Chalcis Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

This study offers a solution for a long-standing question concerning the nature and date of the Lelantine War. I propose that in the Archaic period a part of the Lelantine plain was contested in recurrent ritual battles between young aristocrats of Eretria and Chalcis, who reenacted the devastating primordial strife of the bronze-clad Curetes. The contested territory changed hands, providing grazing for the horses of the victorious side; it constituted a sacred space, uniting Eretria and Chalcis in a common cult. The system of the ritual confrontations came to an end with the Athenian conquest of Chalcis in 506 BC. A new historical reading is offered for Theognis’ lines depicting a destruction of the Lelantine plain: they mourn the Athenian takeover and the disintegration of the aristocratic system of mutual support, cursing the Corinthians who failed to deliver military help to the Chalcidian elites.

- by
- •
- Eretria, Theognis, Chalcis, Lelantine War

The aim of this paper is the study of the now destroyed fortifications of the Greek city of Chalcis (Evripos / Negreponte / Egriboz). Having been an important urban centre during the Early and Middle Byzantine Period, Chalcis was occupied by the Latins after the capture of Constantinople in 1204 and became a significant trade centre of Venice. By the end of the 14th century the city became a Venetian holding. In 1470 the Ottomans captured the city after a short siege. In 1688 the city was unsuccessfully besieged by the Venetians. And in 1833 it was annexed by the Greek State. In the end of the 19th c. the fortifications of Chalcis were almost completely demolished during an attempt to reorganize and modernize the city. The fortified medieval city of Chalcis, the Kastro, had the shape of a long, irregular pentagon with maximum dimensions 400 x 700 m. It was surrounded on three sides, namely the north, the west and the south, by the sea. Along its two other sides, the northeast and the southeast, there was a dry moat. Its fortifications had three gates, one on Euripus Bridge and two on the land wall, through which the city was connected with Boeotia and Euboea respectively. From the study of the fortifications, based on their depictions in old engravings and photographs as well as on some poor remnants of them that are still visible, it appears that up to their demolition the city walls retained to a large extent their late medieval form, although they had undergone significant interventions by the Ottomans, mainly on the eve, and just after the siege of 1688. The only surviving part of the city’s defences, the fort of Karababa, built on the steep hill of the Boeotian coast, can be dated to this period.

- by Stavros Mamaloukos
- •
- Euboea, Chalcis, Negroponte, Defensive Architecture

This volume comprises thirteen papers from the conference ‘New Research on Late Byzantine Goldsmiths‘ Works (13th to 15th Centuries)’, held in the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz in October 2019. The contributions primarily deal with the material culture of goldsmiths’ works, such as crosses, reliquary caskets, jewellery, enamel works, and precious stones, spanning the wide geographical area of Byzantium and many of its neighbours, from Russia via Trebizond and Serbia to Crete. Furthermore, written sources on Byzantine goldsmiths, their craft and the provenance of precious metals provide evidence for goldsmithing in Byzantium throughout its history.
With contributions by Andreas Rhoby, Paul Hetherington, Olga Shashina, Martin Dennert, Sabrina Schäfer, Anastasios Antonaras, Antje Steinert, Jessica Schmidt, Nikos Kontogiannis, Vana Orfanou, Holger Kempkens, Irina A. Sterligova, Vesna Bikić and Martina Horn.

- by Antje Bosselmann-Ruickbie and +8
- •
- Byzantine Studies, Byzantine Iconography, Engraved gems, Byzantine Mistras

