Attic votive plaques: A study on their iconography and function (Greece).

摘要

This dissertation investigates votive painted terracotta plaques ( pinakes) dedicated in Attic sanctuaries during the Archaic and early Classical period. It takes into account literary and epigraphical sources, representations on Attic and South Italian red-figure vases, and the archaeological contexts in which plaques appear. The surviving evidence shows that Attic plaques were dedicated in all kinds of sanctuaries---especially ones of female deities, including major state sanctuaries like the Acropolis and Eleusis---and were not limited to hero and nymph shrines as the prevailing view claims. An iconographic analysis of Attic plaques shows that their imagery adopts new themes established in Attic vase-painting of the period and conforms to characteristics of the gods who received them as dedications, notably Athena. Themes on the Acropolis plaques themselves (Promachos, Gigantomachy, Weaving, Chariot Races) and depictions of votaries carrying plaques on amphorae of Panathenaic shape support an association with the Panathenaia festival. Inscriptions on the plaques and issues of attribution, circulation, and chronology are also treated. This thesis fills a gap in modern scholarship by bringing together the study of iconographic themes known from vase painting and other media and the analysis of objects dedicated in sanctuaries. Making a plaque dedication is a concrete ritual act through which dedicators acknowledge themselves as members of the community of dedicators past and future. By correlating plaques with other classes of offerings dedicated in Attic sanctuaries an attempt is made to decipher the messages they communicate through imagery and relate them to the prevalent civic and cultural ideologies of the time.