The Role of Metals in Ancient Greek History

557 Pages·1995·15.866 MB·English

by  Michail Yu Treister

THE ROLE OF METALS IN
ANCIENT GREEK HISTORY
BY
MICHAIL YU. TREISTER
E.J. BRILL
LEIDEN · NEW YORK · KOLN
1996
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Treister, Michail Yu.
The role of metals in ancient Greek history / by Michail Yu.
Treister.
p. cm. - (Mnemosyne, bibliotheca classica Batava.
Supplementum, ISSN 0 169-8958 ; 156)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 9004104739 (cloth: alk. paper)
I. Metal-work-Greece-History. 2. Metals-Economic aspects-
-Greece-History. 3. Metallurgy-Greece-History. 4. Civilization,
Greco-Roman. 5. Classical antiquities. 6. Greece-History.
I. Title. II. Series.
TS225.2.GBT74 1995
67 l '.0938-dc20 95-44263
CIP
Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
[Mnemosyne / Supplementum]
Mnemosyne : bibliotheca classica Batava. Supplementum. -
Leiden ; New York; Koln : Brill.
Friiher Schriftenreihe
Reihe Supplementum zu: Mnemosyne
156. Treister, Michail Yu.: The role of metals in ancient Greek
history. - 1996
Treister, Michail Yu.:
The role of metals in ancient Greek history / by Michail Yu.
Treister. - Leiden ; New York ; Koln : Brill, 1996
(Mnemosyne : Supplementum ; 156)
ISBN 90--04-10473-9
ISSN 0 169-8958
ISBN 90 04 10473 9
© Copyright 1996 by EJ. Brill, Leiden, Tu Netherl.ands
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PRINfED IN THE NETHERLANDS
CONTENTS
Introduction
lX
Chapter 1. Historiography and Models of Study
1. 1. Historiographical Survey ......... ........ ..... .. ................ ... 1
1.2. Problems of Studies................................................... 7
1.3. Models of Production................................................ 8
1.3.1. Mining and Metallurgy .... .... ............ ... .... ......... ... ... . ... 8
1.3.2. Metalworking ................... ..... ... ............... ................ ... 11
1. 4. Models of Distribution ........ ..... ....... ................... .... ... 16
Chapter 2. The Role of Metals in the Period of Greek
Colonization
2.1. Mining according to Ancient Written Sources........ 21
2.2. Mining according to Archaeological and
Archaeometallurgical Studies ................................... 21
2.2.1. Metalworkshops in the Light of Archaeological
and Archaeometallurgical Studies............................ 34
2.2.2. Workshops in the Light of the Stylistic Analysis
of Metal Objects .... .................. ........ ..... ...................... 38
2.2.2.1. The Geometric Period............................................... 38
2.2.2.2. The Archaic Period.................................................... 53
2.2.3. Metalworking in the Period of Greek
Colonization . ............ ........ ........ ... ............ ....... ...... ... ... 76
2.2.3.1. General Characteristics ............................................. 76
2.2.3.2. The Division of Labour and Specialization of
Crafts ........................................................................... 82
2.2.3.3. Migrations of Craftsmen............................................ 86
2.2.3.4. The Place of Metalworkers in the Social Structure
of Society . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . .. . . . . 92
2.3.1. Prices of Metals .......................................................... 96
2.3.2. The Transportation of Metals................................... 97
2.3.3. The Distribution of Metal Objects ............................ 103
2.3.3.1. Votive Offerings at Sanctuaries ................................. 103
2.3.3.2. Burial Inventories ...................................................... 115
2.3.3.3. Trade .......................................................................... 116
2.4.1. The Role of Metals in the Greek Economy of the
8th-6th Centuries B.C ................................................ 120
2.4.2. The Search for Metals and the Greek Colonization 146
vi CONTENTS
Chapter 3. The Role of Metals in the Classical Era
3.1. Mining according to the Classical Written Sources 182
3.2. Mining in the Light of Archaeological and
Archaeometallurgical Studies ................................... 187
3.2.1. Metalworking Shops in the Light of Archaeologi-
cal and Archaeometallurgical Studies ...................... 190
3.2.1.1. Metalworking Shops in Town Structures ................. 194
3.2.2. Workshops in the Light of the Stylistic Analysis of
Metal Objects ............................................................. 197
3.2.3. Classical Metalworking .............................................. 213
3.2.3.1. General Characteristics ............................................. 213
3.2.3.2. The Process Forming of Large Metal Workshops ... 218
3.2.3.3. The Specialization of Craft Industry, the Copying
and Reproduction of Originals ................................. 230
3.2.3.4. Workshops and Schools ............................................ 233
3.2.3.5. Migrations of Craftsmen. Greek Craftsmen on the
Periphery of the Classical World .............................. 237
3.2.3.6. Oriental Craftsmen in Greek Workshops? ............... 243
3.2.3.7. Wandering Barbarian Craftsmen in the Greek
World? ........................................................................ 244
3.3.1. Prices of Metals .......................................................... 248
3.3.2. Trade in Metals .......................................................... 252
3.3.3. The Distribution of Metal Objects ............................ 260
3.3.3.1. Trade .......................................................................... 260
3.3.3.2. The Distribution of War Booty. Dedications at the
Sanctuaries ................................................................. 262
3.3.3.3. "Technological Redistribution" ................................ 266
3.3.3.4. Burial Inventories ...................................................... 269
3.3.3.5. "Irreversible Depositing" ........................................... 269
3.4. The Role of Metals in Economic and Political
Developments in the Classical Era ......... :. ................. 270
Chapter 4. The Role of Metals in the Hellenistic Era
4.1.1-2. Mining in the Light of Ancient Written Sources
and of the Results of Archaeological and Archaeo-
metallurgical Studies ................................................. 288
