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New light on Roman Sparta: Roman pottery from the Sparta theatre and stoa1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Clare Pickersgill  and
Paul Roberts
Clare Pickersgill
Affiliation:
Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum
Paul Roberts
Affiliation:
Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum
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Abstract

The Roman pottery recorded and discussed in this article was excavated at the theatre and stoa in Sparta under the Direction of G. B. Waywell and J. J. Wilkes. The largest group of material came from trench ST XV, excavated in the west parodos of the theatre in 1997 and 1998, while the second group of material was excavated in the west end of the stoa in 1991. The new groups of material studied and published in this article have built upon earlier work (D. Bailey on the stoa and J. Hayes on the theatre) to begin to develop a chronological typology for the Roman pottery of Sparta. The development of this pottery sequence has provided for the first time a solid basis for Roman ceramic studies in the area and opens new avenues for investigating broader economic, social and political issues.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 98 , November 2003 , pp. 549 - 597
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 2003

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Footnotes

1

We should like to express our sincerest thanks to the many people who have given generously of their time and effort during the three seasons of fieldwork undertaken at Sparta between 1999 and 2001. It is not possible to name them all, though we should like to mention the following people and institutions: Professors Geoffrey Waywell and John Wilkes, the directors of the Roman theatre and Stoa excavations in Sparta, who first invited us to undertake the research; Dr Theodoros Spyropoulos, Ephor of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities for Arcadia and Lakonia, and within the Sparta office of the 5th Ephorate, Stella Raftopoulou, all the archaeologists and staff, and especially Eleni Zawou and Athanasios Themos, both of whom, through their help and support, have allowed us to achieve a great deal within a restricted time schedule. Special thanks are due to the British School at Athens, its then Director Mr David Blackman, Assistant Director Dr Rebecca Sweetman and Helen Fields, Helen Clark and Vicki Tzavara in the Athens office, and Dr Elisabeth Waywell and Sue Sadler in London, who have been so helpful throughout our work. Within the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum, the Keeper Dr Dyfri Williams and Deputy Keeper Dr Susan Walker have been ceaselessly encouraging, have permitted use of departmental resources and, most importantly, have made grants of special leave which allowed fieldwork to take place. Funding for the project was provided through grants from The British School at Athens, and the Roman Society (the Hugh Last and Donald Atkinson Funds). All pottery drawings are the work of David Hopkins, who has done so much, and all with characteristic good humour. Kate Morton and James Farrant of the British Museum have provided expert assistance in the preparation of the figures for publication. Clare Pickersgill would like to thank in particular Dr Kathleen Slane and Dr Guy Sanders, who very generously took time to discuss the Roman pottery at Corinth with her and share their findings during her visit in 2001. A very warm thank you is owed to Dr John Hayes, one of the project's strongest supporters, and who joined us for some of the fieldwork. We have benefitted enormously from his enthusiasm and knowledge, so generously shared. Finally a very special thank you to Professor Geoffrey Waywell and Dr Elisabeth Waywell who have contributed in so many ways to the completion of this article.

Special Abbreviations:

Agora, v = H. S. Robinson, The Athenian Agora V: Pottery of the Roman Period (Princeton, 1959).

Agora, xxix = S. I. Rotroff The Athenian Agora XXIX: Hellenistic Pottery. Athenian and Imported Wheelmade Tableware and Related Material (Princeton, 1997).

Atlante I = A. Carandini (ed.), Atlante delle Forme Ceramiche I (Rome, 1981).

Atlante II = I. Baldassare (ed.), Atlante delle Forme Ceramiche II (Rome, 1985).

Bailey 1993 = D. M. Bailey, ‘Excavations at Sparta: the Roman stoa, 1988–91. Preliminary report, part 1 (b) Hellenistic and Roman pottery’, BSA 88 (1993), 221–49.

Hayes 1972 =J. W. Hayes, Late Roman Pottery (London, 1972).

Laconia Survey = W. G. Cavanagh, J. H. Crouwel, R. W. V. Catling, and G. Shipley (eds), Continuity and Change in a Greek Rural Landscape: The Laconia Survey, ii (BSA supp. 27; London, 99)

Lawson 1996 =J. Lawson, ‘The Roman pottery’, in Laconia Survey, 111–23.

Stampolidis-Parlami = N. C. Stampolidis and L. Parlami (eds), The City Beneath the City (Athens, 2000).

Visscher 1996 = H. Visscher, ‘The Hellenistic pottery’, in Laconia Survey, 91–109.

Waywell-Wilkes 1994 = G. B. Waywell and J. J. Wilkes, ‘Excavations at Sparta: the Roman stoa, 1988–91. Part 2’, BSA 89 (1994), 377–432.

Waywell-Wilkes 1995 = G. B. Waywell and J. J. Wilkes ‘Excavations at the ancient theatre of Sparta 1992–4: preliminary report’, BSA 90 (1995), 435–60.

