The topography of cult in Archaic and Classical Sparta : an archaeological approach to Spartan society

Abstract

Over the last 30 years Sparta’s material culture has attained greater prominence with a growing appreciation by historians of how the archaeological record can be used to question the previously accepted authority of the literary sources on Spartan society. However, le mirage spartiate remains an issue: the perception of Sparta as “the rude, austere and narrow barrack depicted in the written sources” continues to be a pervasive one in modern academic consciousness.

The central role of religion in ancient societies and the value of the archaeological record for cult is well attested from a continuously growing bibliography on the subject. However, little is still known about the sacred landscape of Archaic and Classical Sparta despite the opportunity it presents for exploring one of the most famous polis in Classical antiquity. With this in mind, the purpose of this thesis is to further the understanding of Spartan society through the systematic investigation of the sacred topography of city and chora during the Archaic and Classical periods. A comprehensive survey of the archaeological record of cult is placed at the centre of the study, with the purpose of circumventing the traditional scholarly biases that stem from a continued reliance on the ancient sources. Landscape archaeology and approaches of people and place are employed to investigate what Sparta was, rather than what it was not, through the prism of identity. Consideration is given to the individual and collective interaction of people on the sacred landscape and more specifically how “building, dedication, dramatization, procession and ritual” marked the landscape in a particular way. This involves examining the latent and consciously expressed identities of both the state and individuals, as embedded in the choices of type, placement and use of sacred sites, architecture, materials, decoration and dedications. These approaches help to progress to a more open way of thinking about Spartan society beyond the traditionally defensive one that has been symptomatic of addressing le mirage spartiate.