seen & unseen spaces edited by Matthew Dalton, Georgie Peters & Ana Tavares ANNO • DOM M•D•CCCC•III Contents Introduction: Seen and unseen spaces 1 Matthew Dalton, Georgie Peters and Ana Tavares 'Out of sight': The role of Kfar HaHoresh within the PPNB landscape of the Lower Galilee, Israel 7 Michal Birkenfeld and A. Nigel Goring-Morris Site and scene: Evaluating visibility in monument placement during the 17 Bronze Age of West Penwith, Cornwall, United Kingdom Chelsee Arbour (In)visible cities: The abandoned Early Bronze Age tells in the landscape of the 28 Intermediate Bronze Age southern Levant Sarit Paz ‘All that we see or seem’: Space, memory and Greek akropoleis 37 Robin Rönnlund Becoming visible: The formation of urban boundaries in the oppidum of Manching (Bavaria) 44 Thimo Jacob Brestel Mutable spaces and unseen places: A study of access, communication and spatial 52 control in households at Early Iron Age (EIA) Zagora on Andros Kristen Mann Privacy and production: Sensory aspects of household industry in Classical and Hellenistic Greece 63 Katherine Harrington Some thoughts on the habits of graffiti-writing: Visual aspects of 70 scratched inscriptions within Pompeian houses Polly Lohmann Visibility, private religion and the urban landscape of Amarna 77 Anna Stevens In the eyes of the other: The mythological wall reliefs in the Southwest Palace at Nineveh 85 Kiersten A. Neumann Ziggurats: A viewer’s guide 94 Mary Shepperson Modelling household identity in a multi-ethnic society 102 Miriam Müller From vision to cosmovision: Memory and the senses in the creation of Maya ritual space 113 Lisa M. Johnson, James M. Crandall and Lucas R. Martindale Johnson Visualising personhood: Race, space and materiality in the historic 123 mortuary landscapes of eastern Long Island Emily Button Kambic Segregation of mortuary spaces within the context of double funerals: 134 An ethnoarchaeological approach applied to Neolithic Pouilly (France) Jennifer Kerner Creating visual boundaries between the ‘sacred’ and ‘secular’ in New Kingdom Egypt 143 Nicola Harrington Life after death: Shrouded burials in later Anglo-Saxon England 150 Siân Mui Book Reviews Edited by Matthew Dalton Archaeology and the Senses: Human Experience, Memory, and Affect 157 By Yannis Hamilakis Reviewed by Lucy Shipley An Archaeology of the Troubles: The Dark Heritage of Long Kesh/Maze Prison 159 By Laura McAtackney Reviewed by Calum Gavin Robertson Animals as Neighbors. The Past and Present of Commensal Species 160 By Terry O'Connor Reviewed by William C. McGrew Forthcoming issues and subscription information 162 Available back issues 163 April 2015 | Seen and Unseen Spaces ‘All that we see or seem’: Space, memory and Greek akropoleis Robin Rönnlund Classical Archaeology and Ancient History Department of Historical Studies University of Gothenburg [email protected] For much of its history, the main form of polity in the distinguishable and often elevated sites in close proximity to ancient Greek cultural sphere was the polis.1 Beginning in the urban centre of a polis, the asty (Lawrence 1979: 126).3 the early Greek Iron Age and ending in the troubled centu- However, the over three hundred sites identified in literature ries of Late Antiquity, the polis endured through almost a as akropoleis (fig. 1) show considerable variations in these millennium of political turmoil in the wider Mediterranean characteristics. Even if unusual, some examples are not by succeeding in adapting itself to an ever-changing world separately enclosed (Thisbe in Boeotia, for example), some (Hansen and Nielsen 2004: 16). Surviving many periods of are found close to forms of settlements other thanpoleis (as change, the poleis evolved throughout this long timespan, at Omvriaki in Thessaly), while others do not seem to be but much of their organization and many of their institu- located on elevated or otherwise distinguishable positions tions continued to exist from beginning to end. (Halai in East Locris). No textual definitions of the word In this paper, I will argue for an understanding of the akropolis survive from Antiquity, and the term is often some- spatial organization of the Greek polis based upon the con- what carelessly applied by archaeologists to a wide variety of cepts of visibility, memory and entitlement. The temporal features found even outside of the ancient Greek world. extent of this paper has been limited to the period after the This somewhat diverse situation is mirrored in the so-called Dark Ages of the early Iron Age until the time of modern scholarly interpretations of the purpose and function the Roman conquest, an event that changed much of the of these features. The monolithic presence of theAkropolis political organization of Greece. with a capital ‘A’—that of Athens—always lingers behind I will focus on one of the characteristic features of the descriptions and interpretations, this in spite of Athens being polis, the fortified hilltops known asakropoleis ,2 and how often regarded as the ‘great exception’ amongpoleis (for their great visibility and commanding positions helped to example Meier 2011: 240). Even if many scholarly works create, shape and define the polis, ultimately making it visible do not mention the existence of other akropoleis, there is an in space. This, I hope, could be a starting point for a new apparent consensus that many if not most Greek poleis were understanding of the spatiality of the Greek polis, freer from equipped with this kind of structure, allowing for the stated the biases of our modern territorial world. variation (Lawrence 1979: 126; Winter 1971: 6; Wokalek 1973: 13–17). On this assumption, we may perhaps deduce Akropoleis that akropoleis were integrated and defining elements of the polis, in much the same way as council-halls, theatres and city Theakropoleis stand unrivalled in size and visual prominence walls (Hansen and Nielsen 2004: 135–137).4 amongst the still-visible architectural features of the ancient Greek world (Wycherley 1949: 37–38). An approximate 3 Asty, a term roughly corresponding to the inhabited part of translation of the word akropolis is ‘higher polis’; they can the polis settlement. generally be described as walled enclosures located on 4 That manypoleis had by the Archaic period (800–480 BC) already located the temple of their tutelary deity on the akropolis further indicates the importance of these locations for polis 1 Polis (pl. poleis), often translated as city or city state. identity. Examples of this are many; see for instance Thebai 2 Akropolis, pl. akropoleis. Phthiotides, Gonnoi, Rhodos and of course Athens. Archaeological Review from Cambridge 30.1 Robin Rönnlund | 38 Figure 1. The distribution ofakropoleis in the Archaic and Classical periods according to Hansen and Nielsen 2004 (drawn by Robin Rönnlund). The most notable prevailing interpretations ofakropoleis there are few or no remains of Bronze Age activity at the by modern scholars are that they were either evacuation vast majority of akropolis sites, making this interpretation centres or the remnants of a site’s earliest settlement (or seem highly unlikely. both). The former notion is probably induced by the Likewise, the notion that the members of the polis took impressive walls encircling many of the akropoleis, which are flight to theakropolis when the enemy approached the often interpreted as an expression of security and defence. settlement, however widespread, is supported by very little This interpretation would imply that the monumental walls actual evidence. The literary examples of this phenomenon were constructed as a response to potential attack and acting as (such as Livy 42.67.10; Polybius 4.72) seem to have been evacuation centres for the population in times of peril (Bakhu- exceptions that took place in unusual circumstances, such as izen 1992: 187; Lee 2006: 496; Wokalek 1973: 17–18). the Social War (220–217 BC) and Third Macedonian war Scholars in favour of the latter interpretation often (171–168 BC)—both parts of a series of conflicts ultimately follow the model presented by von Gerkan (1924: 7–8). leading to the annexation of Greece by the Roman Empire. This model stipulates that the Bronze Age predecessors of The lack of fresh water and shelter, together with their early Greek settlements were located on hilltops, which by rather exposed positions, made akropoleis unsuitable for the the time of polis state development in the early Iron Age had accommodation of large numbers of refugees. Most sources ‘slid’ downhill to locations on adjacent plains, with the old instead indicate that the poleis chose to evacuate women, settlement remaining as aBurg 5 to be used in case of danger children, slaves and livestock to nearby mountainous areas, (Kirsten 1956; Martin 1956: 32; Wokalek 1973: 17–18). while the rest of the population stayed and defended the A closer examination of these two models, however, urban settlement proper (Hanson 1998: 114–116). demonstrates that both rely on scarce literary and archae- If examples of flight to theakropoleis are very rarely ological evidence. The idea of the ‘sliding settlement’ has attested by textual or archaeological evidence, instances been criticized as a fallacy based on an incomplete under- where the akropolis was the operational centre of a garri- standing of the earliest history of Athens (Kolb 1984: 72; son are plentiful, especially in the later Hellenistic period Lang 1996: 22, for example); these critics point out that (ca 300–30 BC). During this politically turbulent period, garrisoned akropoleis symbolized the presence of the great 5 The German wordBurg , often used by the cited scholars, implies powers of the day. Locating occupying enemy forces in an a ‘citadel’, ‘fortification’ or ‘castle’, but also connotes ‘refuge’. akropolis also limited the potential friction between merce- April 2015 | Seen and Unseen Spaces 39 | All that we see or seem naries and locals, without the occupants losing their grasp of To Anderson (2013: 76), fortifications are power and the polis (Lawrence 1979: 130).