On the basis of a fragment of the pseudohesiodic Catalogue of Women we can infer that in the Archaic Period (or perhaps even earlier) the Chalcidians wove a myth whose main protagonists were Poseidon, Hera and a young mortal called Arethousa. According to this myth, Poseidon had intercourse with Arethousa at the Euripos and then abandoned her. Hera took mercy on Arethousa and transformed her into a spring. A comparative study with other similar Greek myths allows us to assume that the Chalcidian tradition served several functions. First, the myth justified the name which was given to the most important spring of Chalcis. Indeed, a good number of ancient writers mention a spring called Arethousa in Chalcis; this spring was said to be sacred. Second, the Chalcidian myth can be also considered as an “initiation myth”, for it seems to refer to the different phases of the vertical process of integration of a young woman in the society after her sexual maturation. Third, the myth possibly reflects and justifies the existence of a cult of Hera, Poseidon and Arethousa at Chalcis. Moreover, the myth can be construed as evidence supporting the celebration of rites of passage under the supervision of the heroine Arethousa in the place where the homonymous spring flowed.

- by Manuel Arjona Perez
- •
- Greek Religion, Greek Myth, Euboea, Poseidon

In 197 BC, proudly holding Chalcis along with Corinth and Demetrias, the Macedonian King Philip V claimed to be controlling the “fetters” of Greece. Indeed, the site of Chalcis, located at the narrowest point of the strait of the Euripos separating the island of Euboia from the continent, allowed the control not only of the Euboic Gulf and its maritime routes, but also of Central Greece as a whole, and by extension, of the Greek peninsula. This paper investigates the strategic, political and military factors needed in the early Hellenistic period for the transformation of the Euboian commercial port into one of the most significant strongholds in Greece. It will be argued that to achieve this, it was first necessary to destroy Boiotian Thebes, the strongest local power in the 4th century BC, and to disperse its territory. Also, foreign interest in tightly controlling the region was needed. The Macedonian dynasts were the first of course, and it will be argued that, after Alexander the Great, it was probably Demetrios Poliorcetes who first conceived the concept of the three “fetters” of Greece, and who developed a significant element to the system of fortifications of Chalcis: the so-called Aniphoritis Wall, or at least the associated kastro. A survey of the use of the site in international affairs down to the Mithridatic Wars is also offered, followed by an analysis of the impact such a disputed site had at a more local level, in particular on the territory of Oropos.

- by Fabienne Marchand
- •
- Ancient History, Roman History, Alexander the Great, Ancient Greek History

"Karystos revisited: Interaction networks of an Aegean island polity (sources and finds)".
Due to geographical and other reasons, connectivity or isolation are two of a large number of lenses one can use to explore political, religious and economic aspects of life in an ancient city through study of relevant finds. Cult is connected to polis identity, since what was religious and what was political were never quite separate in ancient Greek cities. Karystos, as one of the main Euboean city-states, is in this paper shown to have participated in a number of religious, political and trade networks that expanded for large part in the Aegean region and centered on Athens and Delos, as well as on Delphi in the mainland. An attempt is therefore made to revisit the cultic landscape of the polis of Karystos through a presentation of some of its attested relations to sanctuaries in other poleis and regional or Pan-Hellenic sanctuaries. In some aspects, local cult and trade relations are shown to have often co-existed, together with realistic political responses in cases polis survival or autonomy was threatened.

- by Maria Chidiroglou
- •
- Archaeology, Religion and Politics, Euboea, Eretria

As of 2009 the Ephorate of Antiquities of Euboea (former 11th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities) has been working in collaboration with the VU University Amsterdam on a fieldwork and excavation project centring on the archaeological site of Plakari at Karystos in Southern Euboea. The earliest signs of occupation on the site date to the Final Neolithic period. During the Early Iron Age the site accommodated a cult place that dates back to the 11th century BC. Based on the study of finds, cultic activities on the site seem to have continued in later periods too.
The ceramic finds discussed in the article were found during the excavation seasons of 2011 and 2012 mainly on the floor layers of a small building (Building A) in the site. A number of representative vases and lamps are presented in the article. They are black-glazed, banded and plain oinochoai, jugs, skyphoi, cups, one-handlers and handleless bowls, one fish-plate, a lid with relief decoration, one lekythos and one incense burner, as well as some plain lamps. A number of the vases bear graffiti that have been examined in the article as bearing witness to cultic and sympotic activities performed in the site. The study of the assemblage aims to assess dating of Building A, as well as to ascertain some of the traits of the local ceramic production of the 5th and 4th centuries BC, taking in view influences South Euboean pottery workshops appear to have received from Athens, Chalcis, Eretria and other regions.

