Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T01:26:33.322Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rocks, views, soils and plants at the temples of ancient Greece

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Gregory J. Retallack
Gregory J. Retallack*
Affiliation:
*Department of Geological Sciences, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 974034-1272, USA (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This study explores bedrock geology, topographic setting, compass orientation, soil profile and plant cover at 84 temples of Classical (480-338 BC) mainland Greece, several Aegean islands and Cyprus. A striking pattern emerges: the soil and vegetation matches the dedications to particular deities, suggesting an economic basis for particular cults.

Keywords

Greecetemplessoilland-usegeobotanyarchaeological geology
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 82 , Issue 317 , September 2008 , pp. 640 - 657
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bech Borràs, J. 1999. Coneixements sobre sols a l'antigua Grècia amb algunes dades de la prehistoria i de civilitzacions prefèrites. Memoria de la Retai Academia de Ciencies i Arts de Barcelona 57 (10): 518.Google Scholar
Burford, A. 1993. Land and labor in the Greek world. Baltimore (MD): Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Burkert, W 1985. Greek religion of the Archaic and Classical epoch (translated by John Raffan). Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Bury, R. G. 1947. Plato, volume 10, Laws 1 (Loeb Classical Library). Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Bury, R. G. 1948. Plato, volume 11, Laws 2 (Loeb Classical Library). Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Bury, R. G. 1952. Plato, volume 7, Timaeus, Critias, Cleitophon, Menexenus, Epistles (Loeb Classical Library). Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Càtling, H.W 1998. The work of the British School at Athens at Sparta in Laconia, in Cavanagh, WG. & Walker, S.E.C. (ed.) Sparta in Laconia (British School at Athens Studies 4): 19–27. London: British School at Athens.Google Scholar
Food & Agriculture Organization. 1981. Soil map of the world (Volume 5: Europe). Paris: UNESCO.Google Scholar
Georgiàdes, A.N. 1947. Les thermes de ‘Vulcain’ dans l’ îlede Lemnos. G'éologie des Pays Helléniques 1: 194–203.Google Scholar
Godley, A. D. 1924. Herodotus volume 4 (Loeb Classical Library). New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.Google Scholar
Grove, A. T. & Rackham, O.. 2001. The nature of Mediterranean Europe. New Haven (CT): Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Haidouti, C. & Yassoglou, N. J.. 1982. The genesis of certain soil profiles on an archaeological site in southern Greece. Soil Science Society of America Journal 46: 1047–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanson, V.D. 1995. The other Greeks: the family farm and the agrarian roots of western civilization. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Higgins, M. D. & Higgins, R.. 1996. A geological companion to Greece and the Aegean Islands. Ithaca (NY): Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Jacobhausen, V. 1967. Cephalopoden Stratigraphie der Hallstatter Kalke am Asklepeion von Epidauros (Argolis, Griechenland). Geologica et Palaeontologica 1: 13–29.Google Scholar
Jones, H. L. 1927. The geography of Strabo, volume 4 (Loeb Classical Library). New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.Google Scholar
Jones, H. L. 1950. The geography of Strabo, volume 6 (Loeb Classical Library). New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.Google Scholar
Jones, W.H.S. 1931. Pausanias, Description of Greece, volume 1 (Loeb Classical Library). New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.Google Scholar
Jones, W.H.S. 1935. Pausanias, Description of Greece, volume 4 (Loeb Classical Library). Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Jones, W.H.S. 1939. Pausanias, Description of Greece, volume 3 (Loeb Classical Library). Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Jones, W.H.S. & Ormerod, M. A.. 1926. Pausanias, Description of Greece, volume 2 (Loeb Classical Library). New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.Google Scholar
Kosmàs, C.S., Dànàlàtos, N. G. & Mizar, A.À. 1998. Greece, in Conacher, A. J. & Sala, M. (ed.) Land degradation in the Mediterranean environments of the world: nature and extent, causes and solutions. Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Murrày, A.T. 1994. The Odyssey, by Homer, English & Greek (Loeb Classical Library). Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Olalla, P. 2002. Mythological atlas of Greece. Athens: Road Publications.Google Scholar
Oldfather, C.H. 1939. Diodorus of Sicily, volume 3 (Loeb Classical Library). Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Piccardi, L. 2000. Active faulting at Delphi, Greece: seismotectonic events and a hypothesis for the geologic environment ofa myth. Geology 28: 651–4.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polunin, O. 1980. Flowers of Greece and the Balkans. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pope, K. O. & Van Andel, T. H.. 1984. Late Quaternary alluviation and soil formation in southern Argolid: its history, causes and archaeological implications. Journal of Archaeological Science 11: 281–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Retallack, G. J. 1997. A colour guide to paleosols. Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Retallack, G. J. 2001. Soils of the past: Oxford: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richer, J. 1994. Sacred geography of the ancient Greeks. Albany (NY): State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Sallares, R. 1991. The ecology of the ancient Greek world. Ithaca (NY): Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Scully, V. J. 1979. The earth, the temple, and the gods. New Haven (CT): Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, C. F. 1954. Thucydides (Loeb Classical Library). Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Smyth, H. W. 1922. Aeschylus, volume 1, Suppliant Maidens, Persians, Prometheus, Seven against Thebes (Loeb Classical Library). New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.Google Scholar
Soil Survey Staff. 2000. Keys to soil taxonomy. Blacksburg (VA): Pocahontas Press.Google Scholar
Soteriades, C.G. & Koundounas, C.. 1969. Soil memoirs of Paphos Sheet no. 51. Cyprus Department of Agriculture Series Report 1: 96.Google Scholar
Sourvinou-Inwood, C. 2000. What is polis religion?, in Buxton, R. (ed.) Oxfordreadings in Greek religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stillwell, R., Macdonald, W. L. & Mcallister, M. H. (ed.). 1976. The Princeton Encyclopaedia of Classical Sites. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Strelan, R. 1996. Paul, Artemis and the Jews in Ephesus (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der alteren Kirche). Berlin: de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, J. C., Macklin, M. G. & Lewin, J.. 1994. Pedogenic weathering and relative age dating of Quaternary alluvial sediments in the Pindos Mountains of northwest Greece, in Robinson, D. A. & Williams, R.B.G. (ed.) Rock weatheringand landform evolution: 259–283. Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Van Andel, T.H. & Runnels, C. N.. 1987. Beyond the Acropolis: a rural Greek past. Stanford (CA): Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Van Andel, T.H. & Runnels, C. N.. 1995. The earliest farmers in Europe: soil preferences and demic diffusion pathways. Antiquity 69: 481–500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar