Letters from Sardis

Hanfmann, George M. A.

doi:10.4159/harvard.9780674332409

Cited by 50 publications

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“…Hanfmann directed some of his efforts to being a 'good ambassador' for archaeology as the Sardis expedition appealed to the locals to aid in the fight against looters, whom he considered to be working against the best interests of the local population. Based on the sentiments expressed in his letters (Hanfmann, 1972), he viewed looters as a discrete group of individuals working closely with İzmir dealer networks (Roosevelt and Luke, 2006b).…”

Section: ■ Case Study 1: Lydiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Valuing the past

Kersel

Luke²,

Roosevelt

2008

Journal of Social Archaeology

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In both western Turkey and the Levant, archaeology has a long history, with the rise in interest and discovery beginning in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. While many have focused on the history of excavations in both of these areas, we approach historical analyses from a different perspective. Utilizing the voices of local actors, this article aims to understand the social reactions of local communities to the increasingly prominent role of people practicing archaeology -archaeologists, diplomats, explorers -through the lens of the antiquities trade over the last two centuries. Interlacing examples from Lydia and the Levant, we provide an overview of archaeological praxis and then offer the positions of the participants,

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Section: ■ Case Study 1: Lydiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Valuing the past

Kersel

Luke²,

Roosevelt

2008

Journal of Social Archaeology

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“…In his letter to Sardis, Antiochos called the rebuilding of the city a synoikismos, a term which can denote the 'reconstruction', 'repopulation' or 'reorganisation' of a city. During the two-year siege, the people of Sardis had suffered and some of them fled, 30 and so restoring the citizen body to healthy numbers was essential too. 28 Debris fallen down the north face of the citadel, catapult balls and evidence of burning below it testify to the siege's destructiveness, and excavations have shown that a large area of the lower city was deserted and the old Lydian agora abandoned.…”

Section: Laodike's Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Queen and the City: Royal Female Intervention and Patronage in Hellenistic Civic Communities

Ramsey

2012

Gender and the City Before Modernity

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“…29 It appears that the synoikismos made Sardis smaller than before, following its original street plans but putting domestic and industrial structures into separate neighbourhoods. During the two-year siege, the people of Sardis had suffered and some of them fled, 30 and so restoring the citizen body to healthy numbers was essential too. Antiochos' restoration of the city gymnasium for the young citizen men, and relief from billeting soldiers, are measures to ensure a stable environment for family life and demographic improvement.…”

Section: Laodike's Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Queen and the City: Royal Female Intervention and Patronage in Hellenistic Civic Communities

Ramsey

2011

Gender & History

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This article examines the interactions between the Seleukid queen Laodike III and the cities of Iasos, Teos and Sardis in Asia Minor, three communities whose commemorations of her patronage have survived in the known corpus of inscriptions, along with her own letters, a rare female voice in the world of Hellenistic interstate politics. Asia Minor was a major battleground for all the Hellenistic kingdoms, including the Seleukids and a number of Anatolian dynasties, and during the third and second centuries BCE it was a patchwork of changeable royal claims to control and demands of loyalty. Cities faced repeated conquest, occupation, exaction of tribute, abandonment and recriminations, and had to secure their existence with carefully devised allegiances and constant negotiation of political status. Ideologically autonomous, but with a history of foreign rule by the Persians and now the Hellenistic kings, cities fought to survive by mustering claims to traditional rights and rallying influential elites who might intercede on their behalf. Interactions with whichever king happened to be in control were fraught with tension and manipulation as city ambassadors sought to obtain royal favour, either to endure under that king's rule, or for protection lest the king hand them over to a rival power. In this context, Queen Laodike mediated royal goodwill, ameliorated the violence of her husband's conquests and opened up a positive chain of communication with beleaguered cities.Laodike's intervention in cities centred on her patronage of women, in particular their roles as wives and mothers to sustain the demos, or civic community. Her benefactions to women had demographic and political ramifications and, in return, the cities made Laodike the focus of female ceremonial activity in public life. Participation in the Greek cities depended on family membership, and throughout the Hellenistic period it was characterised by the increasing use of fictive kinship terminology to represent the bonds between members of the civic body. 1 This paper shows that the characterisation of Laodike as benefactress par excellence, as sister-wife to Antiochos and as highly esteemed mother mirrored the identities of women in the cities she helped. Laodike's patronage of women generated a reciprocal relationship between demos and royal dynasty, and both parties enhanced their own magnanimity and prestige by praising

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Letters from Sardis

Cited by 50 publications

References 0 publications

Valuing the past

Valuing the past

The Queen and the City: Royal Female Intervention and Patronage in Hellenistic Civic Communities

The Queen and the City: Royal Female Intervention and Patronage in Hellenistic Civic Communities

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