Signs Beyond the Cadmea: An Imported Seal Stone from the Ismenion Hill (20 min)

Presenters

Katherine B. Harrington, National Science Foundation; and Catherine Steidl, US Department of State

Abstract

The importance of the city of Thebes, Greece during the Late Bronze Age has long been attested through a patchwork of excavations on the Cadmea Hill and surrounding areas. These have produced monumental—though fragmentary—architecture, Linear B tablets, burials, and imported objects from western Asia, most notably a group of lapis lazuli cylinder seals found in the probable palace. Much work on this phase of the city has focused on the Cadmea Hill, where the palace once stood, but traces of Bronze Age occupation have also been found in the cemeteries at the edges of the city. The Ismenion Hill was one such cemetery, attested by the six chamber tombs excavated by Keramopoullos in 1910.

Our recent excavation of the Ismenion Hill sheds new light on trade connections and burial practices in this dynamic period of Theban history. This paper presents the preliminary results of the prehistoric material excavated by the Thebes Synergasia Excavation Project between 2011 and 2016. These remains attest to an early stage in the diachronic occupation of the hill, which also included an archaic and classical sanctuary of Apollo, a late antique cemetery, and a Byzantine and Frankish residential neighborhood.

Though few secure Bronze Age deposits were excavated, the residual materials discovered in later contexts can provide potential insight into grave goods from the necropolis and point to long-distance trade connections with the ancient Near East. We give special attention here to an enigmatic square seal stone or inlay with imagery of a human figure with a bird-like face. This unexpected find points to the importance of eastern connections at Thebes beyond the walls of the palace, a testament to the active long-distance trade networks of this critical period of the city’s history.