- by Maria Chidiroglou
- •
- Pottery (Archaeology), Euboea, Eretria, Ancient Lamps

The epigraphic material published in the present paper derives from the town of Chalcis (Ottoman Aġrıboz/Eğriboz) and is exhibited at the Karababa Fortress; it currently belongs to the 23rd Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities. The corpus comprises fifty three inscriptions in total, forty eight funerary and five monumental. The collection covers the period from the late sixteenth to the early nineteenth century, whereas the inscription no. 38 is probably dated in the Pre-Ottoman period (twelfth-thirteenth century). The material on which they are inscribed is white, greyish and grey coarse-grain marble of high quality, and limestone, meticulously sculpted. In most cases, the decorative patterns of the main side consist of the equitant shallow cartouches, which accommodate embossed inscriptions usually in a relief technique. Unfortunately, we do not know exactly when and where the majority of the inscriptions were found. However, the evidence for the inscriptions whose data appear in this study derives from the Inventory of the collection. The inscriptions containing clear indication of date precede the undated ones. The classification of the second group, which bears no date, has been dealt with extreme caution. The suggested dating was based on a study of the external typological criteria, including the technique used for the incision of the inscriptions, as well as a collation with dated material and similar inscriptions found in published studies. The type of script most frequently used is the basīt celī sülüs, which varies from its simplest form (kırma) on inscription nos 3 and 13, to its calligraphic style detected on inscriptions nos 25, 32, 51-53; inscription no. 38 is incised in the kūfī script.

- by Georgios Liakopoulos
- •
- History, Ottoman History, Islamic Archaeology, Ottoman Archaeology

Says who has the worldview, etc. and supplements chapters dealing with royal rule and Aristotle's political ideology. This was originally appendix 4, but I have removed the original Appendix 3, which was on political science before Aristotle. That's been absorbed into and expanded in the long essay "Plato's Politikē (political science) and Aristotle's Development of it." Contrary to what is surprisingly sometimes written, 2 Aristotle was not born in Macedon, or even a region that was then considered Macedonian. It would not be until 349 1 All references in this book are to Aristotle's Politics, unless otherwise specified. The chapter number is the most common, not those of the Loeb and Apostle editions. 2 Terence Irwin, "Introduction," pp. xiii-xxiv in Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Terence Irwin (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1985), p. xiv; this error has continued through the 3 rd edition of 2019; Everson, "Introduction," pp. ix-xxvii in Aristotle, The Politics, ed. Stephen Everson, [trans. Benjamin Jowett, rev. Jonathan Barnes] (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), p. x; see also the chart of "Principal Events" on p. xxiv. This was not corrected for the revised edition (1997).

- by Paul Bullen
- •
- Aristotle, Socrates, Alexander the Great, Ancient Greek History

The aim of this paper is the study of the now destroyed fortifications of the Greek city of Chalcis (Evri-pos / Negreponte / Egriboz). Having been an important urban centre during the Early and Middle Byz-antine Period, Chalcis was occupied by the Latins after the capture of Constantinople in 1204 and became a significant trade centre of Venice. By the end of the fourteenth century, the city became a Vene-tian holding. In 1470 the Ottomans captured the city after a brief siege. In 1688 the city was unsuccessfully besieged by the Venetians. And in 1833 it was annexed by the Greek State. In the end of the nineteenth century the fortifications of Chalcis were almost completely demolished during an attempt to reorganize and modernize the city. The fortified medieval city of Chalcis, the Kastro, had the shape of a long, irregular pentagon with maximum dimensions 400 x 700 m. It was surrounded on three sides, namely the north, west and south, by sea. Along its two other sides, the northeast and the southeast, there was a dry moat. Its fortifications had three gates, one on Euripus bridge and two on the land wall, through which the city was connected with Boeotia and Euboea, respectively. From the study of the fortifications , based on their depictions in old engravings and photographs as well as on some poor and still visible remnants, it appears that until their demolition the city walls retained to a large extent their late medieval form, although they had undergone significant interventions by the Ottomans, mainly on the eve, and just after the siege of 1688. The only surviving part of the city's defences, the fort of Karababa, built on the steep hill of the Boeotian coast, can be dated to this period.

