Serving the Democracy in Ancient Athens
The Tholos Pottery in Context
By (author) Ann Steiner
PDF (Forthcoming)
(February 2028)
ISBN: 9781621390602
Price: $75.00
Drawing on 80 years of excavation and scholarship, this volume is the first comprehensive study of the abundant pottery unearthed alongside the Athenian Tholos, the remarkable round building that served as dining hall and hostel for the fifty prytaneis of the Council of 500. Moving from architecture and furnishings to the broader social and religious world of Athenian public dining, the book culminates in a detailed catalogue of over 300 finds—the majority published here for the first time. Supported by hundreds of original photographs, drawings, and plans, the author’s analysis reveals how the Tholos dining vessels were intimately tied to the Athenian system of standard measures, transforming an institution that officially divided citizens by wealth into a space that instead enacted isonomia, the principle of equality among citizens central to Athenian democracy. The study also traces the erosion of this system in the 4th century BCE through changes in the commensal repertory in conjunction with the demise of the democracy. Specialist contributions comprise a study on ancient perceptions of vessel capacity (R. Bidgood), a revised interpretation of the nearby “broiling pits” based on rediscovered faunal remains (F. Dibble), and the first extensive fabric analysis of Attic black-glaze, household, and cooking wares from a securely dated public context (E. Kiriatzi et al.). Through these wide-ranging modes of inquiry, the volume makes a major contribution to our understanding of Greek dining culture, ceramic production, and the foundations of Athenian civic life.
List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Prolegomena
Glossary
Timeline
1. Introduction and Overview
2. The Prytaneis and the Commensal Context of 5th-Century Athens
3. Measure and Measures in Athenian Democracy
4. The Tholos as Setting for the Prytaneis
5. The Tholos and Fifth-Century Agora Commensality, Part I (470–450)
6. The Tholos and Fifth-Century Agora Commensality, Part II (450–400)
7. From the Ground Up (Again): Tholos Dining in the 4th Century
8. Capacity Methodology and Perception, by Richard Bidgood
9. Technological and Provenance Studies from Deposit H 12:6: A Snapshot of the Attic Potting Industry, by Evangelia Kiriatzi, Gudrun Klebinder-Gauss, Noémi S. Müller, Edyta Marzec, Ann Steiner
10. The “Broiling Pits” of Building F Revisited: Zooarchaeology and Context, by Flint Dibble
11. Conclusions
Catalogue
Epigraphical Appendix, edited by M. B. Richardson
References
Indexes
- By (author) Ann Steiner
Other Titles in this Series
Crete in Transition
Pottery Styles and Island History in the Archaic and Classical Periods
Volume 45
A Historical and Economic Geography of Ottoman Greece
The Southwestern Morea in the 18th Century
Volume 34
Studies in Athenian Architecture, Sculpture, and Topography Presented to Homer A. Thompson
Volume 20
The Molyvoti, Thrace, Archaeological Project 1
Landscape, Architecture, and Material Culture
Volume 54
Ceramicus Redivivus
The Early Iron Age Potters' Field in the Area of the Classical Athenian Agora
Volume 31
Similar Books
Caesar’s Visions and Impact on the Roman Empire
Revisiting the Archaeological and Historical Record of the 40s BC
Volume 2
Etruscan and Roman Hellenistic Anatomical ex votos
Reassessing Popular Religious Expressions in Central Italy
Volume 8
Invisible Labour in Antiquity
Visualizing Obscure Work in the Ancient Mediterannean and West Asia
Volume 1
Late Antique villae in the Balkans (3rd–7th c. AD): Current Research Questions and Perspectives
HAEMUS Companion to the Late Antique Balkans 1
Volume 4
Portraying the Individual in the Roman East
Local–Imperial Entanglements in Sculpture, Mosaics, and Paintings (First–Fourth Centuries AD)
Volume 18
Atlante tematico di topografia antica 36-2026
Urbanistica e monumenti, porti, Roma. Ricerche sui monti Aurunci
Volume 36
A Dramatic Event in Late Roman Florence
The Anomalous Burial Site Discovered beneath the Uffizi Gallery
Alexander the Great and the Campaign of Gaugamela
New Research on Topography and Chronology. IAMNI 1 (Italian Archaeological Mission to Northern Iraq)
Volume 53
Ceramic Finds in Context (Roman to Early Islamic Times)
Final Publications from the Danish-German Jerash Northwest Quarter Project VII
Volume 13
Citizenship Practised, Citizenship Imagined
Multiple Ways of Experiencing Citizenship in the Greek World
Counterfeits, Imitations, and Copies of Roman Imperial Denarii
Making and Faking Coins on Both Sides of the Limes
Volume 8
