This volume of essays celebrates the esteemed career of beloved professor John Camp. Camp's commitment to the archaeology and history of Athens is demonstrated by his long-standing involvement with the American School of Classical Studies’ excavations in the Agora, a project that he joined in 1966 and for which he has served as Director since 1994, his tenure as Mellon Professor of Archaeology for the American School of Classical Studies from 1985–1996 and his indispensable book, The Archaeology of Athens, published in 2001. The fourteen essays written by his former students range widely in subject, from art, archaeology and architecture to epigraphy and literature, and in date from the Archaic period to the Late Middle Ages. This diversity testifies to the vast knowledge, broad interests and inspiring teaching of a great mentor. The volume offers a snapshot of the wealth of scholarly interests in the archaeology of Athens today. The essays offer new perspectives on inscriptions, objects, structures, plays and vexing questions relevant to scholars in diverse research areas.
The chapters are organised alphabetically by the authors’ last names, rather than arranged thematically, which is a bit confusing since the essays vary in subject widely and lack cohesive methodologies, but in a volume like this, where a reader would likely search for their subject of interest and not read from cover to cover, it is not a problem. Similarly, a few typos and errors throughout the text are minor distractions, not major issues.
W.E. Closterman explores the iconography and significance of banquet scenes on Athenian funerary stelai from the fourth century bce, which she argues should be understood in the context of depicting family gatherings, rather than cultic imagery. Her work highlights the importance of defining and representing the family in ancient Athens.
D. considers a newly excavated mountaintop structure between Megara and Athens, proposing that it demonstrates that the territory of Attica may have been larger than supposed and fortified earlier than conventionally thought. His work emphasises the importance of flexibility in understanding how ancient lands were defined and protected.
L. Gawlinski investigates how sacred spaces in ancient Athens were kept secure through physical and ephemeral means, and even the threat of divine retribution. Her work is a reminder that weaving archaeological, literary, epigraphic and artistic evidence together can be an extremely effective approach for recovering ancient perspectives.
S. Hemingway presents a diachronic study of imagery of the eagle of Zeus from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period. He proposes that Athenian artists were particularly influential in creating iconography and important monuments, especially in vase painting and in sculpture, in the Archaic and the Classical periods, that spread well beyond Athens and eventually became important symbols of power for Macedonian and Hellenistic kings. His work demonstrates Athens’ primacy in the development of artistic styles.
C.M. Keesling re-evaluates two dedicatory epigrams from the Acropolis and questions their supposed relationship to Solon's reform of property classes. She proposes a new reading of IG 13.831, which may be understood as an athletic victory monument, and reframes the context of a second inscribed monument. Her work draws attention to nuances in relationships between texts and objects.
N.L. Klein revisits the evidence of the limestone architectural fragments from the pre-Periclean small buildings on the Acropolis, considering their original placements and later modifications, revealing stages of construction and remodelling. Her work highlights the adaptability of the ancient city in renovating its structures to suit current needs.
E.M. Langridge-Noti considers a wide range of evidence for understanding the Athenian ceramics market, arguing that potters and painters were highly aware of the needs of their consumers and adapted their products according to those preferences. Her work situates Athens as a key centre of pottery production in a period of thriving Mediterranean commerce.
M.L. Lawall analyses amphora stamps from Koroni and other Attic sites in the time of the Chremonidean War. He argues that their presence in Attica, specifically at sites known to be associated with Ptolemaic military action, demonstrates that the needs of the campaign substantially changed the regional economy and trade between Athens and the broader Aegean.
K.M. Lynch investigates sympotic pottery from the Agora during the Archaic and Classical periods. Along with creating a chronology, she considers social and functional changes in the symposium that led to the changing nature of the vessels over time. Her work calls attention to the importance of material culture in recovering the practices and identities of the ancient Athenians.
C. MacKay considers three Medieval kilns from the Agora that included both glaze-painted sgraffito ware and vessels that seem to imitate Italian majolica ware, demonstrating that Athenian potters in the sixteenth century ce were aware of dominant styles in the West and approximated those products but with an eye for their native materials and preferences.
J. McInerney investigates the cult of Artemis Tauropolis at Halai Araphenides. He proposes that the Attic cult demonstrates an adoption of foreign customs as trade with the Black Sea region increased. The remote site became a locus for maturation rituals for young men, parallel to those ceremonies for young girls at Brauron. His work highlights the continued development of cult rituals resulting from exposure to other traditions.
R.’s study focuses on three Roman female portrait heads from the Agora. She analyses the dates and identities of the figures, then considers them in the broader context of honorific statuary. She traces their Byzantine afterlives, revealing that they were damaged and eventually removed from view to renounce their pagan spirits. Her work reminds us of the power of statuary for communicating values and identities.
M.B. Richardson takes a more literary approach, considering Demosthenes’ courtroom speeches and mining them for references to inscribed monuments. Her work illustrates the familiarity of the Athenian audience with inscriptions in the mid-fourth century bce.
C.A. Salowey focuses on evidence from the theatre, proposing to understand Sophocles’ Philoctetes as a pointedly Athenian interpretation of the cult of Heracles meant to instruct the citizens on the cult of the hero-god and serve as an inspiration to the youths in need of encouragement at the end of the Peloponnesian Wars. Her work reminds us that Athenian drama was created to speak directly to its audience and must be interpreted in that context.
As a whole, this volume is very successful in highlighting both the complexity and multivalent nature of the archaeology of ancient Athens and the impressive range of fields, disciplines and students that John Camp has informed and inspired.
