Sicilian and south Italian finds in Greek sanctuaries. A contribution on votive rites in Greece in the Late Geometric and Archaic Periods

Abstract

To a considerable extent foreign votive offerings characterised the appearance of important Greek sanctuaries. They bear witness to extensive contacts and the interaction of the Greeks with foreign regions and peoples of the Mediterranean world, although the question of the donors and their motivations still give rise to speculation. A particularly large group within the foreign pieces comprises mainly metal dedicatory goods from southern Italy and Sicily, i. e. from regions which from the second half of the 8th century BC were strongly influenced by the Greek colonisation movement. Their precise geographical and chronological classification forms the prerequisite for analysing the function and meaning of the offerings for the donors´ and recipients. It can be shown that a large part of the votives dates to the 8th and 7th centuries BC, whereas later material hardly plays a role, despite the continuing intensive contacts with the West. Conformities in the spectrum of types and the state of preservation of the objects compared with Sicilian hoards of broken metal allow one to deduce that at least a part of the pieces arrived in Greece in a fragmentary state and was donated in the sanctuaries there because of its material value. Such depots of broken metal can also be seen in Sicilian sanctuaries, such as Bitalemi near Gela.