Sacrality and the Greek Polis

Projects

The Attic Sanctuaries Project

Project Leader: Floris van den Eijnde The ASP collects information on all Ancient cult sites in Attica, Greece. The results will be published as a monograph. Students are invited to collaborate with the project leader in collecting archaeological, epigraphical and literary data. Apart from contributing material to the final publication, students are invited to present…

Read more

The Case of the Missing Maidens

The politics of visibility on the Athenian Acropolis Floris van den Eijnde and Janric van Rookhuijzen The korai, female statues erected by prominent Athenian citizens, represented some of the most notable and eye-catching monuments on the Archaic Athenian Acropolis. The precise meaning of these statues, however, is still in dispute. While some have argued that…

Read more

Waterloo Uncovered

Sacrality and the Greek Polis collaborates with the unique Waterloo Uncovered project to provide students with first hand experience in field archaeology. Through SGP, Utrecht University runs three courses in collaboration with Waterloo Uncovered, a ground breaking organization that, since 2015, conducts archaeological research on the site of the battle of Waterloo whilst also supporting the…

Read more
Hekatompedon Inscription

The Hekatompedon decree: new inquiries

Janric van Rookhuijzen, Josine Blok The Hekatompedon decree (IG I3 4) inscribed in 485/4 BCE is one of the most beautiful inscription extant from ancient Athens. Inscribed in two slabs of marble originally meant to be metopes but later used for this decree, the text is cut with perfectly styled letters and fine punctuation in…

Read more

Memory and Innovation

Memory and Innovation: Architectural developments in the sanctuaries of Central Greece and Northern Peloponnese (8th – 4th century BC) Jean Vanden Broeck-Parant This project, part of the Anchoring Innovation research agenda in 2020-2021, aims at exploring the architectural developments in Central Greece and the Northern Peloponnese from the 8th to the 4th century BC. The…

Read more

The Thorikos Research Project

Floris van den Eijnde, Amber Brüsewitz, Alma Kant De mijnen van Laurion staan symbool voor de Gouden Eeuw van Athene die duurde van 508/7 tot 404/3 voor Christus. Met het zilver uit Laurion liet de Atheense staatsman Themistokles een grote vloot van triremen bouwen die de ondergang inluidde van de Perzische invasie van 480/79. Het…

Read more

Anchoring the Agora

Alma Kant Anchoring the Agora in Archaic and Classical Greek Poleis (c. 800-300 BCE) aims to understand how the agora emerged and evolved as a product of societal change and institutional innovation during the archaic and classical period. The agora, often described as the heart of the Greek city, has long been a subject of study….

Read more
Painter painting a statue of Herakles

Craft in Ancient Greek Sacred Spaces

Dr. Helle Hochscheid Although it is rarely acknowledged, the appearance of Greek sanctuaries was very much shaped by the skill and quality of craftsmen, who built shrines and temples, who carved and inscribed altars and statues, and who wove, turned, cut, cast, moulded, hammered or created in a myriad other ways the objects that made…

Read more
The Athenian Parthenon

The Ashes in the Acropolis

Dr. Janric van Rookhuijzen This project (part of a VENI grant by the Dutch Research Council, 2019-2022) concerns the symbolism, archaeology and reception history of the Acropolis of Athens. The Parthenon, the great former temple, church and mosque of Athens, is commonly seen as a symbol of Greece, and, more generally, the ‘West’. As a contribution to…

Read more