Miniature pottery is a widely encountered group of archaeological material that has been found in domestic, funerary, and predominantly in ritual contexts. Despite the ubiquitous presence of these small vessels, this group is generally understudied and interpretations of its meaning are lacking. Scholarship in the past perceived miniature pottery as cheap, non-functional and unimportant and therefore this pottery was often neglected or sometimes not even published. Interpretations have been sparse and by default it is believed that miniatures were the cheapest dedications the worshipper could buy. Within the last decade(s) the perceptions among scholars have changed somewhat and when miniature pottery and other votives appear together in an excavation it is often interpreted as a votive deposit stemming from a ritual context, such as a temple, shrine or sanctuary. Below a tentative terminology of miniature pottery will be presented and it will be argued that there is more to be learned about Greek ritual practice from this understudied group of archaeological material, for instance, how miniatures were used in rituals.
This brief account is an initial presentation of the terracotta figurines that were found in the 1920-1930s excavation of the sanctuary of Artemis Laphria in Kalydon, Aitolia (fig. 1). The excavations were carried out as a collaboration between Konstantinos A. Rhomaios and Frederik Poulsen, the then director of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the famous architect Ejnar Dyggve. In 1948 the topography and architecture were published, but the pottery and small finds were never studied or published, a task on which the author is currently working. 1
This article reviews the water supply to the Sanctuary of Zeus in Nemea in the Archaic period and considers the importance of water in the site’s history and sacred rituals. The so-called Rawson Deposit, a votive deposit excavated outside the Sanctuary of Zeus in Ancient Nemea preserves the remains of a small shrine, likely associated with a nearby spring. It has been suggested that the recipients of the cult were Demeter and Kore, and other deities are also possible, but the nature of the deposit suggests that the nymph of the source was worshipped there. The cult connected to the spring shrine, and the myths and literary sources connected to Nemea provide further insight to the importance of water supply and the diversity of ritual practices in the area in the formative period of the Sanctuary of Zeus in Nemea.
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