Industrial Religion: The Saucer Pyres of the Athenian Agora (Hesperia Supplement)

This study focuses on the “saucer pyres,” a series of 70 deposits excavated in the residential and industrial areas bordering the Athenian Agora. Each consisted of a shallow pit, its floor sometimes marked by heavy burning, with a votive deposit of pottery and fragments of burnt bone, ash, and charcoal. Most of the pots were miniatures (including the eponymous saucers) but a few larger vessels were found, along with offerings associated with funerary cult. The deposits represent a largely Athenian phenomenon, with few parallels elsewhere. When first found in the 1930s, the deposits were interpreted as baby burials. Recent zooarchaeological analysis of the bones, however, reveals that they are the remains of sheep and goats, and that the deposits were sacrificial rather than funerary. The present study investigates the nature of those sacrifices, taking into account the contents of the pyres, their spatial distribution, and their relationship to buildings around the Agora and elsewhere. In light of a strong correlation between pyres and industrial activity, the author argues that the pyres document workplace rituals designed to protect artisans and their enterprises. Contents 8 Acknowledgments 18 Chapter 1: Introduction 22 Challenges and Methodology 24 The Pyres Explained: Earlier Scholarship 26 Chapter 2: The Agora Pyres: The Data 30 Spatial Distribution 30 Modes of Deposition 32 The Offerings 38 Chapter 3: Chronology 64 The Evidence for Dating 64 Chronological Development 67 Chapter 4: Toward a New Interpretation 76 Pyres as Building Deposits 77 The Chthonic Nature of Saucer Pyres 88 A New Explanation: Industrial Religion 96 Unanswered Questions 106 Chapter 5: Afterword 112 Catalogue 116 North of the Agora Square 118 Kolonos Agoraios 143 Southwest of the Agora Square 147 South of the Areopagus 188 South of the Agora Square 189 East of the Agora Square 199 Appendix I: Analysis of Charcoal in Some Agora Pyres 204 Appendix II: Other Settlement Pyres in Attica 208 Appendix III: Graveside Pyres in Attica 214 Appendix IV: Pyrelike Deposits outside of Attica 222 References 226 Indexes 234 General Index 236 Index of Objects 244 Index of Deposits 248 Introduction -- The Agora Pyres : The Data -- Chronology -- Toward A New Interpretation -- Afterword -- Catalogue -- Appendix 1: Analysis Of Charcoal In Some Agora Pyres / By Maria Ntinou -- Appendix 2: Other Settlement Pyres In Attica -- Appendix 3: Graveside Pyres In Attica -- Appendix 4: Pyrelike Deposits Outside Of Attica -- Index Of Objects -- Index Of Deposits. Susan I. Rotroff. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 205-212) And Indexes. The 17 essays in this book celebrate 55 years of research on the Isthmus and provide a comprehensive overview of the state of our knowledge. Topics include an early Mycenaean habitation site at Kyras Vrysi; the settlement at Kalamianos and the Archaic Temple of Poseidon.