Dr Maria Stamatopoulou: List of publications

This paper begins with a presentation of a late 6th century BC bronze handle which, albeit known in scholarship, has only been discussed in passing in treatises of bronze vessels and wrongly attributed to Pherai. Recent study of Apostolos S. Arvanitopoulos’ archives and firsthand autopsy in the National Archaeological Museum at Athens have revealed that the handle was discovered during Arvanitopoulos’ excavations in the sanctuary of Athena Polias on the acropolis of Phthiotic Thebes (fig. 1),1 situated on the volcanic hill Kastro, about 1.5 km north from the modern village Mikrothives (formerly Aketsi). The relevant archival material will be discussed in the second part of this article since it demonstrates the challenges faced when dealing with finds from early, poorly documented, archaeological investigations. The study of the available evidence, archives and the artefacts themselves permit us to attempt a new presentation of the sanctuary of Athena Polias and a reassessment of its significance, especially during the Archaic and Early Classical periods.

The aim of this chapter is to offer a regional perspective on the issue of Underworld journeys in Antiquity by tracing Thessalian attitudes to Hades from the Classical to the Hellenistic period. What do we know of the beliefs regarding the Underworld in Thessaly, a land where one of the most famous and successful katabaseis occurred? Our starting point will be the most famous Thessalian ‘round trip’ to Hades, that of Alkestis, portrayed through Athenian eyes in Euripides’ tragedy and Plato. This will allow us to discuss eschatological beliefs reflected in fifth-century BCE Athenian literary works and address some of the stereotypes about Thessaly, as both are linked to the questions under discussion. We will then turn to Thessaly itself and examine a variety of relevant evidence pertaining to cults of deities linked with passages and human destiny, the gold lamellae from Pherai and Pharsalos, funerary epigrams from the region echoing themes attested in the lamellae or revealing a concern with or a belief in the possibility of a blessed afterlife or for a ‘round trip to the Underworld’ and last but not least, the evidence from contemporary Thessalian necropoleis. As will be seen, the Thessalian evidence, although of a complex and often disparate nature, is suggestive of a heightened interest in the safe journey to the Underworld or a blessed afterlife.

Over the past year, Greek archaeology has seen a remarkable number of new publications, both fieldwork data reports (ADelt vols 65–68 for 2010–2013 in ten fascicules, AEMTh 25 and AEThSE 4, among others) and conference proceedings, exhibition catalogues, monographs and Festschriften that include much new and unpublished material. Regular updates continue to appear in AGOnline, but it has been impossible to process all this material in the space of a few months for publication in this year's Archaeology in Greece. Some of the new exciting discoveries are, however, presented in the ‘Newsround’ section, and we hope to provide further updates in next year's AG.

This paper focuses on a diagnostic trait of Thessalian funerary archaeology, namely the combined use of the earthen mound with a corbel-vaulted tomb equipped with a round (tholos) or rectilinear chamber during the Archaic and Classical periods. The date of the construction of the corbel-vaulted tholoi and chambers in the late 6th and 5th centuries BC, and their concentration at Krannon and Pharsalos are significant. The tombs make a deliberate but not systematic reference to the past, not so much to the LBA large tholos tombs but rather to the smaller LBA and EIA tholoi and, perhaps, built chamber tombs. The appropriation of certain aspects of past display by some aristocratic families, and ultimately the use of this archaizing funerary architecture occurred at a period when elite competition was very strong in the region at both civic and Panhellenic level, and family, civic and ethnic identity were created by vari- ous means. During this period there were alternative modes of burial available to elite groups even at Krannon and Pharsalos (for example tumuli covering carefully built cist graves or monolithic sarcoph- agi). I hope to show that this variability might be indicative of an attempt by competing aristocrats to broadcast different (constructed) traditions in order to fabricate/create their identity.

In this year's report I will focus on the presentation of the proceedings of AEThSE 3 which were distributed in spring 2013. The publication contains many very interesting articles on Thessaly that demonstrate the vitality and variety of the archaeological work (fieldwork, research and archival studies) conducted in the region, often under difficult circumstances. Although it has often been pointed out (during the conferences) that these meetings have become almost unmanageable, due to the very large number of participants (the volume on Thessaly is over 700 pages long), their importance is obvious. The regularity of the meetings and their prompt publication have increased our essential evidence for the region, but also enable scholars to draw comparisons and discern links among sites and between classes of material, and to illustrate the diachronic importance of key sites in the Thessalian landscape, thus adding greatly to our understanding of the region synchronically and diachronically. As a number of articles from this volume were the focus of last year's report (for example: Roman Demetrias: Triantaphylopoulou [2012]; Kastro/Palaia Volou: Skafida [2012]; Phthiotic Thebes/Nea Anchialos: Dina [2012]; Tempe: Sdrolia [2012b]; Toufexis et al. [2012b]; fortification walls of Late Roman Larisa: Kontogiannopoulou [2012]; Kazanaki: Stantzouris and Panagiotis [2012]), I will concentrate here on new sites/material for reasons of brevity. © Ministry of Culture and Sport .

<p style="text-align:justify;"> The contribution of Thessaly for the study of monumental funerary architecture of the Archaic to Hellenistic periods is little known, despite the existence of distinctive local styles and tomb monuments. As will become clear from the discussion below, the number of monumental tombs dating from the Archaic to Hellenistic periods is surprisingly small, especially when one considers the proverbial wealth of the Thessalian elite landowning families and the oligarchic systems by which the Thessalian cities were governed. Even so, the variability of the tomb monuments and their structural peculiarities make them unique both to the region and mainland Greece as a whole, and therefore worthy of discussion. During the late Archaic and Classical periods typical for the region is a series of built tombs that most likely deliberately imitate monuments of the ›heroic‹ (Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age) past, namely tholos tombs covered by mounds. At the same time, in the late 5th and 4th centuries, some Thessalians, most characteristically the Pharsalians, adopted grave periboloi of the Attic type, alongside a new, tomb-type, peculiar to Thessaly: built chamber tombs of square plan and a corbelled pyramidal roof. Both tholos and chamber tombs with pyramidal roofs cease to be made by the late 4th century B.C.. In the Hellenistic period, monumental funerary architecture is rare; tombs of the Macedonian type are the most elaborate funerary monuments in Thessaly although their number is small compared to the very strong presence of Macedonians in the region </p>