Waywell-Wilkes 1999 = G. B. Waywell and J. J. Wilkes, ‘Excavations at the ancient theatre of Sparta 1995–1998: preliminary report’, BSA 94 (1999), 437–55.

References

2 Waywell–Wilkes 1999.

3 Waywell–Wilkes 1994, 394–6, 402.

4 Bailey 1993, 246–9, contexts 2973, 2075, and 2076.

5 It is hoped that a further study will presenl similar material from the remaining trenches of the theatre excavated in 1992–4: cf. Waywell–Wilkes 1995.

6 Alcock, S. E., Graecia Capta; The Landscapes of Roman Greece (Cambridge, 1996), 50 Google Scholar.

7 Waywell-Wilkes (n. 2), 442–4 (Period I).

8 Hayes, J. W., ‘Pottery from the construction levels of the upper cavea’, BSA 90 (1995), 449–51Google Scholar, at p. 449 in Waywell-Wilkes (n. 5), 435–60.

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20 Hayes 1972, 317.

21 Hayes, J. W., ‘The Villa Dionysus excavations, Knossos: the pottery’, BSA 78 (1983), 96–169 Google Scholar at p. 109.

22 Waywell-Wilkes (n. 2), 446 (Period IV).

23 Spawforth, A., ‘Roman Sparta’, in Cartledge, P. and Spawforth, A., Hellenistic and Roman Sparta: A Tale of Two Cities (London, 1989), 93–215 Google Scholar at p. 124.

24 J. W. Hayes (pers. coram.).

25 P. C. Roberts, ‘The pottery from the cistern’, 163–203 at p. 171, in Alberella, U., Ceglia, V. and Roberts, P. C., ‘San Giacomo degli Schiavoni (Molise): an early fifth century AD deposit of pottery and animal bones from central Adriatic Italy’, PBSR 61 (1993), 157–203 Google Scholar.

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27 Roberts (n. 25), fig. 8 no. 35.

28 Waywell-Wilkes (n. 2), 446 (ancillary to Period IV).

29 Hayes 417.

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32 P. C. Roberts (n. 25), 166–7 and figs. 5–6.

33 Agora, v, 111 no. M289 and pl. 36.

34 Williams, C. K. II and Zervos, O. H., ‘Corinth 1981: east of theatre’, Hesp. 51 (1982), 115–63Google Scholar at pp. 137–8 and pl. 45 no. 66.

35 Zavvou, E. P., ‘Ρίζα (οικόπεδο Νίκης Βλάχου)’, A. Delt. 51 (1996), 161–7Google Scholar and figs. 5–6.

36 Agora, v, 111–2 and pl. 30 nos. M293, M298, M299.

37 Stampolidis-Parlami, 80–2 nos. 55 and 57.

38 Karapanayiotou, A. V., ‘῾Οδος Διοσκόρων και ανώνυμου οδόυ (Ο.Τ. 6 οικόπεδο Γ. Κοτσώνη)’, A. Delt. 50 (1995), 133–40 and pls. 58–61Google Scholar.

39 Ibid., 138.

40 Ibid., pl. 60 (γ).

41 Pers. obs.

42 Roberts (n. 25) (1993), 180–4.

43 Slane (n. 31), 309.

44 Pers. comm. J. Hayes and pers. obs.

45 Martin, A., ‘La sigillata focese (Phocaean Red Slip/Late Roman C Ware)’, in Saguì, L. (ed.), Ceramica in Italia: VI–VII secolo (Florence, 1998), 109–22Google Scholar.

46 Waywell-Wilkes (n. 2), 446 (ancillary to Period IV). For publication of earlier Imperial pottery from this area see Bailey (n. 4), 246–9, contexts 2973, 2075, and 2076.

47 Roberts (n. 25), 195 and fig. 17 no. 131.

48 Waywell-Wilkes (n. 3), 387.

49 Spawforth (n. 23), 94–7.

50 Ibid., 96, 99.

51 Agora, v, 24–6.

52 Hayes 1972, 417.

53 Spawforth (n. 23), 93–215 at p. 124.

54 Agora, v, 73–4.

55 See, e.g. Liebeschuetz, W., ‘Rubbish disposal in Greek and Roman cities’, in Raventos, X. Dupre and Remola, J.-A. (eds), Sordes Urbis (Rome, 2000), 51–61 Google Scholar, for an excellent synthesis of evidence for organized rubbish disposal in the ancient world.

56 Waywell–Wilkes (n. 3), 424.

57 Ibid. 423–4.

58 G. D. R. Sanders, ‘Pottery from Medieval layers in the orchestra and lower cavea’, in Waywell–Wilkes (n. 5), 451–7 at p. 451.

59 Waywell, G. B., ‘Sparta and its topography’, BICS 43 (1999), 1–26 at p. 22 Google Scholar.

60 Slane (n. 31), 306.

61 Visscher 1996, 91.

62 Lawson 1996, 111.

63 Alcock (n. 6), 49–53.