- by Stavros Mamaloukos
- •
- Fortifications, Medieval Fortifications, Ottoman Fortifications, Chalcis

This paper focuses on ναυσικλειτή Εὔβοια, the “Euboia famous for the ships”, mentioned in verses 31 and 219 of the hymn to Apollon. These words are usually seen as literary evidence supporting the currently wide accepted idea, mainly based on archaeological indicators, of a strong Euboean maritime power during the Geometric Age, widespread in the Mediterranean framework.
But is that really so? Is there an actual connection between the mentioned verses and Euboea of the 9th and 8th centuries? And, if so, what does exactly “famous for the ships” mean?

- by Giovanni Boffa
- •
- Geometric and archaic Greece, Euboea, Eretria, Homeric hymn to Apollo

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 June 2021 https://doi.org/10.1017/byz.2021.12.
In this article, the socio-economic and cultural identity of Chalcis is traced through, and combined with, the story of its material culture and, in particular, of its impressive pottery production and consumption. Through this lens, the historical conditions and daily life over more than ten centuries (from the ninth to the early twentieth century) of this relatively unknown provincial town are closely examined. This makes it possible to detect one field in which local communities reacted to, adjusted to, took advantage of, survived or sometimes succumbed to the wider turmoil of the Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek eras.

Colonisation has been directly connected with the formation of the ancient polis, as concerns both the metropolis and the newly founded apoikia.
The presentation aims to examine the cooperation between Chalcis and Naxos for the founding of Sicilian Naxos from the perspective of the polis’ emergence. In the beginning, we will discuss the degree of geographical and political formation of the poleis of Chalcis and Naxos at the time of their collaboration, integrating both archaeological and literary evidence. Next, we will try to provide plausible explanations as to which internal driving force led Naxians and Chalcidians to colonize a remote location in Sicily, what kind of links they had established and how these links are documented.

A panel of 13 Greek coinages thoroughly studied through a die-study has been taking into account to calculate the frequency of the different provenances. These 13 coinages are: Velia, Camarina (Kamarina), Gela, Messana (Messina), Hieronymos of Syracuse, Philip II of Macedonia, Amphipolis, the Phocians (Phokians), Chalcis, Philetairus (Philetairos), Miletus, Cnidus (Knidos) and Samos. The largest coin cabinets for Greek coins are for this sample : Berlin, London, Paris, New York, Cambridge, Oxford, Wien, etc. Dealing with rarer isues (also well known through a die-study: Evainetos for Syracuse, the Amphictionic coinage at Delphi, the Arkadian league, Pheneus and Lebedus [Lebedos]): the order is now: Berlin, Paris, London, New York, Boston, Cambridge, Brussels, LIsbon, etc.

- by Fabienne Marchand
- •
- Onomastics, Name Studies, Proper Names, Boiotia

Programme of the international workshop "The Dancing Floor of Ares II. Local Conflict and Regional Violence in Central Greece" taking place at the University of Fribourg on 24 May 2018. Speakers include Hans Beck, Elena Franchi, Fabienne Marchand, Alex McAuley, Marcel Piérart, Salvatore Tufano and Laetitia Phialon.
Organised by Fabienne Marchand and Hans Beck, with the SNSF Old and New Powers project, and the Parochial Polis project.