Musical Instruments as Votive Gifts in the Ancient World

This volume started life as the proceedings of the first colloquium of the Archaeomusicology Interest Group (AMIG) within the 119th Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) held in Boston, Massachusetts, January 4-7, 2018. Contributors to the colloquium were asked to systematically address how each instrument is not an isolated unit, but a component of musical performance in cult considered as an offering to the divinity within the framework of the ritual ceremony. The aim of the conference and its proceedings was not only to enhance our knowledge of instruments as votive gifts by exploring and discussing the many different motives and often more than one explanation for the dedication of musical instruments to the gods, but also to study musical performances in ancient cultures as an essential component of worship and ritual. The practice of dedicating instruments to the gods in the ancient world – along with figurines of instruments, soundtools, and texts of song – is well attested by a variety of sources, temple-accounts, and the discovery of the instruments themselves during excavations, which often bear votive inscriptions. Worshippers or musicians tried to give a more lasting effect to the musical performance by dedicating instruments in honour of a god or a goddess in the framework of the ritual ceremony. The editors would like to thank the authors for their contributions, for deeply engaging with the critical issues at the core of this volume, and, not least, for their patience in the revising and publishing stages of the volume. We are also very grateful to the anonymous readers for their perceptive comments on the various essays. Finally, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to Clemente Marconi, discussant of the colloquium, for his valuable suggestions. In addition, we would like to thank Fabrizio Serra, the publisher of this volume. Publication was made possible by the project TELESTES, Music, Cults and Rites of a Greek City in the West, funded by the Marie Curie Actions Programme of the European Commission International Outgoing Fellowships for Career Development

Athens, Etruria, and the many lives of Greek figured pottery.

A lucrative trade in Athenian pottery flourished from the early sixth until the late fifth century B.C.E., finding an eager market in Etruria. Most studies of these painted vases focus on the artistry and worldview of the Greeks who made them, but Sheramy D. Bundrick shifts attention to their Etruscan customers, ancient trade networks, and archaeological contexts. Thousands of Greek painted vases have emerged from excavations of tombs, sanctuaries, and settlements throughout Etruria, from southern coastal centers to northern communities in the Po Valley. Using documented archaeological assemblages, especially from tombs in southern Etruria, Bundrick challenges the widely held assumption that Etruscans were hellenized through Greek imports. She marshals evidence to show that Etruscan consumers purposefully selected figured pottery that harmonized with their own local needs and customs, so much so that the vases are better described as etruscanized. Athenian ceramic workers, she contends, learned from traders which shapes and imagery sold best to the Etruscans and employed a variety of strategies to maximize artistry, output, and profit.https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/books/1024/thumbnail.jp

Selling sacrifice on classical Athenian vases.

Examination of the chronological development of sacrificial representations on 5th-century Athenian vases reveals a movement from procession to altar-based scenes, heightened emphasis on the preparation and consumption of meat, and increased focus on the reciprocity between mortals and gods. Sacrificial practice itself likely did not change during the Classical period. Vase painters\u27 interest in different stages and themes, however, may suggest shifting attitudes toward thysia, as well as toward Athenian citizenship and citizen identity. Broadening the consideration of sacrificial imagery from the reconstruction of ritual to include its physical and historical contexts allows for a greater understanding of its meaning. Three appendixes supplement the discussion with examples of sacrifical procession and altar scenes