Excavations at Nemea: The early Hellenistic Stadium

Excavations at Nemea: The early Hellenistic Stadium
Author: Darice Elizabeth Birge
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 424
Release: 1992
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780520216778

Since 1974, under the direction of Stephen G. Miller, the Classics Department of the University of California, Berkeley, has been excavating at Nemea, one of four sites in Greece of ancient athletic games and festivals. This second volume in theExcavations at Nemeaseries presents the Early Hellenistic stadium, used to celebrate the games from around 330 to 271 b.c. The presentation of remains includes findings on related structures--the entrance tunnel, with its ancient graffiti, and the Apodyterion, or undressing room, used by the athletes who competed--as well as on the track, the hydraulic system, the seating for judges and spectators, the starting line, the starting mechanism, and the turning post for foot races. All the structures and artifacts are set into the broader context of other contemporaneous stadia. The contributing authors provide insight into the Games at Nemea by analyzing the coins found at the site and relating them to the makeup of the crowds and by giving a human dimension to the Games by focusing on an inscription honoring the death of a Lydian there. The architectural remains at Nemea give a "stop action" picture of the stadium and the activities associated with it at the beginning of the Hellenistic era. They represent evidence of an entertainment industry that began to develop, in both theatrical performances and athletic contests, in the time of Alexander the Great--one that set apart professional performers from citizen spectators, a separation that also reflected changes in Hellenistic education and society.

The Early Hellenistic Peloponnese

The Early Hellenistic Peloponnese
Author: D. Graham J. Shipley
Publisher:
Total Pages: 389
Release: 2018-06-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 052187369X

Examines developments in the heartland of Greece after the reign of Alexander the Great, and rejects the usual pessimistic picture.

Onward to the Olympics

Onward to the Olympics
Author: Gerald P. Schaus
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
Total Pages: 406
Release: 2009-08-02
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1554587794

The Olympic Games have had two lives—the first lasted for a millennium with celebrations every four years at Olympia to honour the god Zeus. The second has blossomed over the past century, from a simple start in Athens in 1896 to a dazzling return to Greece in 2004. Onward to the Olympics provides both an overview and an array of insights into aspects of the Games’ history. Leading North American archaeologists and historians of sport explore the origins of the Games, compare the ancient and the modern, discuss the organization and financing of such massive athletic festivals, and examine the participation ,or the troubling lack of it, by women. Onward to the Olympics bridges the historical divide between the ancient and the modern and concludes with a thought-provoking final essay that attempts to predict the future of the Olympics over the twenty-first century.

A Social and Economic History of the Theatre to 300 BC

A Social and Economic History of the Theatre to 300 BC
Author: Eric Csapo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 961
Release: 2020-01-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 0521765579

This is the second volume of A Social and Economic History of the Theatre to 300 BC and focuses exclusively on theatre culture in Attica (Rural Dionysia) and the rest of the Greek world. It presents and discusses in detail all the documentary and material evidence for theatre culture and dramatic production from the first two centuries of theatre history, namely the period c.500 to c.300 BC. The traditional assumption is laid to rest that theatre was an exclusively or primarily Athenian institution, with the inclusion of all sources of information for theatrical performances in twenty-two deme sites and over one hundred and twenty independent Greek (and some non-Greek) cities. All texts are translated and made accessible to non-specialists and specialists alike. The volume will be a fundamental work of reference for all classicists and theatre historians interested in ancient theatre and its wider historical contexts.

The Oxford Handbook Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World

The Oxford Handbook Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World
Author: Alison Futrell
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 769
Release: 2021
Genre: History
ISBN: 019959208X

This Handbook presents innovative research on sport and spectacle in ancient Greece and Rome, exploring historical perspectives, contest forms, and civic and social aspects such as class, spaces, health, gender, and sexuality. Greek and Roman topics are interwoven to simulate contest-like tensions and complementarities between the two cultures.

The Ancient Theatre at Kalydon in Aitolia

The Ancient Theatre at Kalydon in Aitolia
Author: Rune Frederiksen
Publisher: Aarhus Universitetsforlag
Total Pages: 715
Release: 2023-08-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 877219474X

The theatre at Kalydon in Aitolia – known only since a few decades – has already attracted a lot of attention due to its square orchestra and rectilinear benches for seating. The Danish-Greek collaborative project responsible for investigating the theatre presents in this two-volume publication results of the excavation and documentation, including all finds such as tile, pottery, metals and coins, made during the excavations. The traditional analysis of the building is supplemented by an archaeoacoustic analysis comparing acoustic advantages and disadvantages between the square and semicircular design.

Excavations at Nemea III

Excavations at Nemea III
Author: Robert C. Knapp
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2005-05-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0520927907

Since 1974 the University of California at Berkeley has been sponsoring extensive excavations at the Panhellenic athletic festival center of ancient Nemea in the modern Greek province of Korinthia. With its well-documented excavation and clear historical context, the site offers an excellent opportunity for investigation and analysis. This volume, the third in a series of publications on Nemea, is a detailed presentation of the more than three thousand legible coins from all over the ancient world that have been unearthed there. The coins, which are mostly bronze but show an unusually high proportion of silver, reflect the periods of greatest activity at the site—the late Archaic and Early Classical, the Early Hellenistic, the Early Christian, and the Byzantine. More than a compendium of data, the study breaks new ground with its analysis and contextualization of numismatic evidence in an archaeological setting.

Excavations at Nemea III

Excavations at Nemea III
Author: Darice Elizabeth Birge
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 366
Release: 1992
Genre: Antiques & Collectibles
ISBN: 9780520231696

Annotation The authors describe Nemea, one of the five Greek sites of ancient athletic games, and examine in great detail the coins discovered there, from the classical period to the Early Christian period and after.

Ancient Graffiti in Context

Ancient Graffiti in Context
Author: Jennifer Baird
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2010-10-18
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1136894640

Ancient Graffiti in Context brings together papers by historians and archaeologists using graffiti as evidence to explore the Greek and Roman worlds. Illuminating such varied topics as ancient emotions, Roman children, quarry workers, and military communities, this collection demonstrates the importance of this often undervalued form of evidence.

A Companion to Ancient Aesthetics

A Companion to Ancient Aesthetics
Author: Pierre Destrée
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 547
Release: 2015-07-20
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1444337645

The first of its kind, A Companion to Ancient Aesthetics presents a synoptic view of the arts, which crosses traditional boundaries and explores the aesthetic experience of the ancients across a range of media—oral, aural, visual, and literary. Investigates the many ways in which the arts were experienced and conceptualized in the ancient world Explores the aesthetic experience of the ancients across a range of media, treating literary, oral, aural, and visual arts together in a single volume Presents an integrated perspective on the major themes of ancient aesthetics which challenges traditional demarcations Raises questions about the similarities and differences between ancient and modern ways of thinking about the place of art in society