4.2.1. Metalworkshops in the Light of Archaeological
and Archaeometallurgical Studies ............................ 294
4.2.1.1. Metalworkshops in the Infrastructure of Cities ....... 298
4.2.2. Workshops in the Light of the Stylistic Analysis of
Metal Objects ............................................................. 298
CONTENTS VII
4.2.3. Metalworking in the Hellenistic Era ......................... 324
4.2.3.1. General Characteristics ............................................. 324
4.2.3.2. Specialization of Crafts, and the Copying and
Reproduction of Originals ........................................ 328
4.2.3.3. Migrations of Craftsmen ............................................ 331
4.2.3.4. Greek Metalworking and its Influence on the
Formation of New Centres of Toreutic and
Artistic Metalwork ...................................................... 338
4.3.1. Prices of Metals and Changes in Recipes for
Alloys ........................................................................... 341
4.3.2. Trade in Metals .......................................................... 347
4.3.3. The Distribution of Metal Objects ............................ 361
4.3.3.1. Trac:!e .......................................................................... 361
4.3.3.2. The Distribution of War Booty ................................. 364
4.3.3.3. 'Technological Redistribution" ................................ 367
4.3.3.4. Burial Inventories ...................................................... 369
4.3.3.5. "Necrocorinthia" ........................................................ 369
4.3.3.6. "Irreversible Depositing" ........................................... 369
4.4. The Role of Metals in Economic and Political
Developments in the Hellenistic Era ........................ 370
Conclusion 388
Appendix I. Bibliography ............................................................ 404
Appendix II. List of Abbreviations .............................................. 455
Appendix III. List of Illustrations ................................................ 461
Appendix IV. Index ...................................................................... 464
Appendix V. Illustrations ............................................................. 483

INTRODUCTION
The motive for writing this book arises from a desire to offer an
multidisciplinary approach-it is an attempt to argue the role of
metals in the history of Greek society using the widest possible va-
riety of sources: the evidence of ancient writers and epigraphi-
cal material, archaeological data: the excavated remains of work-
shops and hoards, archaeometallurgical finds: the results of stud-
ies of ancient mines and analyses of ancient metal objects; bronze
plastics and jewelry, coins etc. At present, at a time when the
source basis of archaeological investigations is being constantly
developed and more and more specialised monographic studies
appear, the very possibility of such approach may be called into
question. It is quite natural that the narrow specialization of mod-
em science makes such projects difficult to realize. However, this
approach should remain our aim. Otherwise there will be a steady
tendency to reduce the source base for scholarship which would
finally be limited to only a single sort of source, which seems un-
acceptable.
Such "theoretical arguments", with a direct connection with
this book, appear more and more frequently. For example, A.M.
Snodgrass has recently called on archaeologists to use surface sur-
veys rather than excavations, and calls into doubt the value of the
latter because of the incompleteness of data and the subjectivity
of interpretation1• In a note, discussing Snodgrass' thesis, M.
Popham stresses that surveys are only one of the many possible
ways of studying the Greek past2• S.C. Humphreys justly makes the
following remarks: that classical studies are no longer the domi-
nant model for all studies of antiquity. The divergence of ancient
history from the main stream of historical research and the sepa-
ration of the study of ancient texts from modem philology are
quite evident. Only recently has there been any noticeable ten-
dency towards rapprochement between. According to S.C.
Humphreys, the division of Classical archaeology from the main
body of archaeological studies is not so clear3. The specifics of the
development of Classical archaeology (tradizione winckelmanniana)
1 A.M. Snodgrass, 1987.
2 M. Popham, 1990, 34.
3 S.C. Humphreys, 1978, 128-129.
X INTRODUCTION
have led not only to a narrowing of the source base, but also to
the practical exclusion of problems related to industry and trade
from the spheres of investigation4• The methods worked out by
non-Classical (Prehistoric, American, Provincial-Roman etc.) ar-
chaeology to compensate for a lack of written sources and intri-
cate forms of art are applicable to the study of ancient world5•
A.M. Snodgrass stresses that archaeology needs various meth-
ods for the control of hypotheses. In classical archaeology there is
a need for a generalizing approach. Most branches of archaeology
study such considerable time spans that they are inevitably dis-
cussed as cultures in anthropology. At the same time, there are
epochs in the past where the condition of the sources allows ar-
chaeologists to pose original questions and to study the material
evidence in their attempts to answer these questions. Classical ar-
chaeology studies perhaps the most significant of such periods6•
Most recently I. Morris has come to a similar conclusion: "Clas-
sicists who rely mainly on texts and those who rely mainly on ar-
chaeological evidence often act as if they were two sides in a com-
petition, and one day an impartial observer will judge whose evi-
dence is best and who wins the game. We have to take our evi-
dence where we can find it; and my argument here has been that
we need to combine as many genres as possible. Historians who
write about community without using material evidence for rituals
and archaeologists who write their monographs without reference
to historical concepts both lose out... If there is a kind of evidence
which renders material culture superfluous ... we certainly do not
have it from classical antiquity"7.
