AIA Lecture: Dr. Nigel Kennell on Sparta & Lakonia

This past Tuesday, UBC’s very own Dr. Nigel Kennell gave an exciting lecture on Sparta and Lakonia. A specialist in the field, Dr. Kennell took us on a tour around the Peloponnese, starting from Sparta itself.

Map of Sparta and Lakonia

The two sites to highlight here were the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia and the Roman theatre, the rest of it is essentially a modern city. Of note in the Sanctuary area are the terracotta masks, possibly part of a ritual in which young boys would fight them off symbolizing their leaving home to become men, and the lead votives dedicated to Artemis. Other finds included luxury items, such as ivory or bronze objects, and sickle dedications, only one of which is earlier than the Roman period ones.

There are remains of the Athena Chalchioikos Temple in the Acropolis, such as the famous bust of Leonidas, probably part of a larger statue group that made up the temple pediment.

Bust of Leonidas

The Roman Amphitheatre was the largest project in Greece at the time, and recreated the Classical Greek theatre design by making use of the Doric order. It gave archaeologists the first evidence that the ‘movable scene building’, which had been written about by the ancient sources but dismissed as fake by the modern-day scholars due to a lack of evidence, was in fact real.

Next, Dr. Kennell took us throughout the Perioikoi. He began in the town of Kyparissos, which at one point housed Temples to Demeter and Aphrodite, the remains of which are difficult to discern today, due to the emergence of early Christian basilicas. He then moved on to Gytheoin, which enjoyed a close relationship with Sparta, enough to be considered its port, and had a strong purple dye trade. The town also housed an important theatre.

Following this was the town of Asopos. It has not been extensively excavated or studied. Half of the ancient city is submerged under water and visible from above: this was due to an earthquake. As the area has remained unstudied, ashlar blocks, floors, mosaics and limestone columns are visibly spread throughout. The only place with systematic excavation in this area is Geronthrai, by the Dutch. According to the ancient traveller and writer Pausanias, the town had a Temple to Apollo, and this was corroborated when they found a tile with his name. It also had visible connections to Sparta given the amount of lead votive offerings found at the site. The area was eventually incurred upon during the Hellenistic era and in the following centuries, resulting in Diocletian’s famous edict on price regulations becoming the walls of a church.

Ruins on the shore at Asopos, Greece

Next, Dr. Kennell spoke of the Menelaion, the shrine of the legendary hero Menelaos and his beautiful wife Helen. The cult revered her as a deity and Menelaos as her consort. The shrine was of the Doric order, on a high platform with a ramp, and was very similar in its shape to Mycenean palace plans. It is worth noting at this point that, thus far, no Mycenean palace has been found in Lakonia.

We were quickly taken to the sites of Pychiko, which as the result of rescue excavations uncovered mid-Helladic tombs, and Vapheio, were an unplundered Tholos tomb was found which yielded the two famous golden cups. However, no evidence of a palace was found at either location.

One of the famous golden cups found at Vapheio, Greece

At Amyklaoin, the throne of Apollo was said to have been located. A research project in 2005 has been trying to piece the large statue together. It has been suggested that the lion base feet of another statue were original the base of the throne of Apollo, and that several of the other statues in the area could be made of parts of the original Apollo. This site is one of the few that has evidence of cult continuity from the Bronze Age to the Historical Period.

Finally, Dr. Kennell took us to the church of Agios Basileios. There is extensive evidence of a Mycenaean settlement in this area, such as Linear B tablets, a cemetery and a large building with bronze objects, such as swords and helmets. The finding of painted fresco fragments, in great amounts, prompted Dr. Kennell to believe this could be the location of the Mycenaean palace in Lakonia, beneath the modest church of Agios Basileios.

At the end of the day, however, all we can say we know about Sparta is how much we are able to conjecture from the finds in the ground and what the ancient sources say, and this is clearly not a task that will be finished any time soon. In particular, Dr. Kennell stressed how little we know of Spartan mosaics, but from this lecture it is clear there is much work to be done throughout.

Spartan mosaic depicting Europa being taken away by the bull, Sparta

(Incidentially, this mosaic is the image on the Greek 2 Euro coin)

We hope those of you who were able to come to the lecture enjoyed it as much as we did, and those of you that weren’t enjoyed this blog post about it! Our next lecture is on March 24th, and we hope to see many of you there!