CULT PRACTICES IN EARLY IRON AGE OROPOS?
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2021-02-21

The Early Iron Age metalworking site of Oropos has been extensively excavated since the mid 1980ies onwards, bringing to light a settlement of major importance for our understanding of the formative stages of Greek culture. The site has been identified with Homeric Graia (Iliad 2, 498). Its connection with the island of Euboea and with Eretria in particular, is documented both by the ancient sources and the common material culture which both sites share. Despite the fact that ca. 40 oval, apsidal and round edifices have been excavated at Oropos, dated in the second half of the eighth century BC, no separate cult building can be definitively identified. Nevertheless, within several domestic or communal edifices, as well as in specific areas open the sky, various forms of cult manifestations may be inferred from the study of the finds and the excavation data. In this paper I will present and discuss all the above mentioned possible cases, which are varied and often complex to interpret. Similar varied uses of edifices and spaces are observed in the opposite coast of the Euboean Gulf, at Lefkandi and Eretria. These, as well as a number other cases from elsewhere in the early Greek World, shed significant light in the cultic behavior of communities at the threshold of the genesis of the city-states. This approach gains further interest since Euboea may be singled out as a geographical area where we witness the birth of a significant number of early monumental temples, both within the urban and extra-urban spaces.


Author(s): Mazarakis Ainian, Alexandros (University of Thessaly)