Heroic Offerings

The Terracotta Plaques from the Spartan Sanctuary of Agamemnon and Kassandra

Bibliographic Data

ID23545342
AuthorsGina Salapata (0000-0002-2443-2903)
Year2015
Pages393
Publication date2015-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueHeroic offerings (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherUniversity of Michigan Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.3998/mpub.3235848
OpenAlexW4252561736
Open LibraryOL31018287M
ISBN9780472119165
LanguageEN
Citations received5

Heroic Offerings sheds light on the study of religion in Sparta, one of Greece's most powerful city-states and the long-term rival of Athens. Sparta's history is well known, but its archaeology has been much less satisfactorily explored. Through the comprehensive study of a distinctive class of terracotta votive offerings from a specific sanctuary, Gina Salapata explores both coroplastic art and regional religion. By integrating archaeological, historical, literary, and epigraphic sources, she provides important insights into the heroic cults of Lakonia and contributes to an understanding of the political and social functions of local ritual practice. This volume focuses on a large group of decorated terracotta plaques, from the sixth to fourth centuries BCE. These molded plaques were discovered with other offerings in a sanctuary deposit excavated near Sparta more than fifty years ago, but they have remained unpublished until now. They number over 1,500 complete and fragmentary pieces. In technique, style, and iconography they form a homogeneous group unlike any other from mainland Greece. The large number of plaques and variety of types reveal a stable and vigorous coroplastic tradition in Lakonia during the late Archaic and Classical period.Heroic Offerings will be of interest to students and scholars of Greek history, art, and archaeology, to those interested in ancient religious practice in the Mediterranean, and to all inspired by Athens' chief political rival, Sparta. This volume received financial support from the Archaeological Institute of America.

Aesthetics · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Iconography · Period (music) · Politics · Style (visual arts) · Terracotta · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · Historical and Architectural Studies · History · Agamemnon King of Mycenae (Mythological character) · ancient · Antiquities · Cassandra (Legendary character) · Excavations (Archaeology) · Greece · Greek · Hero worship · Lakōnia · Religious life and customs · Sacred space · Social Science · Sparta (Extinct city) · Terra-cotta plaques · Terra-cotta sculpture · Votive offerings

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