Publications by Year: 2004

The catalogue includes both Roman citizens and peregrini who employed Roman names, which they did either because of kinship ties through marriage or simply because it was the current fashion to use Roman names. The catalogue, therefore, does not contain the purely Greek names of peregrini that remained untouched by Roman onomastic practices. Such persons are, however, discussed in the comments on particular names, when it has seemed helpful to elucidate extended relationships, either of blood or by marriage. Likewise, individuals who are referred to in literary sources or in inscriptions from other regions are excluded from the catalogue, although reference to them may sometimes be made in the comments. Thus the present work is not to be viewed so much as a lexicon or even a complete prosopography, but rather as one whose main aim is to present a particular social class active at a particular time and place, namely the southern Peloponnese from the beginning of the Roman domination until Late Antiquity (Roman Peloponnese I, 40 n. 23).

Laconia: The inscriptions employed for the Onomasticon of Laconia come, with a very few exceptions, from today's prefecture of the same name, since the area covered by the prefecture is very much the same as that comprehended by the Laconia of antiquity, with the exception of the ager Denthaliatis, which was for centuries a source of friction between Messene and Sparta (MES 227). This region has been included in Messenia because today it belongs to the modem prefecture of Messenia. Thuria also, is included in Messenia, although an inscription dating to the imperial period shows that Sparta was then her metropolis (MES 265). The same holds true for the region of Kynouria, which, likewise, was a source of friction between Sparta and Argos. During the Imperial period Kynouria belonged to the Argolid, with which it has accordingly been placed (ARG 63). Only the city of Prasiai belonged, during this period, to the Eleutherolakones (Paus. III. 21, 7; 24, 4; cf. ARG 64). By contrast, the island of Kythera, given by Augustus to Eurycles (Strabo VIII. 5, 3), which today is part of the prefecture of the Peiraeus, has been grouped with Laconia, to which it belonged in antiquity. The same is the case for the cities of the Eleutherolakones. These include, among other cities and areas, the important harbour of Gytheion, the habour of Boiai, Tainaron, which was refounded as Caenopolis, Thalamai, Oitylos and, of course, Asopos, located between Gytheion and Boiai '.

The majority of the inscriptions from Sparta dating to the Imperial period were found in the various systematic excavations carried out from the beginning of the twentieth century by the British School at Athens in the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia and in the area of the ancient theatre.

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In 1971 I commenced planning for a long-term, systematic excavation, to be carried out by the newly established Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University, and began seeking an important mound of the biblical period. At that time the Institute conducted a single, major excavation project at Tel Beer-­Sheba under the aegis of its Director, Yohanan Aharoni. Not having at my disposal the means to start the excavation I planned, I sought to establish a partnership with other members of the Institute, to no avail. The time for joint archaeological projects in Israel was not yet ripe.

Unable to convince other colleagues in the Institute of my designs, I decided to carry on alone. In 1971-1972 I spent a sabbatical leave in London. There I visited Richard Barnett, then Keeper of Western Asiatic Antiquities in the British Museum, to discuss the proposed excavation. I explained to him my plans, and presented five or six possible sites, Tel Lachish being one of them. Barnett, after listening carefully to all suggestions, unhesitatingly favoured Lachish, and convinced me to undertake its re-excavation. That was about a decade after the publication of his article on the Lachish reliefs and the siege ramp (Barnett 1958). Barnett enthusiastically emphasized the importance of the reliefs and the potential of continued excavations at the site. I remembered Tel Lachish very well from the days of my compulsory army service in the 1950s, when we regularly roamed the area in our manoeuvres, and from all I had learned since my boyhood about the biblical city, the Lachish letters, and the murder of Lachish's previous excavator, J.L. Starkey. I could still see in my mind's eye a picture of the ostraca in the Rockefeller Museum, which I visited with my father as a young boy before the 1948 war. So it did not take Barnett long to convince me that I should excavate Lachish. I must add in retrospect, nearly thirty years later, that I have never regretted this decision, even for a second.

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With contributions by Douglas l. Esse, Andrew Graham, Ronald G.V. Hancock and Patricia Paice

The extensive history of excavations at Megiddo (Tell el-Mutesellim) attests to the site's cultural and historical significance and effectively chronicles the disciplinary development of archaeological research in the region. Virtually every generation has left its mark, and a vast portion of the site has been excavated in the process. This is particularly true of Stratum VI. While this report is primarily concerned with the results of the Oriental Institute excavations, any attempt to reconstruct the stratum, and the cultural and historical information that it contains, must incorporate the results of other projects that have excavated at the site as well. Consequently, this chapter surveys the history of excavations of Stratum VI at Megiddo with the aim of assembling a composite record of those projects that have produced published remains of Stratum VI.

