The city of Messene in the southwest Peloponnese was founded in 369 BC when the Thebans liberated the region from Spartan control. The city thrived in Hellenistic and Roman times and excavations have revealed the expansive and impressive remains of the monumental city centre. Archaeological research at the site began in the early twentieth century, intensified in the 1960s with Anastasios Orlandos’ excavation of the Asklepieion and have been carried out on a large scale since the 1980s under the auspices of the Greek Archaeological Society and the leadership of Petros Themelis. A large gymnasium, agora, theatre and several sanctuaries have been revealed and many important anastylosis projects have taken place. The excavations have yielded impressive amounts of inscriptions, sculpture and other find material.
Among the most spectacular discoveries at the site are the eight female portrait statues of Hellenistic and Roman date unearthed within the Asklepieion in the 1960’s campaign. These votive portraits of young girls and priestesses were, uniquely, found inside a small temple, a cult room for Artemis that was incorporated into the west wing of the larger sanctuary. They were discovered together with several inscriptions and statue bases and were arranged in a curious broken circle around a cult statue of the goddess herself. This context makes these statues particularly important for the light they can cast on questions about why votive portrait statues were set up in Greek religion and how they were experienced by visitors to sanctuaries. The statues have never been properly published. This project will carry out the first in depth study of this important sculptural material taking account of construction techniques, placement and potential rearrangement of statues within the room and their eventual destruction. Because of limited records from the moment of excavation innovative 3D computer reconstruction techniques will be used to match fragments to statues and statues to bases.
The publication project is directed by Dr. Christopher Dickenson.
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