outpost. More specifically, two of the main cities of the historical period, Same and Pale, have yielded Geometric pottery. At Same, in an emergency excavation undertaken by the Superintendency, numerous sherds of LG I and II have been found, as well as spare earlier sherds still classifiable as “West Greek Protogeometric”, to use Coldstream’s definition. At Pale, in a small corner of the settlement area at the limits of the ancient town, near the port, where an apsidal building was found, the LG I-II levels are followed by levels of the 7th century B.C. These preliminary data confirm the Homeric picture of the important role of the Ionian islands in the world of Odysseus.

59During the recovery following the collapse of Mycenaean society, there were two main Western trade routes. One was a rather closed circuit including the southeast shore of the Adriatic and the Salentine peninsula; its hub was Otranto. The other was the Tyrrhenian route. In the first half of the 8th century B.C., until the foundation of Pithekoussai, this route was controlled by Euboea and the Cyclades. This period is marked by the presence, in Etruscan cemeteries, of vase forms typically connected to the ceremonial consumption of wine: pendent semicircle skyphoi, chevrons skyphoi, and other types of MG II - LG I cups. After the foundation of Pithekoussai, Corinthian artifacts began to prevail (at any rate, they were not totally absent even in the earlier period). In this second phase, for which the authors propose the definition “proto-colonial”, imitations replaced the Euboic and Cycladic imported pottery in Etruscan graves as the ceremonial exchanges between early Greeks travelers and the most influential members of the Etruscan elite gave way to political relations between the first Greek apoikίai (Pithekoussai, Cumae) and the cities of Etruria.

G. Bailo Modesti, Coupes à demicercles dans la nécropole de Pontecagnano

60La contribution présente quelques unes des dernières trouvailles de céramique d’importation grecque de la nécropole du premier Age du Fer de Pontecagnano, parmi lesquelles notamment 4 nouveaux exemplaires de coupes à demi-cercles pendants et de nouveaux exemplaires de coupes à chevrons de type “classique”. Le site picentin est donc maintenant, en Occident, celui qui a fourni le plus grand nombre de vases de ce type. Les contextes indigènes d’où proviennent ces coupes permettent de les dater du débout de la phase IIA de Pontecagnano.

M. C. Lentini, New finds of Euboean pottery from Naxos (Sicily)

61I analyze here a limited number of whole and fragmentary Euboean vases and imitations thereof, consisting chiefly of open forms: skyphoi, crater-cups and craters. There are also some fragments of pitchers, including some oinochoai with cutaway necks recently found at Naxos (figs. 2-3). I have selected only ten samples of the last, mostly datable to the first half of the 7th century. With another jug from the necropolis of Mylae, they represent the first occurrence of this type in Sicily. Their derivation from the Euboean repertory is indubitable. The trefoillipped oinochoai inspired by the Corinthian type (figs. 4-5) are more common.

62As to drinking vessels, skyphoi imitating Corinthian specimens of the Thapsos type are very common (fig. 9-10), and skyphoi with metopes and dotted hatching, or dots, or sigmas on the lip also begin to be attested (figs. 11-13). To the already known skyphos decorated with a bird (Pelagatti 1982, fig. 1, no. 9) one can now add three more with very thin walls and the same motif, a bird inside a metope, although the bird is smaller and its silhouette is filled in (figs. 15-16).

63To the already rich repertory of crater-cups or chalice-cups, one can now add two newly found sherds with dotted hatching on the lip (fig. 17). Some craters decorated with a fish and a row of birds, this time not enclosed in a metope, are especially remarkable (figs. 20, 22). A crater sherd shows the remains of the figure of a tree, while another has multiple zigzag lines (figs. 19, 21).

64The present study seeks to update P. Pelagatti’s data. Naxos still remains the Sicilian colony that has yielded the greatest quantity of Euboean and imitation Euboean pottery. This is confirmed by the presence of oinochoai with cutaway necks and skyphoi with birds.

G. M. Bacci, Zancle: une mise à jour

65Les recherche postérieures à 1958 ont permis de mettre au jour des restes de l’établissement archaïque qui était situé en arrière de la péninsule en forme de faucille et au sud du Torrente Portalegni, dans une zone occupée aujourd’hui par la ville moderne. La nécropole archaïque reste inconnue. Parmi le mobilier céramique importé, la plupart appartient à la production corinthienne; les ateliers euboico-cycladiques et grecs orientaux sont également représentés. La production locale s’impose surtout du monde euboico-cycladique: les confrontations sont évidentes avec la voisine Naxos et les autres centres du Détroit comme Reggio, Mylai et Metauros. Quelques fragment de coupes tardo-géemétriques du type à chevrons pourraient être mis en relation avec l’établissement primitif des lestai d’avant la fondation officielle de Zancle. Il faut souligner la présence d’un groupe important de céramiques de type phénicien à “red slip”, qui, par analogie avec la situation de Pithécousses, ferait penser à la présence d’un noyau d’Orientaux et, peut-être, à la proximité d’un emporion.