New light on Thracian Thasos: A reinterpretation of the ‘Cave of Pan’

Journal of Hellenic Studies

Volumn 120, Issue , 2000, Pages 139-143

  Owen, Sara ^a  

^a Magdalene College   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84969186638     PISSN: 00754269     EISSN: 20414099     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/632486     Document Type: Article

References (61)

1. For example, J. Baker-Penoyre, JHS 29 (1909) 215–18, fig. 7, pi. XX
2. W. Déonna, RA 13 (1909) 11ff.
3. A. Conze, Reise auf den Inseln des Thrakischen Meeres (Hannover 1860) 10, pl. VII, 2.
4. For further bibliography, see P. Devambez, ‘La “grotte de Pan” à Thasos’, in Mélanges d'histoire ancienne el d'archeolo-gie offerts à Paul Collart (Lausanne 1976) 117–23 at p. 117.
5. Devambez (n. 1)
6. Guide de Thasos (Athens and Paris 1967).
7. See Devambez (n.1) 119.
8. S. Casson, Macedonia, Thrace and Illyria: Their Relations to Greece from the Earliest Times down to the Time of Philip Son of Amyntas (Oxford 1926) 257–8. The relief was found in secondary use: fig. 88.
9. Devambez (n. 1)
10. Guide de Thasos 58
11. Devambez (n.1) 117.
12. P. Borgeaud, The Cult of Pan in Ancient Greece (Chicago 1988 [1979]) 49.
13. The Champ Heralis and Champ Dimitriadis sondages (1960–1). In the former was found an apsidal or oval house with Thracian, Macedonian and Aeolian ceramic. These sondages have been fully published by P. Bernard, ‘Céramiques de la première moitié du Vile siècle à Thasos’, BCHSS (1964) 77–146.
14. Similar ceramic was also found in the lowest levels of the Artemision, see N. Weill La plastique archaique de Thasos I (Et.Thas. XI, Athens and Paris 1985).
15. See also Graham's analysis of this material: A.J. Graham, ‘The foundation of Thasos’, ABSA 73 (1978) 61–98.
16. Bernard (n.8) 80–83
17. Weill (n.8).
18. The early burial record of Thasos town is not well known. The location of the Hellenistic and Roman cemetery is known, the fourth century is well represented, but only a few stray Late Archaic and fifth-century BC graves have come to light. Graham (n.8) 61.
19. For a full discussion of Greek cemeteries on Thasos, see AEMTH 10, 769–78.
20. Hoddinott has suggested before that this cave could have something to do with Thracian cult, but did not suggest that it was in fact a rock-cut tomb: R. Hoddinott, The Thracians (London 1981) 79.
21. P. Delev, ‘Problemi na Trakiyskite megalitni pametnitsi’, in Megalitile v Trakiya II, Trakiiski Pametnitsi 3 (Sofia 1982) 398–423
22. A. Fol (ed.), Megalitile v Trakiya I, Trakiiski Pametnitsi I (Sofia 1976).
23. E.g. K. Skorpil, ‘Arheologicheski belezhki ot Strandja planina’, Izvestia na Bulgarskoto Arheologichesko Druzhestvo 3 (1912/1913) 235–62
24. K. Skorpil, ‘Megalitni pametnitsi i mogilishta’, Starini v Chernomorskata oblast 1 (Sofia 1925)
25. cf. Fol (n.12).
26. See Fol (n.12)
27. P. Delev, ‘Megalithic Thracian tombs in south-eastern Bulgaria’, Anatolica 11 (1984) 17–45.
28. Z. Archibald, The Odrysian Kingdom of Thrace: Orpheus Unmasked (Oxford 1998) 65.
29. So Skorpil 1912/1913 (n.13)
30. I. Venedikov, ‘L'architecture sépulcrale en Thrace’, Pulpudeva 1 (1976) 56–62
31. cf. Archibald (n.15) 65. It should also be noted that Thasos' built tombs at Kastri, although different from dolmens, have some striking features in common with them: e.g. the occasional use of a large plate of schist as a roof for the grave chamber.
32. See Ch. Koukouli-Chrysanthaki, Protoistorike Thasos (Athens 1996).
33. Z. Zdravkova, ‘Some newly discovered megalithic monuments in the Rhodope mountains’, Pulpudeva 5 (1986) 195–203.
