Heraklion Archaeological Museum - CollectiveAccess System : Bronze objects : Two bronze cauldrons for storing valuables [Χ4479 + Χ4478]

Two bronze cauldrons for storing valuables

Χ4479 + Χ4478

Metal (Bronze)

Almost intact with minor restorations to the bottom and corrosion holes in places

A. Height: 43.5 cm. Diameter: 58 cm. Β. Height: 36.2 cm. Diameter: 54 cm.

Apollonia (Agia Pelagia, Malevisi)

Classical period:

c. 500 BC:

Gallery:

XVI

Case:

164

Exhibition thematic unit:

Geometric - Archaic - Classical period (10th-4th c. BC). Trade. Cultural influences

Cauldron hoard

Description

Two bronze lebetes (cauldrons), one with a squat spherical body and round hanging handles, and the other with a hemispherical body and low vertical rim. They were found in an excavation in the Agia Pelagia area, in a rectangular pit measuring 1.32x0.70 m., roughly cut into the soft rock. The pit was covered with a stone slab measuring 1.40x0.75x0.25 m. that fitted onto a surrounding ledge. The slab had two circular holes which matched the centres of the cauldrons underneath and were sealed by stone lids. The lids were removed and replaced with straps, allowing valuable objects such as votive offerings, coins and official documents inscribed on bronze plaques to be stored securely in the cauldrons. This was a practice followed by temple or city treasuries and known from other instances in the Greek world. They are referred to in ancient sources as “locked treasuries”. In this case, the valuables were the property of a nearby temple of the Apollo, the god of the city, as evidenced by the dedicatory inscription on the inside of one cauldron, under the rim: “Thalios dedicated (this lebes) to Apollo”. The inscription is written in an alphabet resembling the Aeginetan alphabet of West Crete. Although short, the inscription allows us to link the cauldrons with a temple of Apollo of which no architectural traces have been found, and to identify the settlement excavated at Agia Pelagia as the city of “Apollonia near Knossos”, known from inscriptions, coins and historical sources.

Bibliography:

A. Karetsou, "Αγία Πελαγία", Αρχαιολογικό Δελτίο 33(1978), Β2, 353, pl. 182. S. Alexiou, “Une nouvelle inscription de Agia Pelagia”, in Aux Origines de l'Hellénisme: La Crète et la Grèce. Hommage à H. van Effenterre, Paris, 1984, 323-327, pl. xxiii-xxiv (article included in S. Alexiou, Μινωικά και Ελληνικά. Αρχαιολογικές μελέτες, Athens 2002, 157‒163). Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques en Grèce en 1985, Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 110 (1986): 748-749. A.W. Johnston, “Aeginetans abroad”, Horos 7 (1989), 131‒135). Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 34.913 and Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 39.950. A. Oikonomaki, Τα τοπικά αλφάβητα της Κρήτης στην αρχαϊκή και κλασική εποχή, Thessaloniki 2010, unpublished PhD thesis, 217-219.

Author:

K. S.

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