Dr Maria Stamatopoulou: List of publications

The aim of the 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 exam- ine 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.

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 that include much new and unpublished material.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

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 .

This article offers an overview of monumental tomb architecture in Thessaly from the late Archaic to the late Hellenistic period. It discusses the persistence in the 6th to late 4th centuries B.C. of tholos tombs and (later) chamber tombs with corbelled (pyramidal) roofs at Pharsalos, Krannon and Gerakari, a typically Thessalian phenomenon, against alternative modes of funerary representation and architecture, namely carefully built cist tombs, often with interior decora- tion, grouped under tumuli. Tholos/chamber tombs seem to go out of fashion in the second half of the 4th century BC. During the Hellenistic period, despite the strong Macedonian presence in Thessaly, the Macedonian tomb is attested in comparatively few sites of the region. The spatial distribution of Macedonian tombs and their architecture are discussed in comparison to similar monuments in the Greek peninsula and against other elaborate tomb structures from Thessaly: cist tombs under tumuli, e.g. the so-called ›Heroon‹ at Olympias/Gonnokondylos, and the tombs at Pilaf Tepe, Gomphoi and Omolion.