Du placenta aux figues sèches : mobilier funéraire et votif à Thasos*

Coroplastic studies: what’s new?

“…Beyond the most frequent types that clearly participate in this interpretative scheme, there still remain many objects -anthropomorphic and animal representations, and various other objects -to be commented on. I am convinced that the symbolic function of other objects related to rites of passage, fertility and the fulfilment of life will be ascertained in the future as a result of a series of studies already published or underway (Huysecom 2003;Huysecom-Haxhi 2007;2009: 587-99;Papaikonomou and Huysecom-Haxhi 2009;Huysecom-Haxhi et al 2012;Pautasso 2015;Muller forthcoming).…”

“…But these achievements remained at a theoretical level, without being applied in practice to the study of figurines, with the exception of some Italian publications. In recent years, important sets of terracottas from Thasos -those of the Classical and Hellenistic periods from the Thesmophorion (Muller 1996) and those of the Archaic period from the Artemision (Huysecom-Haxhi 2009) -have been analysed according to the manner of their production (Fig. 148).…”

“…The last two decades saw the proliferation of scientific conferences and workshops either entirely dedicated to terracotta figurines or in which they played a major role. Some of these events were dedicated to specific areas of interest, such as technique, such as moulds in Lille in 1995 (Muller 1997a) or modelling at Aix-en-Provence in 2019; animal figurines in Lille in 2002 (Gratien et al 2003); votive offerings in Lille in 2007 (Prêtre and Huysecom-Haxhi 2009); centres of production, for example Tanagra, in Paris in 2007 (Jeammet 2007a), Sicily in a collective volume (Albertocchi and Pautasso 2012), Crete in Catania in 2013 (Pautasso and Pilz 2016), Cyprus in Nicosia in 2013 (Papantoniou et al forthcoming), Macedonia in Thessaloniki in 2018; a specific divinity, for example Artemis in Athens in 2010 (Muller-Dufeu et al 2010); funeral practices of children in Aix-en-Provence in 2011 (Hermary and Dubois 2012); and the meaning of figurines in relation to their find context in Lille in 2011 (Huysecom-Haxhi and Muller 2015a). Other conferences had no thematic or geographical limitations, like the very important Izmir congress in 2007 (Muller and Laflı 2015;, the symposium in honour of Eos Zervoudaki in Rhodes in 2009 (Giannikouri 2014) and, finally, those in Haifa in 2013 and 2018 (the proceedings of which are unpublished).…”

“…At the same time, scholarly monographs have multiplied. Some focus on museum collections (Burn and Higgins 2001;Bailey 2008;Peppa-Papaioannnou 2010;Hamdorf 2014), others, more interestingly, on assemblages discovered in sanctuaries (Muller 1996;Merker 2000;Huysecom-Haxhi 2009;Mitsopoulos-Leon 2009;Lilibaki-Akamati 2000) and cemeteries (see Rumscheid 1999 for a bibliographical review; key publications include Graepler 1997;Tsakalou-Tzanavari 2002;Kassab-Tezgör 2007;Schwarzmaier 2011;Pisani 2013) or on the figurine production of a particular site, sometimes one investigated many years earlier (Mekacher 2003;Acheilara 2006;Rumscheid 2006;Hornung Bertemes 2007;Barra Bagnasco 2009;Bencze 2013). On the other hand, publication of certain finds, eagerly anticipated by the scholarly community, is pending.…”

‘Eugenie’ ebbre?

“…Il riferimento, su vari livelli, agli "umori" legati alla sfera della natalità nell'ambito delle pratiche cultuali può essere inoltre messo significativamente in relazione con la recentissima pubblicazione di un votivo fittile proprio da un santuario tesmoforico, quello di Taso, interpretato con valide argomentazioni come la possibile riproduzione di una placenta umana 50 .…”