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Fifth-century contractors' marks at the Argive Heraion*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2012

Christopher Pfaff
Christopher Pfaff
Affiliation:
Florida State University
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Abstract

This article presents three single-word inscriptions carved on blocks of the large retaining wall that supported the Classical temple of Hera at the Argive Heraion. Two of the inscriptions record the name Kleomachos, while the third presumably records the first three letters of a name beginning Epi… The inscriptions, which include local Argive letter forms characteristic of the mid-fifth century, appear on ordinary wall blocks in places where they could not have been read when the terrace was completed. From the evidence of similar inscriptions at Delphi, it is argued that the inscriptions at the Argive Heraion should be identified as the marks of local contractors responsible for supplying building material to the site at a time when the sanctuary was entering a major phase of expansion.

Type
Shorter Contributions
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 121 , November 2001 , pp. 150 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 2001

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References

1 Richardson, R.B., ‘Inscriptions from the Argive Heraeum’, AJA 11 (1896) 57–8Google Scholar; re-published with slight variations in Waldstein, C. et al. , The Argive Heraeum 1 (Boston and New York 1902) 197, no.1Google Scholar.

2 Mitsos, M., 'Αργολικὴ Προσωπογραφία (Athens 1952) 107Google Scholar; Jeffery, L.H., Local Scripts of Archaic Greece (2nd edn, Oxford 1990) 152Google Scholar (LSAG2).

3 For a general discussion of contractors' marks, see Martin, R., Manuel d'architecture grecque 1 (Paris 1965) 222–5Google Scholar.

4 On the blocks of the fourth-century temple of Apollo there are inscribed names, in abbreviated form, that correspond to the names of men who appear in extant building accounts as contractors who undertook to quarry blocks, transport them, and set them into place; see Amandry, P., ‘Chronique delphique (1970-1981)’, BCH 105 (1981) 683, 686, 707Google Scholar; Amandry, P., ‘Delphes’, BCH 107 (1983) 854CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bousquet, J., Corpus des inscriptions de Delphes II (Paris 1989) 83–129Google Scholar.

5 Jeffery, LSAG2, 151-2.

6 Jeffery, LSAG2, 152.

7 Richardson (n. 1) 58.

8 For examples of kappas with some separation between the diagonals, see: IG iv.510 (Argive Heraeum 1. 202, no. III; Jeffery, LSAG2, 169, no.16b); IG iv.565 (Jeffery, LSAG2, 168, no. 5, pl. 26); IG v.1 231 (Jeffery, LSAG2, 168, no.3, pl. 126). Jeffery does not discuss variations in the letter kappa in her treatment of the Argive script.

9 Richardson‘s copy (Richardson (n.1) 57 and Waldstein (n.1) 197) correctly shows the letter as retrograde but gives it a form more conventional than it really is. Fraenkel‘s copy in IG iv mistakenly shows it as a normal three-barred sigma facing right.

10 Jeffery, LSAG2, 152.

11 Adverbs and prepositional phrases are attested occasionally on architectural elements where they served as prompts for construction workers; see A.K. Orlandos, Τὰ ὑλικὰ δομῆς τῶν ἀρχαίων 'Ελλήνων (Athens 1958) 162Google Scholar; Martin (n.3) 230-1. There would, however, have been no need for such an instructional note on the wall block inscribed with the letters ΕΠΙ.

12 The inscribed face of this block is illustrated in Waldstein (n.1) pl. XXIX:R, but the letters are misplaced so that the iota approaches the end of the block. This gives the false impression that the inscription might have continued onto an adjacent block. I might note here that the same plate (XXIX:X) shows a block with a single letter theta. From the size of the block and letter, it is tempting to think that this is yet another block from the terrace retaining wall with an inscribed contractor's mark. Despite careful inspection of the retaining wall and of other buildings on the site, I have been unable to locate this mark.

13 LGPN IIIA gives 29 names beginning with 'Επ (ι) … at Argos alone; cf. also Mitsos (n.2) 75-7.

14 See Burford, A., ‘The economics of Greek temple building’, PCPS 191, n.s. 11 (1965) 29–30Google Scholar; Burford, A., The Greek Temple Builders at Epidauros (Liverpool 1969) 184–91Google Scholar.

15 Ten different painted marks on the foundations of the temple were first recorded in Brownson, C.L., ‘Excavations at the Heraeum of Argos’, AJA 8 (1893) 219Google Scholar; six incised marks on the foundations of the temple were first recorded in Pfaff, C.A., ‘The Argive Heraion: The Architecture of the Classical Temple of Hera’ (diss. New York University 1992) 87–9, pl. 93Google Scholar. Painted and incised marks that I have observed on the foundations of the South Stoa have not yet been published.

16 For more on the development of the Argive Heraion in the fifth century, see Lauter, H., ‘Zur frühklassischen Neuplannung des Heraion von Argos’, AM 88 (1973) 175–87Google Scholar; Amandry, P., ‘Observations sur les monuments de l‘Héraion d‘Argos’, Hesperia 21 (1952) 222–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Amandry, P., ‘Sur les concours argiens’, in Etudes argiennes, BCH Suppl. 6 (1980) 235–44Google Scholar; Billot, M.-F., ‘Recherches archéologiques récentes à l'Héraion d'Argos’, in Hera: Images, espaces, cultes. Actes du Colloque International du Centre de Recherches Archéologiques de l'Université de Lille III et de l'Association P.R.A.C. Lille, 29-30 novembre 1993, Collection du Centre Jean Bérard 15 (Naples 1997) 39–44Google Scholar.