The Southeast Fountain House in the Athenian Agora: A Reappraisal of its Date and Historical Context, Hesperia 84, 2015, pp. 355-387 (original) (raw)

The Southeast Fountain House stands at the center of an historical controversy surrounding the Late Archaic use of the Athenian Agora, and both its identification and date have crucial ramifications for our understanding of the Agora in the late sixth and early fifth centuries B.C.E. The fountain house has consistently been associated with the Peisistratidai. As such, it is often included as part of their additions and embellishments to the built environment of Athens. A reappraisal of the pottery from the fountain house, overflow channels, and pipelines, together with an examination of the in situ architectural remains, however, demonstrates that the building should instead be placed among the earliest buildings of the new democracy and is one of the structures that helped to define – both spatially and conceptually – the area of the new Agora.

Every Agora Needs a Fountain: The Early Roman Imperial Fountain on the Upper Agora of Sagalassos (SW Turkey)

Colloquium Anatolicum, 2020

The water supply network and its management at the Pisidian city of Sagalassos (SW Turkey) are relatively well-known but recent archaeological research has uncovered further remains of this supply network which not only add to our understanding of the network itself but also of its impact on the cityscape. An Early Roman Imperial fountain built on the newly organised Upper Agora of Sagalassos was the result of the combination of traditional form and innovate city-scaping. The new fountain did not merely supply water to the urban populace. Through its prominent situation within the urban landscape it offered a visual statement of the amenities which the city provided. The construction of the monumental fountain also signalled an important change in the public use and display of water. In the end, the fountain gave way to the Antonine Nymphaeum, as part of a developing urban landscape with the intention to surpass the existing monument with a new template of representation.

Histories of Peirene: A Corinthian Fountain in Three Millennia (Ancient Art and Architecture in Context 2). Princeton: American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA), 2011.

The Peirene Fountain as described by its first excavator, Rufus B. Richardson, is “the most famous fountain of Greece.” Here is a retrospective of a wellspring of Western civilization, distinguished by its long history, service to a great ancient city, and early identification as the site where Pegasus landed and was tamed by the hero Bellerophon. Spanning three millennia and touching a fourth, Peirene developed from a nameless spring to a renowned source of inspiration, from a busy landmark in Classical Corinth to a quiet churchyard and cemetery in the Byzantine era, and finally from free-flowing Ottoman fountains back to the streams of the source within a living ruin. These histories of Peirene as a spring and as a fountain, and of its watery imagery, form a rich cultural narrative whose interrelations and meanings are best appreciated when studied together. The author deftly describes the evolution of the Fountain of Peirene framed against the underlying landscape and its ancient, medieval, and modern settlement, viewed from the perspective of Corinthian culture and spheres of interaction. Published with the assistance of the Getty Foundation. Winner of the 2011 Prose Award for Professional and Scholarly Excellence in the category of Archaeology/Anthropology. The Prose Awards are given annually by the Professional and Scholarly Publishing division of the American Association of Publishers.

Chiotis E., 2011, Water Supply and Drainage Works in the Agora of Ancient Athens, 165-180, A. Giannikouri (Ed.)

The efforts, techniques and works for water supply in ancient Athens are examined, over a period of twelve centuries from the sixth century BC up to the sixth century AD. The exploitation of local and distant water resources is investigated on the basis of archaeological data in a geological context. The development of city-states in ancient Greece was shaped to some degree by the necessary public infrastructure of hydraulic and drainage works. Engineering achievements such as the Eupalinean tunnel on the island of Samos as well as the Peisistratean aqueduct and the great drain in Athens made possible the expansion of the cities in antiquity. A common and remarkable feature of these ancient works is their sustainability; they have been long forgotten and were accidentally rediscovered and put in operation again in modern times. This is true of both, the Roman Hadrianic aqueduct which supplied Athens for one century since the middle of the 19th century and the ancient Hymettos aqueduct which still irrigates the National Garden of Athens.

Building D1 at Magdala Revisited in the Light of Public Fountain Architecture in the Late-Hellenistic East

2012

The small columnar Building D1 discovered at Magdala in the early 1970s was first identified by the excavators as a mini-synagogue. Although Ehud Netzer has convincingly opposed this view, arguing that the building functioned as a fountain house, some scholars challenge Netzer’s identification, most notably on the basis of a doubtful comparison with a supposedly canonic type of Roman nymphaeum. Consequently, alternative interpretations for the function of this building, such as a synagogue or a latrine, continue to appear in the literature. This paper argues that the building has not been compared to the right category of public fountains. Indeed, Magdala’s Building D1 presents strong similarities with contemporary examples of late-Hellenistic fountain architecture in Asia Minor and fits perfectly within the context of the long-term evolution of the so-called stoa-shaped fountain houses. The function of Building D1 as a fountain house, as argued by Netzer, seems very likely, particularly on the basis of comparative data from the city of Sagalassos (south-west Turkey).

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