34. The recent discovery of a cemetery of three rock-cut tombs near the village of Pchelari (Stambol region) has given us a set of burials which were undisturbed and could be excavated properly. All three can be dated, by both fibulae and ceramic evidence, to the ninth/eighth century BC (G. Nekhrizov, ‘Prinos kum prouchvaneto na skalnite grobnitsi v iztochnite Rodopi’, Minalo 2 (1994) 5–11).
35. Cf. Fol (n.12)
36. Delev (n.12)
37. Delev (n. 14)
38. V. Mikov,‘Proizhodat na kupol-nite grobnitsi v Trakia’, Izvestia na Bulgarskia Arheologicheski Institut 19 (1955) 15–18 at p. 29 for rock-cut tombs at Shiroko Pole (eighth/seventh centuries bc).
39. P. Stoyanov, Mogilen Nekropol ot Rannozhelyaznata Epokha: Sboryanovo I. Early Iron Age Tumular Necropolis: Sboryanovo I (Sofia 1997) 123.
40. A. Gotsev, ‘Characteristics of the settlement system during the Early Iron Age in Ancient Thrace’, in H. Damgaard Andersen, H.W. Horsnaes, S. Honby and A. Rathje (eds.), Urbanization in the Mediterranean in the Ninth to Sixth Centuries bc (Acta Hyperborea 7, Copenhagen 1997) 407–21 at p. 411.
41. See A. Gotsev, ‘Contacts and interactions across the Eastern Balkan Range during the Early Iron Age’, Helis 3 (1994) 53
42. A. Gotsev (n.20). These megalithic forms have been divorced too far from other modes of burial in the Southern Thracian area, and it is only through a thorough study of all the forms-a study yet to be undertaken-that one might obtain a greater understanding of the ritual landscape of EIA Thrace.
43. See Gotsev (n.21) 53. I am indebted to Alexei Gotsev for discussing this material with me.
44. See A. Gotsev (n.20) 412 and (n.21) 53.
45. M. Edmonds, Ancestral Geographies of the Neolithic-Landscapes, Monuments and Memory (London and New York 1999) 134.
46. See my PhD thesis: ‘A theory of Greek colonisation: EIA Thrace and initial Greek contacts’ (University of Cambridge 1999).
47. N. Moutsopoulos, ‘Les sgraffites du Pangaion’, in In Memoriam Panayotis A. Michelis (Athens 1971) 482–9.
48. 5 km north-east of Maroneia: see ADelt 33 Chr 306–7
49. AR 1985–1986,71.
50. See e.g. Delev (n.14) 28.
51. Baker-Penoyre (n.1) 218
52. cf. Devambez's (n.1) discussion (118–19), which suggests that such a structure would not be stable!
53. I. Balkanski, Krumovgrad, arheologicheski pametnitsi (Krumovgrad 1978) 10.
54. Cf. also the large rock-cut complexes at Malko Gradishte and Gluhite Kameni: Fol (n.12).
55. Some have even gone so far as to assume that the whole complex should be dated to the late fifth/early fourth century. For example, N. Nikolov, S. Zlatev and K. Vasileva, ‘Astronomicheskiyat smisul na trakiiskiya pametnik Tatoul’, Arheologiya 30.2 (1988) 28–31, in their archaeoastronomical analysis, claim that the whole complex apart from the sarcophagus-shaped ‘tomb’ on the top dates from the fifth/fourth century. However, this idea is based upon the fact that the sarcophagus tomb on the top of the rock seems more eroded than the rest. Against this is the fact that the ‘sarcophagus’ is simply in a more exposed position and that sarcophagus-type rock cuttings are often found in association with rock-cut tombs.
56. At Gluhite Kameni, for example, the sarcophagus cutting appears also on the flat rocky surface above a rock-cut tomb: Fol (n. 12).
57. Excavations around Tatoul rock-cut tomb have uncovered EIA II pottery (eighth-sixth centuries bc) and some Classical material: Balkanski (n.31) 10
58. Delev 1984 (n.14).
59. For Tatoul, see Fol (n.12) 94–95.
60. Similar examples are found at Ovchevo and Raven (see Fol (n.12) 90–94).
61. The cult of Pan is not, however, known outside the Peloponnese before the fifth century bc: Borgeaud (n.7) 48.