The medieval Jewish writer Estori Ha-Parhi is credited with being the first explorer to link ancient Megiddo to the Arab village of Lejjun (Ha-Parhi 1976: 293), located at the entrance to the Wadi Ara, just to the south of the mounded tell (fig. 1). In the mid-nineteenth century, the biblical scholar Edward Robinson, aware that the Sixth Roman Legion had been stationed near Megiddo, and influenced by the etymological link between the Arabic "Lejjun" and the Latin "Legio," reasserted its association with the ancient site (Robinson and Smith 1841/3: 177-80). Remarkably, during a subsequent trip Robinson actually visited Tell el-Mutesellim and was struck by the exceptional view but failed to recognize that he was standing on the ruins of the ancient settlement (Robinson and Smith 1856: 117). Robinson's claim that Megiddo was located at Lejjun was vigorously contested by Claude R. Conder, who argued instead that the remains of the famous town were located at Khirbet Mujedda), a site in the hills overlooking the southeastern comer of the Jezreel Valley (Conder and Kitchener 1882: 64-66,70,90-99). The ensuing debate was resolved about a decade later by the eminent geographer George Adam Smith, who argued convincingly in favor of the ruins preserved at Tell el-Mutesellim (1892: 385-87).

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The site of Khostia, located approximately 60 km West-South-West of Thebes, about one km inland above the coast of the Gulf of Korinthos (fig.1.1), lies at an altitude of 200 meters above sea level upon a flattened area and surrounding slopes near the end of a rocky spur advancing Southwards from the base of Mount Helikon's Palaiovouno massif, from which it is separated by a shallow saddle. For most of its existence, the settlement appears to have been a small town or a village, although it had the status of a city during the Hellenistic period, since the diagnostic remains visible on its surface, including those dated to prehistoric times, extend over an area of around 4.45 hectares (Fossey, 1981: 12); this surface area corresponds to the maximum extent reached by the site during the long history of its occupation. During the Bronze Age the settlement extended probably over only part of this area.

The site has been known for a long time, but has been only sparingly visited by scholars, following Leake's report at the beginning of the 19th century (Fossey, 1981: 1 & 11); commentaries about it are few and generally brief. Gomme (1911-12: 205), Frazier (1913: V.134) and Philippson & Kirsten (1951: 456) signal its location, while Philippson & Kirsten (1951: 687) also mention the presence there of Middle Helladic material. The earliest study, itself relatively short, devoted specifically to the ruins visible on the surface of the Kastron is due to Busing & Busing (1972: 74-87). The only well preserved remains belong exclusively to the historical period (Hellenistic to Late Roman); they consist of an important circuit wall enclosing most of the settled area. The few wall segments surviving to any appreciable height explain the modern toponym of Kastron, specifically Kastron Khostion, the "kastron of Khostia" usually applied to it locally. Fossey (1981: passim, especially 62-70 and figs 15-21; 1988: 187-194) provides a detailed description of the architectural features of the circuit. These walls, as well as a limited amount of literary and epigraphic documents relevant to the historical city, have been the main focus of interest for most scholars until now and have allowed them to equate the site with the small Boiotian city of Khorsiai (for the main bibliography of the site see Fossey, 1988: 188; see also Roesch, 1965: 56-58, and Roesch, 1970).

Prehistoric remains visible on the surface present an even more modest picture of the settlement than the historical period, since the only signs of human activity at the site during the Bronze Age are limited to sherds. The sequence of Bronze Age activity on the site was first established by Heurtley (1923-25: 42); the compilations of Hope-Simpson (1965: 123 no. 420) and Hope-Simpson and Dickinson (1979: 250, G36) essentially reiterate the same data. Fossey (1988) has published a more complete sequence based, in part, on his own observations of surface material, as well as on the preliminary study of material excavated in 1980 and 1983 (Fossey, 1981; Fossey & Morin, 1986; Fossey, 1988:187-193; Fossey & Morin, 1989). The present study constitutes the end product of the survey and the two excavation seasons.

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The Phoenician period cemetery of Kition is no doubt the most extensively investigated necropolis of Cyprus in spite of the fact that very little is published thus far. The Archaic and Classical period cemetery, which is the focus of our investigation, occupies a number of eminences rising from the flat ground mostly to the north and west of the city (Fig. 1). In 1979 for the first time large scale excavations were undertaken at the locality of Mnimata in relation with a proposed refugee settlement. Our excavations resulted in the discovery of 63 tombs ranging in date from Cypro-Archaic to the Hellenistic period. Most of the tombs, however, were dated to the 4th century B.C.E. Another part of the Cypro-Classical necropolis was excavated in 1984 and 1985 at the locality of Agios Prodromos, in connection with the erection of a new church. This excavations resulted in the discovery of 23 more tombs Amongst the most important finds from the site of Mnimata (Agio.s Georghios since 1979) are five stelai bearing Phoenician inscriptions. After the initial publication of these inscriptions a lively discussion commenced owing to the uncertainties of Semitic epigraphy. Nevertheless what was established on the base of these inscriptions was the peaceful coexistance between different ethnic groups residing at Kition.

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