Analyzing where and how people lived is essential to any 'local-level' study of the Hellenistic world, but other dimensions of existence are equally important to consider: not least the religious or symbolic world of the Messenians. Messenia, like all parts of Greece, was dotted with sanctuaries, shrines and other holy places, the most comprehensive list of which can be found in Pausanias (4.30-36). Archaeology can work both to confirm and extend that traveller's inventory. For example, the discovery of cut blocks led members of the Minnesota Messenia Expedition to propose the existence of a late Classical or Hellenistic temple at the site of Gargaliani Kanalos (D1), a shrine not mentioned by Pausanias. Re-investigation of this site by PRAP has lent some preliminary support to this suggestion, especially by the discovery of large quantities of painted tile, although further study of this material remains to be done.
Another important category of 'holy place' in Hellenistic Messenia are tombs: not contemporary tombs but the 'tombs of the ancestors.' The Messenian landscape has long been noted for the prominence of its Bronze Age graves -- tholos tombs, chamber tombs or tumuli. These tombs have attracted much modern day interest and much archaeological attention. Yet new questions are now beginning to be asked about these prehistoric graves: how, for example, would inhabitants of Messenia in later periods of the past have viewed these tombs? what would they have made of them? how might they have used them?
The answer to these questions is in some cases rather boring, with tombs transformed into either garbage dumps or sheep pens. At other times, however, these ancient tombs served as a focus for ritual and celebration. Signs of veneration and respect are attested through the remains of animal sacrifices, of votives, and of pottery: all testifying to the practice of 'tomb cult' at these graves, first built and used hundreds of years earlier. While the history of tomb cult in Messenia is long-lived and complex, it seems clear that the real florescence of the practice took place in late Classical and Hellenistic times -- after the liberation of Messenia. Two cases can be used to illustrate the form such activities took.
|
Not far from the village at Romanou, on a headland directly opposite and in full view of the city site of ancient Pylos/Koryfasio lies the site of Voidokilia. On this headland stands the remains of a tholos tomb dating to the Late Helladic I-II period, itself placed within a Middle Helladic tumulus. Both tholos and tumulus are believed to have been visible in historic times; indeed it is usually assumed that Pausanias means Voidokila when he mentions in passing a tomb 'a little distance from Pylos...said to belong to Thrasymedes' (Thrasymedes being a son of the mythic king Nestor). When the upper levels of this tholos were excavated, the remains of an entire bull were found, although the date of this impressive sacrifice could not be determined. More clear cut was the discovery of several deposits in the vicinity of the tholos, deposits containing Hellenistic vessels, figurines, and hundreds of small terracotta plaques, dated to the end of the fourth/beginning of the third century B.C. The plaques depict a variety of images, including scenes of worship, horse-and-rider motifs, and funerary banquets: all scenes familiar from heroic and funerary cults elsewhere in the Greek world.
A second example lies in the heart of modern Chora, the 'home base' for PRAP activities. The famous chamber tomb cemetery of Volimidia, excavated in the 1950s and 1960s by Spyridon Marinatos, without doubt presents the longest, and among the most complicated, case of tomb reuse in Greece. In just one tomb (Angelopoulos Tomb 2) the entranceway, or dromos, of the tomb contained two pyres for burning. One, in the middle of the passage, held charcoal and a Hellenistic vessel. The other, right by the door of the tomb, contained fragments of cups and cooking wares (dated to approximately 300 B.C.). At the upper level of the dromos, other objects of Hellenistic date were discovered, including loomweights, a coin, a lamp fragment, and part of an unguentarium -- a vessel associated with funerary activity. The tomb chamber proper contained yet another pyre, with a pig sacrifice dated to the Hellenistic era, as well as much other later pottery, lamps, glass, and metal finds -- including a coin from the city of Argos, dating to the third century B.C.
Even if some of this abundant material was introduced accidentally, and was not specifically intended as a votive offering, enough evidence remains to make a strong case for late Classical and Hellenistic cult at Angelopoulos Tomb 2. Similar arguments can be made for other tombs at Volimidia, although they are always controversial and various other scenarios have been advanced to explain away the presence of 'late' material in 'early' tombs. Be that as it may, the very presence of several late Classical and Hellenistic burials in or near the Volimidia complex -- suggesting that at least some local families had a strong desire to associate themselves in death with these ancient graves -- testifies to a profound interest in drawing power from the dead.
Just who was being venerated by these Hellenistic Messenians? The answer remains unclear and it is unlikely we will ever know. In some cases, they may have attached names of specific heros to their rituals, as is suggested by Pausanias' reference to the 'Tomb of Thrasymedes' at Voidokilia. They may have seen these graves as the resting place of family ancestors, a powerful force in ancient Greek society. Or they may simply have seen the tombs as anonymous but numinous places where authority and power, drawn from the distant and revered past, could be tapped for the benefit of the present. In post-liberation Messenia, appeals to the past -- to ancestors, to heros -- were especially appropriate. Such practices affirmed the long and noble history of the Messenian people, a history 'truncated' by the Spartan conquest. Tomb cult can be associated with the Messenian fascination with 'local heros', manifested at Messene's foundation when various heroes, as we have seen, were summoned to 'return and dwell with them.' Heros and legends were, of course, good propaganda tools, working to assert Messenian legitimacy among other Greek states and to boost Messenian self-confidence. Tomb cult and hero worship also celebrated the longed-for, long-denied freedom of Messenia, a celebration that transcended temporal boundaries to embrace all Messenians, dead and alive.