The scant informational value of a single sort of source for the
study of general problems in the history of ancient society is dem-
onstrated by the following example. Often entire schools of an-
cient metalworking can be represented by several pieces. In this
way the idea may subconsciously arise that the role of metals in
ancient society was insignificant. Archaeological data in this case
cannot provide an objective picture, given that a considerable
part of ancient gold and silver artefacts was melted down and re-
used in later periods8. In modern scholarship there is a clear ten-
dency to use various approaches in the investigation of this or that
4 W.-D. Heitmeyer, 1986, 95-98.
5 S.C. Humphreys, 1978, 129; N. Wilkie, 1991, 307.
6 A.M. Snodgrass, 1987, 34-35.
7 I. Morris, 1992, 200-20 I.
8 See: M. Vickers, 1990.
INTRODUCTION XI
category of objects. John Boardman for example has only recently
stressed the applicability of art-historical and archaeological ap-
proaches in the study of ancient jewelry9.
The Aims of this Study
The main task of this work is to analyze the role of various metals
in the context of Greek economic life, politics, culture and art, to
trace the movement of metal from ore to finished objects, includ-
ing works of art, and to show the relations between the regions
where metals were extracted and the centres of metalworking, the
structure of the workshops and the connections between them
and the role of the workshops in economic life at different stages
in Greek history.
The chronological span of this study is the 8th-1st centuries
B.C., i.e. from the beginning of the period of Greek colonization
till the end of the Hellenistic era. The geographical scope of the
work is the Greek oikumene.
In each chapter I shall discuss all the known modern material
concerning mining, metallurgy and metalworking on the basis
of multidisciplinary studies of various categories of sources, not
only narrative sources, but new archaeological data (including
that from underwater investigations) and archaeometallurgical
sources as well (for instance, I shall use the results of applying
modern techniques from the natural sciences to trace the move-
ments of metals). Stylistic analyses of different categories of metal
artefacts (sculptures, small plastics, vessels, jewelry etc.) are used
to differentiate schools and centres of metalworking and to com-
plete the picture of the development of metal workshops known
from written documents and archaeological data. The mapping of
finds of metal objects onto information from narrative sources al-
lows one to argue for models for the distribution of articles of
gold, silver, bronze etc. The materials analyzed provide a basis for
historical conclusions about the influence of mining and metal-
working, the manufacture and distribution of metal objects on
the economic, political and cultural evolution of Greek society,
about the links of these processes with such historical events as
colonization, wars, and the political relations of the various Greek
states.
J.
9 Boardman, 1991.
xii
INTRODUCTION
Some general remarks should be made. This book cannot be
regarded as a definitive survey of the history of mining and metal-
lurgy in the Greek world. Many questions still await a solution, so
this is rather an interim report. I would also like to mention that
particular metals, like copper alloys and precious metals, have re-
ceived more attention, while iron is less frequently discussed in
the book. This is explained by the fact that articles made of
bronze and precious metals offer better possibilities for stylistic
analysis because of a wider variety of shapes, moreover objects
made of bronze, silver, and gold can be studied by comparisons
with casting moulds and matrices. This kind of analysis gives a
unique chance to address questions about the centres of manu-
facture, which I am trying to demonstrate here. The natural
sciences with their new approaches also present much more con-
clusive possibilities for analyzing copper-based alloys and precious
metals than iron. The study of iron objects is, thus, a task for
scholars in the future. Recently an attempt was undertaken to cre-
ate an interdisciplinary synthesis in studying pre-industrial iron-
making. The co-authors of this, W. Rostoker and B. Bronson, who
represent two different disciplines-technology and anthropol-
ogy, set themselves the aim not "to revise history, but rather to
construct a stronger foundation upon which better history can be
written by those professionally trained to do so"10. However, the
history of ancient Greek ironmaking has not found reflection in
this book. I do not pretend to give a systematic survey of the tech-
niques of mining and geology. A fair quantity of systematic infor-
mation about these problems is to be found in general books on
the history of ancient mining, which I will discuss briefly below. I
shall concentrate my attention on the role of metals in history, a
problem, which to my mind, has received far less attention in the
scholarly literature. In this respect I shall really be dwelling more
on finished articles, from tools, arms, and utensils to works of art,
and shall try to discuss questions concerning manufacturing cen-
tres, production and distribution of finished products.
Given then the main tasks outlined above, the book has the fol-
lowing fundamental structure:
I.I. Mining according to ancient narrative sources.
1.2. Mining according to the data of archaeological and ar-
chaeometallurgical studies.
10 W. Rostoker, B. Bronson, 1990.